In order for digital and linear media to converge, so too must technology. This is why WideOrbit Chief Product Officer Will Offeman has been busily melding the company’s various acquisitions in the digital space and “marrying it up with the linear side.”
Approaching 2019, WideOrbit is working on three initiatives, Offeman explains in this interview with Beet.TV at the company’s recent WideOrbit Connect User Conference. Those are providing open solutions, bringing digital and linear together and harnessing data science by “using machine learning and analytics to actually get predictive results out.”
Most of its customers at the conference are asking WideOrbit “how can you help us as this landscape changes, as consumers are consuming content in different ways, what’s our role and our strategy,” says Offeman. “We can’t do everything, so we’re starting with open, making sure as third parties come along they can interface with our solution sets,” he adds.
“We’re building out tool sets to help merge the sales front end so we can put linear and digital plans together. And we’re using advanced analytics both through partners like Revenue Analytics and tool sets within WideOrbit.”
Customers are typically looking for WideOrbit to help them make money, save money or reduce pain, according to Offeman.
“On the optimization piece, it’s really highly focused on either saving them money or making them money. It’s kind of a multi legged stool for optimization. One piece we’ve already built is doing schedule optimization. After the orders come through, how do we optimally put the spots into the slots to reach the greatest audience for what they’re buying.”
The second piece involves improving plan optimization. “How are we selling them the right thing to execute their goals and, finally, for our customers as well how are we maximizing rate. How are we getting paid the optimal amount for what that customer is trying to execute against?”
Having made several acquisition gambits in the last several years with an eye toward digital-linear convergence, Offeman says he’s excited to see that convergence actually happening. They include Fivia (front-end digital ad solution), Castfire and Abacast (streaming tool stacks for live and on-demand streaming) and AdMeta, which was “arguably an RTB exchange platform that allowed SSP’s and DSP’s to plug in together and provided dynamic floor pricing for the SSP’s.
“Part of what I’m working on right now is gluing all of that digital adtech together and marrying it up with the linear side,” says Offeman.
This video is part of a Beet.TV series on advanced TV produced at the WideOrbit Connect conference. WideOrbit is the sponsor of this series. Please find more videos here.
