In the 90s I warned the TV industry that digital was going to offer advertisers addressability, more granular measurability, and the ability to take a response, and pitched the Next Century Media (NCM) system that could give TV those things. The rest is history, although I got an Emmy for effort.
At the time Andy Pakula had invented a system called Orb, Orb was the first digital platform to comprehend and deliver the utmost in backend analytics advertisers wanted and needed. It was a fully accountable “end-to-end” solution to track and optimize online media investments. Orb pioneered the term ROI which was cited by Ad Age for measuring what is considered today’s customer journey funnel and KPI’s for online advertisers and championed the first industry real-time ad serving and media measurement platform to back it up. Andy advocated performance-based media buying and employed performance-based media models among leading online advertisers and online media properties. Clients included Citi, Sony, Bose, 800-Flowers, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, PetSmart, Forbes, Mastercard, Visa, Coty, Estee Lauder, Nabisco, Taco Bell, Disney, Cendant, Budget Car Rental, Sprint and others.
Andy is a rare individual who bridges the gap between advertising and technology, creating solutions that are simple, user-friendly, and effective. Before founding Orb, Andy raised funds on Wall Street at just 22 years old for Spectrumedia Network, the first digital advertising billboard network. His technology delivered ads and content remotely to his patented billboards in major airports. After that, he joined Donny Deutsch in a new role as his Senior Vice President Business Development for Deutsch, Inc., he later held the same role as Senior Partner for Bozell. Due to his deep understanding of both tech and media, Andy became Senior Partner of Bozell’s Interactive group, an early pioneer in interactive advertising, during a time when Bozell had made a significant investment in DoubleClick. He later served as founding partner and Executive Vice President of Interactive Marketing Inc., where he led the successful launch of Yahoo!’s first media sales initiatives, effectively bridging the gap between technology and advertising and driving Yahoo!’s rapid growth. Under his leadership, Yahoo! played a pivotal role in shaping the early stages of digital advertising before his company was acquired by Softbank. During his career, Andy attracted many mentors in advertising and direct marketing including David Bell, Fergus O’Daly, Ed Nash, Mike Drexler, Jack Myers, and me.
Today Andy has a new system called WiOffer (WiO) which makes any medium interactive quickly and easily. In other words, it enables any medium to take back an instant response the way digital does. Like Orb, it features a comprehensive backend giving advertisers real-time reporting on impressions and engagements right through to conversions. The WiO system includes instant heat maps including response rates by daypart making it simple to quickly understand performance needed to optimize campaigns quickly. No one else has tested as many different ways to do this as Andy has, starting with ACR, voice command, then short text messaging, before settling on QR codes as the most effective means of capturing response to television and streaming ads.
WiO is not the only one doing this, but in terms of a system that offers ease, speed, and comprehensive real-time tracking with instant data, I’m not aware of any other system in use today that has all those advantages in one place. The WiO system also incorporates “key” cross-platform tagging to streamline and report on the entire cross-platform process from impression through attribution. WiO makes it easy to conduct A/B testing for creative, media properties, actions, geography, daypart, and offers on a national or hyper-local basis.
Andy also advocates the use of an L-frame around the spot that persists from beginning to end, in which the QR code sits throughout the spot which has been tested numerous times to be more effective than bugs and end tags.
In an interview with one of WiO’s clients in an earlier article about Andy, the CMO reported that WiO lifted all the KPIs and did so effortlessly while giving the consumer more choice, and enabling rapid learning from day one of the campaign.
Television today is at the threshold of a new era, as it transitions to a digital medium. Already, streaming has the addressability, and some streaming networks are beginning to take advantage of granular measurability, but in most cases, ad campaigns on streaming networks are not yet offering viewers ease of immediate response. Linear TV can benefit even more from instant response because linear is losing share of ad dollars, and the same is true of local. All forms of television can benefit from being able to give instant response and real-time tracking to advertisers so it’s an easy add-on. How can anyone in the television business at this time in history not test WiO?
With WiO there is no hassle, and no required technical integrations and it’s also GDPR, TCPA, and CCPA compliant. Currently, Comcast’s AudienceXpress, Renewal By Andersen, and PWC are users of WiO’s capability.
Watch a short video about WiO.
Scan the QR Code or Click HERE to Visit the WiO Website.
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