What people collectively “addressable TV” refers to the opportunity to target individual TV viewers or their households with data-driven adverts.
But that opportunity is really delivered through a complex mish-mash of competing platforms, each with their own, quite different capabilities and reporting mechanisms.
For ad execs that continue complaining about “silos”, welcome to Siloville.
“The ecosystem is clunky, it’s disjointed,” Group M’s MODI Media president Mike Bologna grumbles in this panel debate convened by Beet.TV. “Addressable TV has always been a selfish business,with every system doing it its own way … that’s preventing it from moving forward.”
So, is there any prospect of uniting the ecosystem as it matures? “If it was centralized, it would be easier,” Bologna says. “This is going to happen … within three years … automated in one system that is buyable.”
To an executive from another agency, that timeframe sounds way off, if harmonization is even realistic at all.
Publicis Media Exchange’s advanced TV EVP Tracey Scheppach‘s best forecast at unification was: “Not in my career.”
Meanwhile, IPG’s Cadreon advanced TV VPAmy DeHaen commented: “I don’t think it’s going to be three years.”
Publicis keen on TV data
In the meantime, Scheppach is getting busy, trying to seize opportunities to use the many different available platforms and identify the ones that offer best data and best results.
“I’m most excited about where smart TV is right now – we’re rolling up our sleeves to understand,” she said.
Scheppach says TV set maker Vizio is using automated content recognition on televisions to understand consumers’ holistic viewing – including broadcast TV, on-demand SVOD and video games.
“Comcast is bringing (only) 60% of what a TV is actually viewing, we would like to bring that all,” she sdded. “Vizio has roughly 10mn homes. That is super-interesting. I have long wanted to have more granular data to make television more precise. There’s a way around the (set-top) box – OEMs (like Vizio) are more willing to license it.”
The panel was moderated by Matt Spiegel, SVP of MediaLink.
This video was produced at the Beet.TV leadership summit in New York on cross-platform addressability on July 26. The event and the series is presented by DISH Media Sales and Experian Marketing Services. Please visit this page to find addition videos from the summit.
