MIAMI – A+E is working with some of its competitors on new attribution modeling showing the ability of TV ads drive business outcomes, while the network tests video-on-demand addressability with Comcast and explores national addressable inventory.
These are some of the network’s recent activities as outlined by Mel Berning during an interview at the recent Beet Retreat Miami 2017.
“TV has taken a little bit of an undeserved hit in the last couple of years because digital has always used the model that basically focuses on last click attribution” to claim that digital ads drive sales, says the President of Revenue at A&E.
The network and others are working with Data Plus Math Corp., a company founded in 2016 by John Hoctor, formerly of Rovi and IntegralReach, and Matthew Emans, formerly of IntegralReach, to develop a multi-touch attribution model “that we think is a real step forward.”
A+E and some 10-12 networks have talked about the attribution model with individual marketers and the Association of National Advertisers. They also hope to gain the endorsement of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement.
“What this leads to is the ability for us all to get behind attribution modeling and talking about the higher value, the higher return that TV really contributes an advertiser’s marketing campaign,” Berning says.
With regard to VOD addressability, he identifies the goals of the network’s testing with Comcast as eliminating waste for advertisers and improving the viewing experience for consumers via reduced ad load.
In addition, “We’ve been in discussions with a couple of other companies who are looking to actually get into the market also of doing national addressability,” meaning ad inventory beyond the two minutes of local time that cable providers now offer to advertisers for household targeting.
Like other TV networks, A+E continues to refine its audience optimization efforts in order to “go back to advertisers with a pretty pure mix of the targets that they want to reach,” Berning says.
This video was produced at the Beet Retreat Miami, 2017 presented by Videology along with Alphonso and 605. For more videos from the event, please visit this page.
