As more precise data becomes available, there’s a greater importance on moving away from legacy behaviors and more towards understanding audience and reach. In a Beet.TV interview, Mike Law, president of Amplifi USA, explained how this comes from a balance between audience targeting tools and contextual marketing.
Amplifi is a unit of the Dentsu Aegis Network.
Companies have gotten better at using data to identify clients’ most valuable audiences, and it’s important they don’t lose perspective of where those ads should run. Instead, it’s crucial to holistically focus on finding the right people in the right place, which is where this mix of targeting tools and contextual marketing becomes all the more crucial.
“It is really critical that we bring those two things together so we think about contextual alignment matched up against audience definition when we’re placing our buys across all channels,” Law says.
In order for Amplifi to do this, the company utilizes the M1 tool in partnership with Merkle as well as other data platforms. But a big part of finding success is for data analytics companies to forge partnerships with media owners that have vast content libraries and use them to inform the most appropriate buys.
Law added that audience-based guarantees are increasingly becoming a bigger part of the picture, too, as the industry moves from demographics to audiences. Access to greater data has meant greater precision in reaching people, and this idea of reach is particularly important looking forward.
“Reach is a big story in today’s marketplace,” Law said. “To make sure that we’re using the data not just to think about audiences per se, but how do we think about audiences defined by light TV viewers as much as we’re thinking about audiences as those most likely to buy a car, those most likely to shop at a retail outlet, those most likely to make a purchase in a bar or a restaurant?”
For these reasons, Law argues that the industry needs to move away from legacy behaviors, and trend towards reaching people in real time to drive business outcomes.
In these particularly trying times, Law says that Amplifi has been working off of a framework but with a recognition that the current obstacles are unlike anything before. Their course of action is to gather as much information as possible and be in frequent communication with partners to gather an understanding of their current challenges.
“Right now, we’ve just been in a hyper-communicative state, trying to share as much as we can,” Law says. “Consistency of communication, transparency of communication, partnership, and making sure we’re sharing all we can and making the best decisions for each and every one of our clients to get through this.”
This video is part of a Beet.TV series titled “Audience, in Context,” presented by Xandr. For more videos please visit this page.
