Business at the Dentsu Aegis Network has been revolutionized by an earlier shift in the way it spends money on video and TV.

In 2018, many buyers are struggling to bridge the chasm across multiple media channels like these, which they nevertheless need to deliver through.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Dentsu Aegis Network’s product and innovation president Doug Ray says his organistion is in a good position after making an early bet.

“I like to think that we’re ahead because, even five years ago, we moved away from having a digital buying team and a television buying team, and we moved to, for example, a video buying team, and we’ve been doing that for a while,” Ray says.

“We’ve built tools that allow us to be able to look at the unduplicated reach between things like OTT platforms or even YouTube or Facebook video, combining that with traditional television platforms that might be measured through a Nielsen, as an example.”

The problem of measuring impact across channels is a thorny one. Many marketers want to continue buying TV ads, albeit often fewer of them. They also want to buy digital video ads. But the new imperative is to look at each of these things as a whole rather than as distinct.

Group M’s Lyle Schwartz has also told Beet.TV he wants to be buying media “holistically“, not as separate channels.

Dentsu Aegis Network’s Ray continues: “By combining those, we can understand the value of ‘If I move 10% of my dollars from linear television into digital video platforms, what’s the increase in unduplicated reach that I can achieve and what’s the reduction and perhaps, the cost per reach point, or the overall cost per thousand to reach those individuals?’”

He is grateful for having made the switch long ago: “That’s been game-changing for our clients for a number of years now.

The interview was conducted at the Beet Retreat in the City by Ashley J. Swartz, CEO and founder of Furious Corp.

This video was produced at the Beet Retreat in City & Town Hall on June 6, 2018 in New York City. The event and video series are presented by LiveRamp, TiVo, true[X] and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews