Michael Strober of Turner on TV and Ad Automation

TV and ad automation was discussed at the Dmexco conference in Cologne Germany in front of an audience of nearly one thousand people Pictured left to right Jay Sears Michael Kahn CEO of Performics and Global Performance Practice Lead Publicis Media Rhys Namp246lke Senior Vice President Strategy of RTL Group Jamie West Deputy Managing Director of Sky Media and Michael Strober Follow the links above to read Jay39s interviews with themJAY SEARS What do you read to keep up with politics art and culture MICHAEL STROBER The Week itamp8217s my goto and is a great snapshot of the most important stories of the weekSEARS What do you read to keep up with friendsSTROBER Mostly emails or textsSEARS What do you read to keep up with the advertising technology and TV industriesSTROBER Harvard Business Review to understand the macrobusiness upandcoming business trends and practices Wall Street Journal CMO Today Ad Age and Adweek for the daytoday within the industrySEARS Whatamp8217s your favorite TV commercial of all time STROBER Airbnbamp8217s amp8220Is ManKindamp8221 is one of the more recent commercials I found fascinating The narrator is pitchperfect and speaks in prose while the imagery of the baby walking to the door speaks to the childlike wonder of discovery and the value of tolerance It is incredibly powerful and it helped to establish the company as a leader of a brand new categorySEARS When you speak about TV ad automation how widely or narrowly do you define thisSTROBER The need for automation in digital is very obvious what with all of the different platforms and systems needed to execute buys but in national linear TV traditional buying is very efficient for an agency Meaning they transact billions of dollars fairly easily However as new data sets are introduced into more targeted TV buys that move beyond the Nielsen demo automation will become more necessary for transactingSEARS With regards to advertising automation impacting TV what are the three biggest trends you expect to impact companies in 2016 and 2017STROBERGreater transparency with audiencebased buys With the proliferation of platforms and networks building their own dataled solutions there exists a real need to be able to truly articulate the value of a buy to advertisers in terms they understand Advertisers should be able to understand what data their partners use where their inventory comes from and at what rates inventory is securedTying TV investments to business outcomes amp160Attribution in the television space has evolved over the years and we are at a moment where data and analytics are available for advertisers to understand how their TV buys are driving their business This means going beyond just being able to hit Nielsenbased demographics which we have been working withMore education about the difference between programmatic in digital and TV Data analytics and technology are the keys to programmatic and these are not typically areas in which media buyers and sellers are proficient Itamp8217s a new language and we need to ensure that people are learning it amp160This wonamp8217t happen quickly but it is imperative if we want to advance programmatic TVSEARS With regards to advertising automation impacting TV what are the three most overblown topics that you wish would just go away STROBERAutomating workflowamp160 Television advertising as a whole is a highly efficient process alreadyamp160 We have 40 years under our belt There are many players today who primarily focus on solving this part of the process However while this can help streamline a process without data and analytics decisioning much of the value of programmatic is lostThe robots are coming for our jobsamp160 With any new technology that comes to the fore thereamp8217s always a skittishness about if it could replace peopleamp8217s jobs Thatamp8217s not going to happen While platforms and technology are great and will be adopted at the end of the day itamp8217s about humans making better investment and selling decisionsSEARS Describe your company or division and then tell us the top three opportunities you are working on to advance TV automationSTROBER My team is tasked with both capturing client insights to better power advertiser decisions and drive business results and developing next generation ad capabilities notably around audience targeting and advanced TV solutionsamp160 So itamp8217s really our clients that are helping us understand where we should be investing in to advance with more datadriven TV ad solutions Time and again we hear from them the need to move award from traditional demographics to psychographic targeting of audiences that closely align with their individual businessThat said part of the mission of Turner Ignite which I cohead is to reimagine advertising How do we improve the ad experience while also driving ad effectiveness amp160Just focusing on the data and numbers misses the point of advertising in the first place which is creating a connection with an audience I believe that combination of data and content has enabled us to really lead the market in adopting a crossportfolio view of how we deliver value to advertisers and is what will power the next generation of TV advertisingSEARS Yes or no If ad spend can be automated and data driven it should be amp8230 STROBER Sometimes Thereamp8217s no question that ad spending should be datadriven across the board today However thereamp8217s still something to be said about delivering powerful and impactful brand storytelling Sometimes that can be aided by technology but ultimately a more hightouch process is needed For example Turneramp8217s Native Plus product replaces regular commercial pods with a longerform branded piece of content delivering that into the right environment is more art than science to make sure it works to drive exposure and ROISEARS The majority of ad technology and TV technology companies have struggled relatively small unprofitable or both Of the poor performers what are the commonalities between them that have contributed to this weaknessSTROBER I think the issue is twofold lack of transparency and solutions that only tackle parts of the problem On the transparency piece while platforms are important in order to bring some of the disparate technologies together many are still a black box when it comes to things as how they build estimates and what kind of data they use for planning purposes That said we are still very early in this thing and creating predictable datadriven models will take timeSEARS Transparency on media costs on data on inventory continues to be a lightning rod issue Should transparency be a negotiated benefit for the advertiser client yes or noSTROBER Yesamp160 We live in a world where everything can and is measured Television has always been a medium that has transacted on negotiated rates ones which both sides understood thoroughly Today where there are too many platforms to count with their own ways of measuring a view itamp8217s become even more imperative for greater transparency This should start with standardization so that advertisers are not left with trying to figure out what the value of their investment with one company in one medium is compared to others If we can progress with better crossscreen standardization this will allow for greater investments in advertising on TV and otherwiseSEARS Please answer the following statements yes or no STROBERamp160amp160Video above TV and ad automation was discussed at the Dmexco conference in Cologne Germany in front of an audience of nearly one thousand peopleSEARS If you had your own TV talk show what would you name it STROBER Thatamp8217s a hard question but if I had to host my own talk show Iamp8217d call it The Pursuit of Happyness amp160I think the world could use more uplifting happy stories that enable people to take a break from the hustle and bustle of their lives and the world in generalSEARS A young family member has come to you seeking career advice They must choose one of the following careers ad agency executive media company executive ad technology executive or company marketing executive Which career path do you recommend and why STROBER A media company executive not just because I work for a large media company We live in very dynamic time in our industry and a lot of the innovation is coming from the media companies Many already have great content that audiences desire and thereamp8217s still a lot of opportunities to capture by finding new models and experiences to deliver to todayamp8217s consumersSEARS What is your favorite restaurant in the world STROBER amp160I canamp8217t pick only one Iamp8217ll go with The Inn at Pound Ridge or The Barn at the Bedford Post amp160I really enjoy the ambiance and the feelgood environment they both haveSEARS Thanks MichaelThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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Michael Strober of Turner on TV and Ad Automation

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Michael Strober of Turner on TV and Ad Automation

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