BOSTON – The convergence of traditional linear TV and digital video has accelerated as more households connect their TVs directly to the internet. The shift has created more opportunities for advertisers to improve their targeting by harnessing consumer data.
“In recent years, there have been certain concepts that have come to TV in terms of data, automation and the ways in which content is distributed,” Jason Burke, vice president of strategy at Xandr, said in this interview with Beet.TV.
He joined Xandr with its 2019 acquisition of Clypd, which focused on data-driven advertising solutions for television. Xandr is the advertising and analytics division of WarnerMedia Commercial, a unit of AT&T’s WarnerMedia.
Evolution, Not Revolution
Digital technology is transforming the marketplace for linear TV with more applications for data and automation to drive scale.
“The challenge with that is that TV lacks some of the industry standards that are ubiquitous in the digital world. A lot of those things have started to come together in the past few years,” Burke said. “This not a revolution, it’s an evolution. We’re just now seeing the hockey stick starting to appear.”
The data-drive transformation is helping sellers maximize the value of their advertising inventory, while helping media buyers to reduce wasteful spending with improved targeting.
“Even though the plumbing, and the business models and pricing are different — for clients and agencies, it’s really about driving outcomes,” Burke said. “As you start to pull all of these pieces together — media owners, media buyers, advertising technology and data — these are the four legs of the table as it relates to advanced television.”
Data and measurement are even more important as viewers consume content among a wider variety of devices and media channels, including the growing number of video-on-demand services that carry advertising.
“Convergence is a real, real thing right now,” Burke said, adding that the shift is breaking down silos among linear and digital TV to drive value for advertisers. “Holistic value delivered back to the agency or client is critical.”
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