Recession Will Drive Measurable, Addressable Growth: LiveRamp’s Clinger

SANTA MONICA — Few people relish the sight of gathering economic clouds. But Travis Clinger can see the sun on the other side of the storm.

While many people see the rise of “addressable” media like connected TV as best enabling targeting capability, Clinger, SVP Activations & Addressability, LiveRamp, says the same tech can also help marketers prove their effectiveness to their bosses.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Clinger opens up on why recent pressures may lead to a better environment.

Privacy push

Over the last couple of years, moves by legislators and tech companies have been cleaning up the advertising ecosystem, pushing toward an environment in which consumers must give more explicit permission for their data to be processed.

In large part, that has alarmed segments of the market which have historically relied on cobbling-together fragments of signals emitted, often unknowingly, by users.

“What’s really cool is, when you give those consumers more transparency and choice, you get opted-in consent,” Clinger says.

“We always talk about addressability and activation, but we think measurement is actually the most important part of addressability.”

Address and measure

LiveRamp offers a “data enablement platform” allowing marketers to access, manage, activate and analyze use of their audience data.

That includes identity resolution, data activation and data collaboration. In other words, it offers infrastructure for identifying users. But Clinger says measurement is ultimately most important.

Whilst recent weeks, like any down economic cycle, have seen business cuts and a new thirst for provable effectiveness, Clinger says the new push toward understanding real, opted-in identities can actually enable exactly that.

Prove your results

“You have identity that can then measure every impression – you should only be buying media that you can measure,” he says.

“Every CMO is going have to go into their board next quarter, and they’re going to have to explain, ‘here’s how much I’m spending on media and how much is it actually driving’. How do I prove that?

The easiest way for marketers to do that is to be able to point to impressions and say, ‘well, everything I buy is measurable, and here’s the exact results I’m driving’. So that marketing is looked at less of a cost centre and more as a revenue-driving centre of the organization.”