LAS VEGAS — At the recent Beet Retreat, Beet.TV heard several ad industry executives grumble that advertisers’ commitment to spending in advanced digital television environments was still experimental.

But, if addressable TV ad spend is still small-scale, it may be a function as much of available ad space and success proof as of ad buyers’ reluctance.

In this video interview with Beet.TV during CES, the enterprise strategy EVP  of Publicis Groupe’s planning and buying division, Publicis Media, outlined the way ahead.

“Clients’ appetites (are) larger than ever before to explore,” said Nicole Whitesel. “And, where in the past, it was seen as a nascent channel with limited reach, I think you’re seeing a lot more inventory there available to them to buy. I think their willingness to test things where they’re unsure of outcomes has been increased more than ever before.”

If that is a change of attitude on the brands’ own part, what about those brand’s media planners themselves? How do they regard the emerging connected video landscape?

Whitesel says her own company is responding to growing demand by more closely aligning its teams, just like the new media landscape is melding together classical TV with the qualities of online delivery.

“There’s an opportunity to get in early, test things, build operational muscle between teams that maybe haven’t worked together as closely before,” she says.

“Historically, broadcast teams and national teams have bought broadcast and (separately) you have teams that maybe are more precision- or audience-driven that buy programmatic. You’re seeing a lot of work between those teams now to think about the way we’re buying connected TV.”

That plays out by the broadcast-buying team doing so during an annual upfront whilst an activation team buys an ad during  quarter.

This video is part of Beet.TV coverage of CES 2019. The series is sponsored by NBCUniversal. For more coverage, please visit this page.