Advertising Week New York 2024: Unleashing Data’s Potential in Streaming TV

One of the most exciting aspects of streaming TV’s ascent is the vast data opportunities it provides both media owners and advertisers. With more insights into audience preferences and other sources of data, streaming TV opens up more possibilities when it comes to delivering more impactful campaigns. For that to happen, various players and partners in the ecosystem have to work together to streamline the data activation process. At Advertising Week New York 2024, Magnite brought together executives from KINESSO, Samsung Ads, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Axios’ Media Reporter Kerry Flynn to discuss the data opportunities available in streaming environments today and what needs to happen to get the industry to the next level.

The Different Flavors of Streaming TV Data

Getting a handle on the breadth of data available in streaming TV is necessary for advertisers and publishers to clearly know what opportunities are available, where there are gaps, and how to fill them. KINESSO’s Global President Sean Muzzy explained, “at a platform level, at a publisher level, we’re always trying to make sure that we have the ability to bring audiences into those environments, but not just from a targeting perspective, but also from an insights perspective, a planning perspective, and then downstream, a measurement perspective.”

First-party data is a key ingredient within that holistic approach, and as Samsung Ads’ VP of Ad Sales and Operations Michael Scott describes, it comes from a number of sources: “Our first-party data comes from primarily the device. We have automated content recognition, which is the ability to know what’s being viewed on the glass…whether that’s linear or in-app. We also have device-level data, which tells a lot about the household. And then we also have our own panel, which helps personify all of the data. So it creates a really rich tapestry for marketers to work with us.”

Contextual data is also part of that tapestry, providing signals into ad relevance and creating a targeting option when other data might not be available. “ACR, understanding the context, the metadata behind the content…can make the messaging more impactful,” added Sean Muzzy.

Adding to that breadth of data, universal identifiers have expanded into CTV, becoming another tool in the media companies’ toolkit for collaborating with buyers. “The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) cohort specifically, as well as some of the major media groups, programmers, and broadcasters, have a very refined, very enriched type of data,” said Mike Laband, SVP of Platform Revenue at Magnite. As a result, he believes 2025 and beyond will be more about companies determining what data is best utilized or better enriched with other data to serve a specific buyer or within a specific deal so everyone wins.

Focusing on the ‘How’ of Data Utilization

Media owners and OEMs are making it possible for buyers to reach advanced targets by leveraging data within their own platforms and working closely with ad tech partners. For instance, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Olli platform powers the data-driven video business across the company’s vast portfolio using “a very sophisticated audience graph that’s powered by our first-party data,” explained Jill Steinhauser, SVP of Ad Sales Planning and Operations at Warner Bros. Discovery.

For those without a dedicated data platform but plenty of valuable data, like Samsung Ads, there are other options, such as working in ‘hedged gardens’ rather than walled gardens. “Typically, we’ll work in clean rooms, environments or through some third-party onboarder…being able to match our first-party data with a client advertiser’s first-party data to help them plan, execute, measure, and attribute their advertising a whole lot better,” describes Michael Scott.

Sean Muzzy reinforced the point around helping advertisers develop new audience strategies through “taking their first-party data, doing lookalike modeling.” as well as using sales and geographic data to inform models. “We’ve done things like bringing in transactional data into a clean room and then building out the audiences using third-party data.”

Data-Fuelled Innovation: Live, Political, and Shoppable

Looking beyond streaming TV’s addressability capabilities today, there are many areas where data can amplify the power of streaming TV as an advertising channel. As media owners and advertisers become more adept at data-enabled video-on-demand advertising, there are new frontiers still in need of exploration such as live streaming. Think of the exciting potential waiting to be unlocked with real-time, data-backed advertising across live sports and other can’t-miss live TV content. Mike Laband explained how Magnite is “working with media companies to get more ads and more demand in those different types of environments [like live]. I think if we can throw on personalization and data on top of that, that’ll be a great cherry at some point to do that.”

Jill Steinhauser stressed the importance of getting the technology right and the operational difficulties of doing so. When a break occurs during a major live broadcast, immediate action is required to fill the pod with high-quality ad content, ensuring a smooth user experience and avoiding slate. “Being able to forecast the live event in general and how many concurrences you’re going to have and making sure that the tech is sound and it can handle the load [is key]. We’re working with Magnite on things like this, but we want to make sure that we can do data targeting in a live stream, but we also want to make sure that our automated transactions via programmatic can also exist there, too.”

Data influences what audiences watch, buy, and even who they vote for. With the US election only weeks away, the panel touched on the intersection of streaming TV and political advertising. “It makes so much sense to me why the political spending is going heavily through automated programmatic pipes. It can be highly targetable. They can spend their money really fast. It’s a couple of pushes of a button, go, go, go,” said Jill Steinhauser “From an audience strategy perspective, it’s no longer just about geo-targeting…It’s going to be this specific type of person that they want to deliver that ad to,” Jill continued, layering data onto geotargeting to deliver ads to specific audience segments.

The ability to infuse data into streaming doesn’t stop at in-stream video advertising. Mike Laband touched on the potential of homescreen ad offerings such as “different tiles placements…different types of pause ads, and those are heavily, heavily data-enabled…that becoming programmatically enabled is a major opportunity.” In a similar vein, Michael Scott also sees data being a key component in creating a more performant channel by making seamless shoppable formats and “the ability to shorten the distance between ad impression and purchase” possible in a TV setting.

As media owners continue to invest in leveraging their valuable data assets in streaming TV, buyers continue to lean in, often bringing their own data. Enabling seamless and easy data activation will increasingly help achieve better results on both sides. As data shapes the development of innovative ad formats, buyers and media owners will be busy going into 2025.