Video: Publicis' Dave Penski on Data, Viewability and the Future

PENSKI: The good news is we are getting better and better at multi-touch attribution modeling.  We are getting better and better at looking at media mix modeling that allows our clients to say, based on their investments with these partners in these ways we are able to directly link that to either brand lift or sales. That's getting better and better every day.

PENSKI: One of the challenges that we are running into now is there aren't always as many eyeballs, there aren't always as many views in the engaging and quality way we want them at a price that we think is fair.  In an ever-changing environment of diversification of audiences how do you get those views?  How do you get that mass reach?  We still have those pillars on television; there are just not as many as there were in the past. Watch Dave's full interview here.

PENSKI: In a more positive way to look at it, now we have opportunities on a Facebook or a YouTube or a Snapchat that allow us to also hit major audiences in a very quick way and it's just a different message.  It's a different media type.  It's not going to be a :30, it's not going to be a :60 certainly and that's something that we need to start looking at from a messaging standpoint. So, we need to change some of our creative thinking.  We need to change some of our media thinking in terms of how we measure those things, but the good news is people are watching and consuming more media than ever before.

PENSKI: If you look at a Facebook or a Google that allow us to have massive amounts of data in a mass distribution scale, that are allowing us to do that targeting, and we look at really strong content partners like an NBCU, they are allowing us to really engage with content, and there's partners like Snapchat that might be able to do both of those things, also at NBCU and Turner.  Certainly Fox is in that mix, the ability to do both of those things.  To do both engaging, consuming content and also the ability to use data-informed decisions. But there are some partners that are doing neither of those things terribly well, and that would be a very dangerous place.  I would not want to be one of those partners. Watch Dave's full interview here.

PENSKI: Viewability is something that certainly the industry has not agreed on.  We have a point of view, GroupM has a point of view, so do others. I think where the industry is going is good, but the challenge is if the viewing time is only two or three seconds, what is that value exchange with the client?

PENSKI: I would say the most underappreciated video assets are, to me, video on demand. It really speaks volumes to the amount of traffic that the networks are getting on VOD.

PENSKI: The important thing for us is to really work against ad blocking and start looking at commercial clutter and the fact of diminishing ratings. We need to have a better relationship with the end consumer in terms of what is that value exchange.  What are they getting because they watched this commercial?  Hulu is a really good example of someone who has really thought this out and I think there's going to be more of 'I will pay a little bit less and I have to watch a couple more commercials, I pay a little bit more so I can watch with few less commercials.'  As we move forward I think we are going to have more and more of those situations where consumers are making a decision, they are understanding the value exchange, they understand that they are going to have to do this to get the content they want.  I hope that more partners act in that way.

Watch my full interview with Dave Penski here and view the full Legends & Leaders Video Interview Series here.

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