How are automation and data revolutionizing local TV ad buying?
Atlanta-based Videa has some thoughts on the subject. Videa partners with TV stations to deliver a live, supply-side marketplace for full schedule forward reserve broadcast TV station inventory that can be ordered weeks or quarters in advance.
“We offer order stewardship services, and avails are delivered to the buyer in seconds,” Videa explains to first-timers seeking to learn more about its client solutions.
Now, the Cox Media Group-owned programmatic TV marketplace has released a White Paper that suggests the shift to computerized client solutions is the new norm for any TV sales executive.
“Automating the advertising process has already begun,” Videa notes. “Local stations and station groups are beginning to realize the benefits of leveraging better data and analytics to support their sales efforts by optimizing pricing and offering greater innovation within the television advertising ecosystem. It’s a competitive industry, so station owners and buyers with the vision and fortitude to evaluate new options will drive the industry forward.”
A NEW PARADIGM FOR TV ADVERTISING
Ever since the first official paid advertisement placed by Bulova Watch Company on July 1, 1941, television has become the premier medium for reaching mass consumer audiences. During that time, the cost of buying a spot has also dramatically changed, increasing from the $4.00 to $9.00 (reports are cloudy on the actual amount paid) Bulova reportedly paid for that initial 60-second spot to the more than $5 million paid for a 30-second Super Bowl spot in 2017.
Yet, competition for television ad dollars has never been more challenging. With the advent of better digital technologies, mobile phones, and faster internet and cell connections, digital and mobile advertising has surged by leveraging automation and improved targeting to more effectively reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
As noted by eMarketer, U.S. digital ad spending will surpass television ad spending for the first time in 2017.
For Videa, automation brings greater efficiency, targeting, accountability and reporting to the ad buying process. “This will help local stations more effectively compete for advertising dollars,” it says.
Moving Beyond Pain Points
Local television stations have developed multiple sales strategies over the last several decades, but the broader advertising ecosystem still deals with multiple pain points that impede forward progress.
As Videa notes, “For those selling TV advertising, the challenges mainly stem from having to work with cumbersome, manual processes that diminish a station’s ability to leverage the best data to help sell its inventory. It takes time to look up ratings on Nielsen and comScore, and there are workflow challenges in securing the optimal price for similar inventory. Stations also face pressures to their bottom line by having to continually offer ‘make-good’ advertising for placements that run at the wrong time or in association with the wrong program due to manual errors, or the need to juggle ‘preempts,’ which not only causes confusion and ill-will with advertisers, but also requires a significant amount of time and diminishes overall ROI.”
There’s also frustration on the buy-side, Videa says.
While brands and agencies are becoming much more sophisticated in their ability to reach specific audiences to drive conversion, “they frequently face roadblocks” when it comes to television advertising.
“They often can’t secure the audience and program data they need to make informed decisions,” Videa says. “It’s also difficult to plan ahead, since they don’t have access to inventory availability. Buyers want greater insights when it comes to tracking a campaign’s progress and performance, as well as better transparency when it comes to managing the financials of their media buys to provide greater stewardship over the entire process. They have high expectations due to the sophisticated media buying platforms available to them for audience targeting and advertising placement which aren’t yet available for local spot television ad buying.”
As TV continues to be one of the most effective advertising vehicles for reaching mass consumer audiences, Videa is positioning itself as a platform to drive dollars not so much away from digital, but alongside digital.
“If you ask an agency media planner or buyer how much time they waste in advertising make-goods, the response will be upwards of 20%,” Videa says. “That’s a significant amount of waste at a time when agencies are faced with greater scrutiny by the brands they represent in being able to deliver the best value for their advertising budget.”
How can local TV stations best act?
Videa recognizes that local stations and station groups have developed their own sales approach for segmenting and selling their inventory, spearheaded by their talented sales teams (e.g., reps and account executives). “That approach can now be enhanced and supported through more automated processes that use deeper research and analytics to aid the sales process, while reducing the amount of back-and-forth communications via e-mail and telephone calls,” Videa says. “The role and primacy of the salesperson and/or rep remains paramount to the overall process and to delivering high value to both buyer and seller. Automated sales technology, simplification of processes and proper leverage of data, are all tools to aid and enrich seller relationships. The best of these platforms support each unique station’s sales strategy to make adoption more efficient.”
To secure the best results, stations need to evaluate a platform based upon its ability to:
• Automate the sales process by removing manual processes
• Provide a station or group with control of their pricing to reflect the value of their advertising inventory while providing greater transparency to media buyers and sellers
• Incorporate a station’s full inventory instead of only remnant spots to enable better planning and facilitate a more holistic buying approach to ensure the station’s inventory doesn’t get devalued
• Integrate with other platforms, such as ad trafficking and demand-side buying platforms, to provide stations and buyers with complete flexibility
• Offer sales teams the ability to more easily connect to analytics that can help them, and their reps, choose and negotiate the best prices with buyers
“It’s important to highlight the tremendous value associated with being able to integrate with other platforms, since it helps a media buyer access a variety of cross-screen inventory from one user interface without having to learn new technology, tools or data sets of multiple solutions,” Videa says. “By securing the right sell-side platform, stations can provide their sales team with the data, analysis, pricing and time they need to bring greater insights and innovation to media buyers and the brands they represent.”
Working with the right platform can also offer the sales team the time it needs to engage with buyers face-to-face—instead of from behind a computer or phone.
