Unlocking the Potential of a Data-Driven TV Ecosystem

One of the key benefits of CTV and digital video advertising is the ability to incorporate data to enhance the impact and value for advertisers and deliver more relevant and engaging content for consumers. In order to do so in a privacy-friendly, standardized and scalable way, Magnite has joined the TV Data Initiative. 

Magnite will work with the members of the Initiative – Blockgraph, DISH Media, Eyeota, MadHive, TransUnion and Tru Optik, TVSquared and VideoAmp – to collaboratively explore the use and application of data across the advanced TV ecosystem, while respecting and protecting consumer data and privacy. 

To better understand why data is important to the future of TV advertising, we caught up with Todd Randak, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships at Magnite to learn more. 

What new opportunities does data enablement in TV advertising create for media owners and marketers?

Data has long been applied to other advertising mediums like display and mobile so it’s natural that advertisers want to add television to the mix as consumer adoption accelerates and technology normalizes. Marketers are definitely eager to get a more apples-to-apples comparison across the full marketing funnel from awareness to conversion. As they build stronger and more direct relationships with consumers, they are increasingly looking to layer data into their TV advertising campaigns for various reasons, including finding desired audiences and improving measurement and attribution. Meanwhile, big-screen media owners and distributors are also developing a strong understanding of their audience’s tastes and interests. Combining these datasets in a privacy-centric manner helps advertisers allocate their budgets more wisely, supports inflight campaign optimization, and ultimately helps publishers achieve higher yield. Everyone wins if data is enabled wisely. 

How can sell-side companies – MVPDs, networks, programmers, streamers – better support advertisers looking to leverage their data assets to support their ad buys?

Despite rapid consumer adoption of AVOD platforms, Advanced TV is still nascent and heavily fragmented. Much work needs to be done across the ecosystem to help make data assets and activation methodologies more seamless and interoperable. Even things as seemingly simple as data labeling and tagging need collaboration and adoption from broad swaths of the industry for transactions to be more seamless. Sell-side companies can help advertisers by working together to establish common frameworks around taxonomy, matching methodologies and data quality. Doing so should help lessen the friction associated with running data-driven campaigns across multiple disparate premium media partners. In addition, as first-party data becomes increasingly critical to the success of digital advertising in general, media owners and the technology community that supports them have an important role to play when it comes to safeguarding the privacy and helping advertisers respect consumer expectations. 

How do you expect the work of the TV Data Initiative to contribute to the growth and development of the TV data ecosystem?

As with all ambitious endeavors, we have to start somewhere. The TV Data Initiative’s founding members and Expert Advisor Group bring together a wealth of expertise and insights that should provide a solid foundation of ideas that the ecosystem can build upon. The industry will only thrive if it works together to establish a basic common understanding of how data is leveraged for marketing purposes across disparate consumer touchpoints. Thanks to a diversity of viewpoints, we believe that the TV Data Initiative is uniquely positioned to provide leadership that drives us in the right direction and provides value for the ecosystem as a whole. Most importantly, the initiative will spur the dialogue and critical thinking we need to help Advanced TV achieve the expectations so many of us have set out for it. 

For more information about the TV Data Initiative, please visit www.futuredata.tv.