Connected (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) TV platforms may have the potential to target individual households – but that doesn’t mean it is just a performance marketing channel.
As the technology matures with the benefit of programmatic trading software, executives are finding the same thing as peers in display before them – addressable TV ad sales can bring efficiencies to branding campaigns, too.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Amy Leifer, the new Chief Advertising Sales Officer of DIRECTV Advertising, explains how she sees it.
Up the funnel
“When I think back to 10 years ago, when addressable started, it was a precision tool,” Leifer says. “Advertisers were really using it to reach TV’s premium environment, but have that power of digital targeting capabilities.
“We all went right to the bottom of the (marketing) funnel on that when it launched 10 years ago.
“I think what we’re seeing right now is … a real movement to using addressable technology to identify those underexposed households to a brand’s national campaign. We’re really seeing it come all together and really be used against the full funnel of the brand’s objectives.”
DIRECTV’s next step
Leifer was appointed in April from WarnerMedia, after previous stints elsewhere in the stable, at Xandr and AT&T.
The latter spun DIRECTV out into a new company co-managed with a private equity firm last year.
For DIRECTV, this is a new role, leading ad sales solutions across DIRECTV’s satellite business and and DIRECTV Stream, reporting directly to CEO Bill Morrow.
Leifer had already helped pioneer early addressable TV advertising during an earlier stint with DIRECTV, between 2011 and 2015.
Streaming forward
DIRECTV launched its Stream service last year, offering live TV, sports and on-demand across Stream devices and consumers’ own devices.
“We’re excited to hit the ground running and lean in on partnership approach at this exciting time in the market when everybody is focused on targetable and programmatic media, and that is at the core of what we do, what we’ve always done,” she says.
“We’re looking forward to continuing to partner with our advertisers in a converged way across addressable, which is our satellite and our stream businesses to really reach a national footprint of all those consumers.”
