As the annual upfront and NewFronts ad sales seasons get underway, Ashwin Navin has a message for buyers – your spend is at risk.
Somewhere around $20 billion is expected to be committed during the Upfronts.
But Navin, CEO & Co-Founder of Samba TV, warns many ad buyers may risk over-spending if they don’t use a network that is de-duplicating cross-platform reach and frequency.
No lock-in after lockdown
Indeed, this year, several networks are now supplanting their traditional reliance on Nielsen for linear TV measurement, striking deals with a new wave of alternative measurement and currency vendor.
Navin’s Samba has been tapped up by Disney for that.
“We should not be locked into one currency that measures one screen and can’t de-duplicate from all of the other options that we presented the consumer,” Navin says.
“Take your upfront strategy and get more value from it, take the investment that you’ve earmarked for this year and make sure that every dollar is reaching some incremental and beneficial audience that you’ve been able to reach in the past.
“If you don’t, the risk is that you reach the same people, way too many times, you over-index on frequency and you under-deliver on reach.”
Give upfront choice
The industry’s embrace of new currency providers comes as Nielsen continues to work with the MRC toward re-accreditation, after under-reporting lockdown audiences.
Navin says the industry should be flexible.
“A multicurrency future is inevitable, and every major publisher needs to give marketers choice evidence of that this year,” he says.
Disney Deal Marks Next Stage in Innovation for Ad Metrics: Samba TV’s Ashwin Navin
Reach out
Navin has the stats to back it up. Following several recent research exercises by Samba TV, he says: “A tremendous amount of linear TV impression, over 90%, are reaching about 50% of the audience.
“So we’ve got a high degree of frequency and probably an underwhelming amount of reach from a linear-only strategy.”
But the challenges don’t only afflict linear.
“In the connected TV and OTT environment … nearly two thirds of the viewers for major streaming providers are coming in and watching just one video from that provider, meaning that people now cherry-pick their favourite show from most of the major providers in market,” Navin adds.
