MIAMI — Big brands are used to using mass media to reach mass audiences. Now that they can use the same media to reach tightly-defined ones – like individual TV-viewing households – they are having to learn new tricks.

“The juggling act between scale and targetability is the fulcrum that we have to juggle,” says MasterCard’s media SVP Ben Jankowski, in this video interview with Beet.TV. “We’re working on various ways to do that.”

Like other brands, Jankowski’s MasterCard, which has used its “Priceless” marketing campaign for many years now, deploys a wide range of strategies, and a complex array of partners for the jobs.

“Back in the day  … you had a very small group of partners that did everything. I had one agency that did all the media,” he adds.

“Now we have a programmatic partner, a couple of social partners, a DMP partner, we’re working through some different dynamic creative partners, people like that make it more complex but we feel like we get a wider range of contemporary expertise.”

Many brands hope that this chain gets shorter as consolidation happens in the ad-tech space, as testified by Adobe’s latest acquisition of TubeMogul.

Despite the current confusion, however, the possibilities are clear.

“It’s an exciting time,” Jankowski says. “It’s no longer science fiction, it’s real, it’s there – no-one’s figured it out yet, it’s a journey.”

This interview was conducted by MediaLink MD Matt Spiegel for Beet.TV.

This interview was conducted at Beet Retreat 2016: The Transformation of Television Advertising, an executive retreat presented by Videology with AT&T AdWorks and the 605. Please find more videos from the event here.