“ We are starting to see brand and direct come together.” – Jim Hodgkins, Nielsen
they buy and connecting the two. Now with connected consumers the cycle of Plan, Act, Measure is made much easier. Some brands and broadcasters will take the lead in investing in really exploiting this opportunity,” states Hodgkins.
“ We see broadcasters doubling down on this already,” agrees Mimnaugh.“ We did a big event with NBC Sports for the Olympics which was a full targeted, directly sold campaign across all the different platforms and media. A lot of media companies are buyers and sellers, five or six of the biggest spenders in the US are operators trying to recruit subscribers to their companies.”
Measurement
“ In terms of value the great concern is a similar economy will develop in television as we have in the display banner world,” warns Knapp,“ in the banner world the value of data exceeds the media value, so media owners can’ t just be the supplier of eyeballs and inventory, they need to move up the value chain and that’ s lead to a lot of consolidation. The fear is the same will happen in media. The power will lie with those who can combine CRM data and media and content.”
“ I think there’ s going to be a lot of cooperation – companies building data clouds that can be pulled in to other solutions, so as a broadcaster I can be taking my first party data, and data off the shelf and I can combine those two into something unique, which combined with content makes a compelling proposition. And I do believe the advertisers are going to bring in their own data as well,” comments Klosowski.
“ There is a potential win-lose battle here,” warns Hodgkins.“ If the advertiser is‘ bringing their own audience,’ in terms of their data for targeting, the danger is the media owner is just selling the ad slots and getting a smaller share of the budget.”
Standards
“ What we now see as standards will shift; there is no measurement consensus. Each media owner needs to define their audience’ s value – and that means data becomes part of the negotiation. If you look at the large platforms Facebook and Google they essentially have what we call‘ proprietary truths’ big black boxes of data that are quasi standard and very difficult to audit. Standards must be much more reflected in accountability – what are the methods and ethics of bringing data points together and are they auditable,” asks Knapp.
“ Everybody is trying to build their own approach to data credibility and accountability and overtime we will see which work best. There are a lot of segments that media owners can create that are the same but there are also a lot that are unique, and there’ s a real value in that,” states Klosowski.
“ A lot is about trust and transparency right now,” says Mimnaugh,“ and that’ s a big challenge with a lot of the systems that are in
place. We shouldn’ t minimize the value of the content here – if it is truly only about audience then media companies are going to have a problem. And if you are selling the intersection of audience and content you have to have a way that shows the impact of the spend through those channels in a way that drives the trust.”
Currency
“ We can measure more effectively than ever before – we’ re at the beginning of a digital future. Perhaps some of the standard measurability won’ t be as important in the future as the client’ s view of what they are getting for their buck,” states Hodgkins.
“ I think you have to delineate currency and measurement. The currency is determined in the value agreed for a particular targeted campaign; seeing if that value is delivered is in the measurement of its effectiveness,” comments Mimnaugh.
“ Full transparency isn’ t possible, it is too complex,” asserts Knapp.” There needs to be something like a Standard and Poors – using digital forensics to establish the principles of accountability.”
Creative
“ We’ re really excited at Adobe about the creative,” says Mimnaugh.“ With most creatives using our tools, that creates a lot relevant data here too, the goal is to have creative that melds seamlessly with the content, is part of the whole entertainment experience.”
“ You can afford to annoy the user on line but if you do it on the TV the consequences could be grave,” warns Knapp.“ Best practices are certainly needed if the long term value of TV isn’ t to be undermined.”
“ Viewers will graduate towards the best experiences,” asserts Klosowski.“ I think TV will look the same but faster and better, the ecosystem will move quickly.”
“ I think there is a bit of a creative gap,” comments Knapp.“ We’ ve long had discussions about how difficult it is to bring tech and creative teams together, it is a cultural bottleneck.”
“ We’ ve been trying to deploy personality driven creative for some time,” says Hodgkins.“ If you talk to a programmatic agency, usually they are receiving the creative very late- after the campaign has been booked – so there definitely is a creative gap.”
“ Yes, it is not about taking a thirty-second ad and cutting it down and putting a new slide on. It is about data influencing creative from inception and having it being influenced by the data inputs and be able to alter on the fly under the influence of performance data,” asserts Mimnaugh.
Regulation
“ Some of the data benefits we perceive for media companies might be fiction very soon,” warns Knapp.“ There’ s a comprehensive review of the privacy rules across the EU. If the GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – is fully implemented it will effectively prohibit media companies using any third-party data. Data is obviously a competitive differentiator and, inadvertently, this measure will hand a huge advantage to those who already have a lot of data, where consumers have already opted in; Google and Facebook. Now this could affect media company’ s ability to refinance themselves and in turn impact on media plurality.”
“ We think data can still be applied, I think in trying to protect the consumer they are handing more power to the global players. But the goal is that you can’ t have the walled gardens control all the media spend – and we don’ t think the clients and the agencies want that,” says Klosowski.
EUROMEDIA 23