LiveRamp RampUp Wrap-Up: Advanced TV Opportunities

Earlier this week, Cadent’s own Mike Bologna moderated a panel on advanced TV advertising at LiveRamp’s RampUp conference in San Francisco. He led a discussion with three industry leaders: Justin Evans, VP of Data Strategy at Comcast Spotlight; Bryson Gordon, EVP of Advanced Advertising at Viacom; and Andy Barnet, VP of West Coast Sales at Xandr.

As advanced TV grows and expands, there’s a lot of buzz around the medium. But, of course, there are some challenges to adoption with still-developing solutions. Below are a few highlights from the panel, “Beginner to Expert-Level Advanced TV.”

A holistic approach to addressable. Addressable advertising enables brands to reach customers at the household-level on a wide range of devices. Viacom’s Bryson Gordon said he looks at addressable not as a separate piece of the puzzle, but as a holistic piece of the puzzle. Marketers want to get their message in front of people through premium long for content delivered on TV glass in front of the real humans, Gordon said, adding that the point is “all about how you deliver that as a unified whole in a way that is simple.”

Addressable is still too complex for most buyers. Many companies making media buys are used to buying in silos. Digital is digital, and TV is TV. It’s hard for them to see that addressable works in combination with traditional TV advertising to push your message to the right people.

“We’re really trying to underline the idea that video and television are now a full-funnel solution,” Justin Evans noted during the panel. And addressable can be used at a basic or very advanced level, whether a company is looking for a more broad understanding of what their target audience is consuming or a hyper-targeted consumer acquisition.

The traditional-TV mindset still persists. Panelists noted that countering traditional ideas is a big hurdle for advanced TV. Many TV advertisers are accustomed to thinking in terms of audience counts and who tuned in. They’re focused on broad reach and live events.

The best way for marketers to see the value of addressable TV is by providing valuable viewership data, and then layering on proof points that make addressable sing. It may take some time, but Gordon says it’s worth it: “Don’t give up on trying to find the right person to get in the room. There’s myth busting that needs to occur, but so much of that is about getting the right people in the room who truly understand the impact it’s going to have on business.”

A changing OTT environment. OTT options, like Netflix, Hulu and channel-specific watch apps have given advertisers and companies a broader way to understand customers. Rather than talk about them as cable users or cord cutters, which the panel noted was limiting, it’s nice to see that they have essentially started to self-segment. (For example, understanding household data while also knowing that the household watches the HGTV app gives companies more precise targeting.)

“It doesn’t matter how they want to watch it. It’s about the consumer. We’re going to offer to them many different services and then we get the opportunity to target,” Andy Barnett shared.

Gordon added: “When we start to think about a more multi-dimensional approach to how customers segment themselves in the market, and you start to think about offerings that every one of those points, that is where I think the opportunity to unlock massive value from OTT exists.”

While it may take time for marketers to truly see the opportunity in advanced TV advertising, the move is on the horizon — and in the end, is a benefit to the consumer.

Read more the advanced TV landscape and Cadent Advanced TV Platform.