"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6)

Alaina has over 15 years of experience at Active International, specializing in the local video and audio marketplace. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in media buying, strategy and account management throughout her career. As Senior Vice President, Local Media, Alaina leads a dynamic team of over 50 media professionals with oversight on all local campaigns. Her role involves close collaboration with internal and external partners to craft strategic solutions, steering Active's clients through the ever-evolving video and audio landscape.

Transcript:

Carl Mayer: Welcome to About That. I'm Carl Mayer. We all know the media landscape has undergone tremendous change in recent years. And to be successful, it's important that marketers not just be with the times, but ahead of the curve.

Here to tell us more about that is Alaina Donnellon. She's Senior Vice President of Local Media at Active International, an AMS Company. Thank you for joining us.

Alaina Donnellon: Thanks for having me.

CM: Now your specialty is Local Media, specifically in the Local TV space. What kind of changes have been happening?

AD: You're right, there's been a lot over the last few years and we're really looking at Local TV now as Local Video because there's so many options now that audiences have to consume video content besides just the broadcast and cable channels that we had years back. Streaming is a big part of the mix and also there's a big drive towards impression-based buying instead of using GRPs as a benchmark across that landscape now.

CM: Impression-based buying, I've heard the term before. Is it really as simple as it sounds?

AD: It really is. It seemed a little bit intimidating at first when advertisers and everybody was getting used to it years back, but it's really just a different way to look at the GRPs that they're already using to plan and transact. It's a math calculation. We've been able to help advertisers overcome some of that and it's the way that most other media channels in the past have looked at their measurement.

It's a really great way for TV and video to be able to get on board with it so advertisers can look at their media plans much more holistically, which is only going to help them.

CM: Now with impressions being an absolute number, ratings being a percentage, I'd assume there's a lot less rounding that goes on. In the end, does that bring the number down overall or up?

AD: It's really going to depend on the program. Sometimes it'll go down, sometimes it'll go up. The important thing to know is that it's accurate. So, there's a lot more accuracy that's being brought into the mix when we're looking at impressions. You can think about it as the difference between saying that you have a dollar or saying that you have $0.98 or $1.02, right? You might still round to a dollar, but you may have a little less or you may have a little more.

When we look at impressions that way, we're able to look at the granularity of that viewership and it's additive. So it's additive across different markets that we might be looking at. It's additive across different media channels that advertisers might be advertising in. And it's a much more accurate way of looking at that picture.

CM: Using the analogy of the cents versus dollars, I'd assume on the flip side, if you had a dime that would round to 0, but it's still a dime. Is this helping get rid of 0 ratings?

AD: In large part, yeah. So that's something that's been a challenge in the industry and a way that we can look at much more accurate numbers because as people have more options of looking at things and choosing where they're viewing their favorite programming. There might not be enough impressions to round to that rating point to be counted, but there are still viewers.

So when we look at impressions, we're able to count those viewers for better or for worse and get a more accurate reporting to those advertisers that are looking for it.

CM: You mentioned two big things. One was impression-based buying, the other was streaming. As we can look at things more holistically, and there's an apples-to-apples measurement, how should advertisers look at streaming as part of their media plan?

AD: So streaming, we really recommend that they look at that in conjunction with their linear TV plans. So when they look at broadcast and cable, which is the TV that the industry is used to looking at, it's important to look at things like streaming as well so they can have a holistic picture of that video landscape.

We're not able to reach the same audience strictly with broadcast and cable today that we were able to 5,7,10 years ago. Streaming has become such a big piece of that pie, so it's important for advertisers to look at that along with those plans.

Our team is really good at being able to be experts in the marketplace, in the Local Media Group at Active. But overall at AMS, it's nice because we have a planning and strategy team that's been able to help a lot of advertisers look at that holistic media view, and determine how much streaming is good to incorporate along with that linear plan to make sure that they're reaching the audience that they want to be.

CM: You've given us a ton to think about. You've really helped break down some of these changes and make it less stressful. So thank you for that and thank you for being here on About That.

Alaina Donnellon, Senior Vice President of Local Media at Active International, an AMS Company, thanks for being here.

AD: Thanks Carl.

CM: Thanks for watching About That. We'll see you next time.

Click to view previous episodes.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friends.
The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.