How TV Data Is Transforming Advertising

Credit: Disruptive Advertising

"Direct-to-consumer digital video, automated ad buying and selling, digital advertising  technologies and other technology-driven trends are changing the future of advertising" [1]

TV is riding the waves of an unstoppable evolution, and the shifting advertising landscape is certainly a big part of it. “Changing consumer viewing preferences and a more efficient and cost-effective ad buying and selling process are making many traditional media advertising models obsolete” [1], so to that end, we examine what 2019 could have in store for the television advertising industry, as we put the spotlight on some essential ingredients to success.

Satisfying the Changing Needs of Consumers & Advertisers

As leading digital strategist, Christophe Hochart, founder and CEO of OONA Global TV - the free cutting-edge OTT mobile ad-based live and on-demand entertainment platform, understands: in order to satisfy advertisers' and consumers' ever-changing needs, working with state-of-the-art tech is not the whole story. - Having the capacity to be consistently innovative, employing the best possible business practices, and being able to unleash existing data, should all be part of the package.

        Image credit: Arc Net Integration

                                   

So What Should the Right Data Look Like?

TiVo's Vice President of Strategy and TV Data, Ben Maughan, has given an excellent explanation as to: “what the ‘right data’ should look like, and what advertisers should be asking” [1]. Looking at the major evolution of television advertising over the past decade, along with its acceleration over the last few years, Maughan notes that: “the consumption of content, and the devices available for consumers on which to experience that content, have fragmented in ways that have surpassed the industry’s most aggressive expectations” [1].

                                                                                                        Image credit: Think With Google

A Monumental Communication Shift

There has been a huge transformation in how the TV ecosystem communicates with its users. This has come about due to the popularity and convenience of smartphones and tablets, along with the newfound routine of binge-watching on IP-connected televisions. Moreover, the domain of TV advertising is experiencing an evolution, and as “with all market transitions, comes the inevitable need to evolve the business practices underpinning advertisements on television” [2]. This change necessitates new capabilities brought about by strong tech and creative innovation [2].

Unlocking the Right Data

Making use of the right data so it can work as connective tissue, is essential for the optimisation of new cloud-based advertising solutions. This data should incorporate a minimum of three elements: “identity, content insights, and viewership consumption information – where television viewership data plays a critical role” [2].

OONA Global TV – A Case in Point

For Hochart, OONA's founder, and specialist in intelligent digital disruption, it is clear that the domestic advertising market is being reshaped by various different trends which are powered by the surge in digital tech. For instance: “automated advertising platforms [such as those employed by OONA], are helping to stimulate a boom in digital advertising spending... Meanwhile, dramatic changes in video have shifted many consumers’ programming preferences and viewing behaviours, shattering the traditional media advertising model” [1].

These immense transformations have contributed to making OONA's unique interactive TV platform in global demand. OONA is already set up to serve 185 million Indonesians, and is on course to provide billions of people in other parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, the US and Europe, with the same exciting free, mainly ad-funded entertainment.

Making Watching Interesting Ads Rewarding

When OONA first came into being, Hochart looked outside the box for workable strategies within the growing advertising ecosystem. He focused on attaining valuable deep data, and a way to attract viewers to watch the ads they are interested in. Being an early supporter of AI and machine learning, one of the unique ideas he came up with, was to create a patented helpful personal assistant named Siskabot (the genie in the OONA app), to ensure that viewers can enjoy content personalisation through: accessing their favourite programs and live content, as well as the kind of helpful ads that interest them, and can save them time and money. 

In order to get the right personalised ad fit for each viewer, Siskabot has regular conversations with users so they enjoy relevant, compelling experiences. She continually finds out more about them and their lifestyle, as well as the products and services they use, and are interested in. The latter is vitally important, as it seamlessly amalgamates relevant ad content into the digital consumers' experience. -  After all, there is no point in showing ads that viewers will just cut off.

In addition to this, OONA's leverage of deep data generates contextually connected results for targeted consumers based on their personal interests. - And this allows advertisers to take a higher level of control over their campaigns. It also has to be noted, that all the personal information that OONA collects, is kept strictly confidential.

A Fun Virtual Currency

In order to have success with OONA's ads, Hochart also devised an ingenious system whereby viewers can accrue loyalty rewards in the form of tcoins. - The latter is a virtual currency which rewards viewers just for watching content and personalised ads; sharing the content they love with friends and family; sharing a referral code on social media; and interacting with Siskabot. These tcoins, which are stored in a virtual wallet, can be exchanged for a broad range of branded goods, meals, fun days out, discounts, free telcom minutes and various telcom products.

So in practice, Hochart has laid the groundwork for ensuring that the data the OONA platform collects, is an effective asset. He notes that: “While there has been an upsurge in data sources, and the means to collect it; for the purpose of actually utilising it to propel the business, we focus on first-class data management in order to achieve the unity, timeliness, and wholeness of consumer data which will drive accurate results. In addition to this, we continually work on applying new patterns so we can integrate the information, and apply new techniques such as machine learning, in order to achieve optimal results. All the tools we utilise involve privacy-complaint methodologies, therefore, consumers' personal data is always safeguarded, and users can have total confidence in us.”

References

[1]. Paris, Todd & Aitken, Robert (2018). “Tech, New Business Models Fuel Ad Industry Shift.” Wall Street Journal. https://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2018/07/02/tech-new-business-models-fuel-ad-industry-shift/ Accessed 15 Dec. 2018.

[2]. Rowntree, Lindsay (2018). “How TV Data Is Changing the Way We Advertise Across Screens & Mediums.” Exchange Wire. https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2018/12/12/how-tv-data-is-changing-the-way-we-advertise-across-screens-mediums/ Accessed 15 Dec. 2018.