CANNES — You don’t have to be operating digital media to benefit from digital advertising optimization.
US Spanish-language broadcaster Univision is finding that there is still plenty more value to be mined from live linear TV, after refocusing on the medium following an earlier expansion in to digital and English-language content.
“What’s unique about our business and what contrasts with the general media landscape is that 92% of our primetime viewing is still done live,” says Univision’s president of ad sales and marketing Steve Mandala.
“It’s not time shifted. Our viewers and users online and listeners on the radio are quite satisfied with what they’re getting out. So far, we’ve not seen the same kind of fragmentation.”
Still, Mandala is trying to exploit what digital tools can offer. He has collected “a huge amount of first-party data” on his viewers and users, has “enriched all those records” and is now “trying to find ways to apply those enriched consumer records for the benefit of advertisers”.
The company recently tapped ad-tech vendor Amobee to provide a linear TV optimization platform, allowing its advertisers to use data to plan and transact against custom audience segments.
It comes after Univision sold its Fusion Media Group, a portfolio of web publications it had acquired to build a beach-head in English online content, leaving it refocusing on its core.
Mandala describes the period as a “distraction” for which Univision got “punished”, but the company is now focused on its main constituency.
“I’m very anxious to see how big, live event content continues to develop and attract big audiences, whether it’s music shows, some reality competition shows, sports, and news,” Mandala adds.
This video is from Cannes Lions if from our series, Capitalize on Convergence, presented by Amobee. For more videos from the series, visit this page. To find all Beet.TV coverage from Cannes, please visit this page.
