What do they want? Transparency, flexibility and standards. When do they want it? As soon as possible.

The explosion of new possibilities unleashed by the conversion of television into an IP-delivered medium has also provoked a range of challenges.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Robin Steinberg, VP, Revenue, Advertiser Solutions, PubMatic, explains what is top of ad buyers’ minds.

Flexible future

Steinberg recently joined the ad-tech firm from Connatix.

She will be attending the upcoming Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2022, a gathering of high-level media executives.

“The buyers are looking for more flexibility,” she says. “The answer there is, ‘how do we create a biddable environment, and what does that give them?’

“Obviously it gives them flexibility, but there’s also advantages to the publisher for that as well. They get the full value of the ad impression and they get more revenue.”

Seeing through transparency

PubMatic offers a supply-side platform (SSP) for advertising, Connect data solution, Identity Hub for identity management and OpenWrap for unified bidding.

“The buyers also are looking for transparency,” Steinberg adds. “They have a way in which they bought historically, and they want understand what they’re buying, down to the content signal.

“Here at PubMatic, we are providing that level of transparency and giving buyers the transparency into show-level content and programming so they feel comfortable. As they’re understanding the GRP, they can now understand the impression.”

Search for standards

Most of all, Steinberg says agreement is needed.

“TV” has splintered from a few channels into a still-growing smorgasbord of offerings from distinct service providers, often with unique technology and distinct ad capabilities or audience data sets.

Much of the industry’s current focus is simply on trying to make it all work together, for ad buyers whose workload has increased.

“What the buyers need and what the marketplace really needs is better standards,” Steinberg says. “We need standards, we need training. We need to all be on the same page. The marketplace is incredibly fragmented and complex.

“Fifty, 70 years ago, it was much smaller. There were four networks. Today, there’s 250+ channels that they have to deal with and everybody’s speaking a different language.”

You are watching preview coverage of Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2022, presented by Ampersand, MiQ, Nielsen, PubMatic, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, and The Trade Desk. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page