Further inroads into online video and TV

Further inroads into online video and TV

As the march of automation continues, programmatic is expected to play a role in every type of media, including the premium inventory typically limited to direct sales. Online video is already going programmatic in spite of limited high-quality inventory and will make further progress with the evolution of digital GRPs and the emergence of viewability standards. On June 30, 2014, the Media Rating Council released the final version of its Viewable Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines, developed in collaboration with the IAB, which base impression metrics for video on either time of continuous playback or strong consumer interaction.Programmatic video advertising will also expand through the rise of private exchanges for quality video inventory. For example, with initiatives such as Google’s Partner Select, traditionally scarce high-quality video inventory is now being sold programmatically by TV broadcasters and premium online publishers, and bought by top-tier brand marketers.
Online delivery of TV and movie content will increase both the supply of high-quality video and the desire of brands to reach the audiences each channel draws; ABC has already announced that it will allow programmatic buys against some of its digital content. Although relatively few U.S. consumers currently own internet-connected televisions, this connectivity is quickly becoming standard at all price points, a trend that will further fuel this growing market and the technologies that support it.
While some in the industry voice skepticism about programmatic gaining a foothold in traditional TV any
time soon, cable and satellite carriers are already offering versions of programmatic buying, dynamic insertions or automated targeting against their content. “Sellers aren’t going to want to give up the control of their upfront model, with the ability to sell the majority of their inventory at once, but it’ll come,” says FOX’s Friedman. “Why wouldn’t you want to make the whole process more efficient if you could on the digital side?”

Amid the ongoing evolution of programmatic tools, strategies and best practices, the funda-mental goal and promise still comes down to the three Rs—delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

Cross-device view of the consumer

Perhaps the most exciting space in the industry right now is around data and cross-platform campaigns. “We’ll finally have the opportunity to get unduplicated reach across devices; that’s truly amazing,” says Mr. Venuto of VivaKi. “That’s when you can really start to maximize your client’s media investment.” Given the rapid rise of multiscreen behaviors among consumers, including frequent shifts across devices over the course of the day as well as dual-screen experiences for TV and movies, this capability will be crucial for managing and optimizing brand interactions with audiences.Amid the ongoing evolution of programmatic tools, strategies and best practices, the fundamental goal and promise still comes down to the three Rs—delivering
the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Marketers are gaining better ways of doing this every day, with the best still to come.
Says Mr. Cohen: “I long for a day when we have a terminal that lets us take a client’s business initiative and use a wide array of data—syndicated, and the client’s and our own—to put together a sequenced communications plan, executed across channels with a few keystrokes and measured as such. Of course, we’re quite far from that today. But we’re getting closer every day.”

“A key part of the agency’s role in programmatic is to help clients sort through the complexity, identify and stitch together the smartest, most advanced, highest-quality solutions that deliver the right messages to the right people at the highest moment of receptivity.” —Domenic Venuto, global president of data and technology, VivaKi