LOS ANGELES — The ability to precision-target and measure connected TV ad exposure, all the way through to metrics like website visitation or purchase, has lit up the prospect of TV becoming a digital-like performance marketing medium.
But one man at the center of the medium’s evolution says the opportunity is still well serving brand-building goals.
In this video interview with Zach Rodgers at Beet.TV’s Beet Retreat, Andy Barnet, Regional VP, Vest Coast, Ampersand, explains what is changing about advanced TV.
Addressable’s evolution
“The good news is, the mind shift is changing of how to use addressable and targeting,” Barnet says.
“In the past, it was always about lower-funnel conversion, and now the conversations are more about upper funnel, incremental reach, underserved audiences.”
Ampersand is the former NCC Media, a cable TV ads integrator owned by three US cable operators.
Now reconstituted as “the total TV company”, its platform helps advertisers define and find audiences, plan and execute ad schedules, and measure and report their outcomes.
Scaling-up
Given its heritage, Barnet calls Ampersand “the godfather of interoperability”.
The outfit boasts viewership insights and planning on 40 million households, in every DMA, across more than 150 networks and in all dayparts.
It is owned by Comcast, Spectrum and Cox, but as well as Verizon and other MVPDs, but also now is the exclusive seller of Verizon Fios’ addressable ad space.
Ready to accelerate
Despite the enormous opportunity around addressable TV advertising – through which, commercials can be swapped out in place of targeted alternatives – Barnet thinks the pace of development slowed lately – something he attributes to COVID-19.
“It’s all coming together and I think that acceleration is actually going to start moving much faster in 2022,” Barnet says.
“Addressability, we’ve been doing it for just a couple years. We’re up to 52 million households now. We have 70% of all the impressions.
“So, we have scale. That interoperability that everyone talks about, we’re bringing that to the table.”
You are watching coverage from Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2021, presented by FreeWheel, IRIS.TV, Samba TV, TransUnion & Warner Music Group. For more videos, please visit this page.
