When the universe of choice and features goes on expanding, how do you deliver a powerful service that is simple to use?
That is the challenge this year for Xandr, the advertising and analytics division of WarnerMedia, as it ponders the next phase in its product evolution.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Eric Hoffert, SVP, Video Technology, Xandr, explains that the imperative is to bring together a world of possibility in a way that is effortless for customers.
Unifying the experience
“As we look to phase three of what we’re doing, we’re looking to stand that up in an extremely powerful way,” Hoffert says.
“The digital video platform for advertising at AppNexus and Xandr and the Invest TV marketplace that we stood up, they have common look and feel, they have single-sign-on access. So we’re bringing these different workflows that are quite different under one umbrella. That’s a key part of our next step, to make this easy for buyers and also powerful for sellers.
“Typically, these have been fragmented processes in terms of selling either your digital video inventory or your data-driven linear inventory. So, I think as we look forward to 2021, we’re really looking to play a key role to bring these disparate worlds together into a unified solution.”
CTV growth
AppNexus’ DSP in 2019 was rebranded as “Xandr Invest”, whilst Xandr has since made a foray into the connected TV space.
Xandr launched Invest TV, a platform for TV ad buyers to transact using data across multiple linear programmers, in March 2020 – just as COVID-19 was taking hold, but just in time for a boom in connected TV viewing.
The suite began with Xandr parent WarnerMedia, AMC, and Disney on the system, and recently added A+E Networks and Crown Media Holdings.
AT&T Marketing, Hearts & Science and Media Hub also came on as buyers.
Unifying buying
Even within that platform alone, Hoffert’s team is having to consider how to make a whole kingdom of different opportunities available to users in a way that doesn’t overwhelm.
“Within Invest TV, we have the capability to support aggregated reach for buyers, which is a really core requirement for TV buying,” he says. “And we can meet the market where it is today, which is through the use of Nielsen, age, and gender, and advanced audience.
“But we’re really showing people the possibilities for where the market can go by using Xandr first-party data, audience segments, and measurement.
“And so we’re offering really both methodologies into the buying community for how you can buy and sell premium television inventory through a digital platform.”
You are watching “Where We Go From Here: The Lessons and Opportunities of 2020, ” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Xandr. For more videos, please visit this page.
