Preparing for the Pivotal Upfront

StatacyAustria and France have started a ripple effect illegalizing Google Analytics expected to ripple out across the EU This is based on the EU Data Protection Act which classifies what Google is doing as illegally transferring data from a sovereign nation to another nationThis is a variation on privacy and relates more to state concerns rather than private concerns Perhaps it might be called quotstatacyquotWhat is being illegalized is core to what the two dominant global Internet companies do That39s not at all illogical given the importance of information Why would a country want foreign parties to have access to the records of most or all its citizens And a direct route into their mindsThis is one step in the direction of making ID Graphs illegal except for governmentsThe EU had better be careful to not impair audience and business outcomes measurement in its efforts to protect privacy and statacyThe Great EqualizerThe US emerged from WWII as the savior of world freedom And as half of the economic wealth of the world not to mention the only one with atomic weaponsToday the pendulum has swung 180 degrees and the US is divided against itself and perceived therefore as unable to stand Every other nation friendlier or more foelike is taking advantage of the situation to level the playing fieldSome of the credit for that division goes to the runaway train wreck aspect of the Internet especially as played by foreign geniuses with our welfare most conspicuously not taken into accountAdvertisers are more and more looking at a global market Although the US might not pass statacy laws nor even privacy laws what happens in the EU will have a strong influence on what advertisers do here There is a belief in global consistency in the minds of the largest advertisers and a realistic aversion to giving the newly volatile and vociferous public a reason to point fingers of blame at a brandDigital Transmission Is Taking OverAbout 70 of Americans under 50 prefer streaming to broadcast cable or satellite Between streaming and ATSC 30 the new video distribution paradigm is rapidly taking over Part of the reason is Video On Demand VOD amp8211 being able to watch what you want when you want without any bother It has also been introduced with a smaller commercial load or if you like without any commercials at a premium This is making TV stronger but the period of change opens the door to new playersThis Upfront will lock in the scarce TV inventory for the major advertisers through September 2023 By then the preference of 80 of under50 Americans and 60 of over50 Americans may be for streamingATSC 30This Upfront is where the curves change direction at historic scaleConsumers Have Had It with Annoying AdvertisingOver 200 million people worldwide have digital ad blockers These are mostly younger people many of them gamersAdvertising needs to become a more enjoyable experience Inspiring entertaining and informative brand content has shown one way to do this and it is still being underused in televisionMy original idea about addressable TV commercials was to make them more relevant to the viewer Instead the naamp239ve misuse of addressability in digital has caused academics to rename addressable advertising quotsurveillance advertisingquotDilution Has Superseded Recency as the Dominant Media TheoryAdvertisers and their research suppliers have brought the light of truth to the party and today few would question the importance of linear TV as the foundation of a strong advertising campaign But from 1980 until 2010 the advertisers and agencies responded to the toughening of the game with a dilution strategy use the best TV at the launch gradually replace broadcast with cable prime with other dayparts but maintain your reach and frequency against a giant sexage group which you vaguely associate with your best prospects despite vast waste and the boomerang effect in excess frequencyThus it was easy to continue the dilution thinking of 2010 to now shifting TV bucks to digital always starting with quality but then soon transitioning to shorter spots and lower CPM mediaDilution theory is bankrupt It was never the right answer because it focused on cutting costs not on creativity Dilution was not a strategy to make advertising more effective but to simply maintain GRP levelsThe New Context StrategyIt has just in time been discovered that placing ads in contexts where the moods and emotions tones and themes and centrally the unspoken motivations suffusing the contextual content align with those permeating the ad increases the quality of the viewer experience the brand equity and sales lift of the adThe company carrying out this science RMT of which I39m chairman calls it quotExalting the Creativequot meaning giving the creative the best chance to do its work by placing it in resonant adamplifying contexts for that particular ad And for addressable media locating the people who are most motivated by the motivations subconsciously or consciously communicated by that particular adAfter all the creative carries 65 of the sales and branding effect of the impression so why not use media that exalt the specific creativeThis is the Upfront at which a significant number of leading minds in the industry will stock up on environments conducive to the creative they are planning It will still be a minority but it will be a tripledigit percent increase over the prior Upfront They will be focused on the quality of the impression the brand creative and the viewer are making together within the viewer39s Deep SelfUnfortunately the majority of those who extol contextbased buying this year will only be using it to skew the impressions toward almostmeaningless sexage groups This superficial view of ad targeting and of human individuality gets the poor results that it deservesOnly through the quality of the joint mediacreative experience can advertisers maintain the affordability of brand growth and longterm bonding with loyal customers Dilution is the road to implosion Many will stay on that road too longThose who move in this Upfront will secure their legacy for decades to come In this sensitive moment in time characterized by rejectionism brands that persist in the old games are lambs to the slaughterSome are calling this approach quotprivacy firstquot because using contexts is a proven alternative to addressabilityquotsurveillancequotContexts are future proof I prefer to think of it as human beings first Advertisers with a respect for human beings communicate authentically and get their messages across powerfullyRunofthemill practitioners follow the herd and imitate the ads they have liked in the past ads which have a certain appealing style or did the first time the style was used Awardwinning copywriter Nick Pisacane coined the phrase quotthe mask of the advertiserquot to denote the bulk of ads in which the innate humanity of the communicator is in hiding behind the clichamp233 tropes of which the ad is composedPeople started to hide behind masks long before Covid so why shouldn39t advertisers Because taking off the layer of falsity and imitation is what really breaks through in communicationClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Preparing for the Pivotal Upfront

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Bill Harvey

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