Programmers, Websites, Others Revamping Ad Methods, INTX Told

Panelists discussed native ads linked to what is being shown on screen including on TV, measuring a wider array of data associated with who's seeing the marketing material, and fixing on the fly any technical problems users are experiencing were discussed. One speaker Tuesday urged linking or synchronizing social media to what's on TV.

“A bubble [is] bursting,” with “a moment of need among programmers and their distribution partners to really try to evolve the ad product,” said CEO Zane Vella of Watchwith, which helps TV programmers “monetize viewing.” Part of the current thrust is to solve in real time any technical problems ads encounter, so viewers don't abandon them, said panelists. “You really have to think through the ad product in new ways. And what we weren't allowed to talk about in the past we now see at the forefront of discussions” on what sort of ads to show in premium video content, said Vella. “For good reason, there is no going back” from what he called audience-based ad buying, targeting spots based on audience and also depending upon what sort of underlying video is being shown after or alongside the ads, he said. “We are maybe in a moment of overcorrection. Premium television networks are really positioning themselves as audience companies, that it's all about the audience data.” Advertisers want that combined with “dream machine moments” -- emotionally powerful content, Vella said.

For so-called publishers, the “Rodney Dangerfield of the ad ecosystem,” some lack necessary data to show ad effectiveness and other characteristics, said President Rhodes Mason of Internet Video Archive, which works with websites. The comic Dangerfield, who died in 2004, was known for saying he didn't get respect. "Eleven years later, I'm not sure we really have evolved that much in terms of how we are managing our ad stuff,” Mason said of the industry after a consortium was formed. “Our challenge to ourselves and the folks we work with in our B-to-B business is really finding a way to take control of the ad experience and find out what's happening during the ad play,” he said of the business-to-business category. “Now, publishers maybe won't be called Rodney Dangerfield” when they track ads by websites, domain/URL history, geolocation of users, device type and ad source, said Mason. Other data tracked could include whether users watch the ad, and if they click on it and then go to the website of the brand paying for the commercial, he said. Rhodes said the goal is to provide such information in “as close into real time as possible.”

Don't underestimate the marketing power of matching TV and social-media usage, said Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Goldman of 4C, which tracks TV and social marketing and content. “With television and social, you have two of the most synchronous media out there,” which play into each other, he said: It “helps make these live moments [ready] to capture live.” That can avoid FOOF: fear of our feeds, when TV programming is watched after it's originally televised and viewers already may have learned about what happened from the likes of Facebook, said Goldman. Other panelists cited various challenges such as those associated with bringing linear media into the multiscreen and digital age, and on targeting ads to viewers such as pay-TV subscribers based on consumer preferences.