MarTech Interview with Jo Kinsella, Chief Revenue Officer and EVP at TVSquared

Could you tell us about your role and journey within the marketing industry? What inspired you to join TVSquared?

The majority of my professional career was spent in the FinTech space – an industry that trailblazed the use of Big Data analytics. I was introduced to the world of TV advertising after Calum Smeaton, TVSquared’s CEO, asked me to establish TVSquared in the U.S. in 2014. I had previously worked with him at several fintech companies, including Sumerian.

While the Advertising space was relatively new to me at the time, I quickly realized we could turn it on its head with real-time analytics. Leading that kind of industry disruption inspired me to join the TVSquared team. Five years later, I eat, sleep and breathe advertising and am very proud that we have made TV, however you define it – linear, VOD, OTT, CTV – measureable across devices, everywhere in the world.

What is TVSquared and how does it make TV Advertising intelligent?

TVSquared makes TV measureable everywhere. We provide thousands of advertisers in 75+ countries with a single, unified, always-on TV attribution platform that measures impressions, reach and outcomes across linear and digital TV. Brands, agencies, media owners and publishers get the real-time insights needed to quantify TV’s impact, measure outcomes and optimize performance across TV content anywhere in the world.

How do you focus on bringing linear and advanced TV together at TVSquared?

Today, the definition of “TV” means linear and digital video. Since the advertising industry has traditionally operated in silos, it began segmenting digital and linear TV into separate buckets. But it’s really not about one or the other; it’s about having a strategy that covers it all, with a specific focus on what’s driving the best outcomes for the advertiser.

That’s why TVSquared developed Advantage to manage, measure and optimize linear and digital TV in one platform. If you want to measure the immediate and longer-term impact of linear, it can do that. If you want house-hold level attribution, it can do that. If you want to see OTT measurement in the same platform, it has 100% coverage. If you want to see the impact of digital and linear together, I sound like a broken record, but it can do that! We’ve truly made all forms of TV measureable everywhere.

Could you tell us about the different strategies you use when capturing impressions?

TVSquared has all the bases covered to capture 100% of impressions across the ecosystem. We can collect impressions at four points in the adserving flow – on the DSP (e.g. The Trade Desk, MediaMath), media device (e.g. Roku), media service (e.g. Hulu) and adserver (e.g. Extreme Reach).

What is “performance as a currency,” and how can it be applied to TV?

This year, many local TV players in the U.S. moved to impressions as a currency, which was monumental progress. But what will mark 2020 will be the move toward impressions plus performance as a currency for the entire industry. While impressions tell an advertiser “who” saw a spot, performance demonstrates TV’s impact, proving that people are actually taking an action or having a reaction. It’s not just about who watched a spot (impressions), but it’s also about how people responded to the ad (performance).

For the buy side, performance has long been a focus, with brands leveraging attribution technology to tie TV directly to KPIs. For media owners and publishers, the concept is newer, but the move toward performance is happening as another way to remain relevant in a digitally centric world. Proof of performance across all forms of TV advertising has a direct impact on retaining revenue and growing ad spend. In 2020, we’ll see sell-side objectives focused on adding performance as a currency – and the budgets to make it happen at scale with attribution.

Can you tell us about your recent partnership with Ampersand? In what way does it benefit the business outcomes for advertisers and brands, in particular? 

As I mentioned, sell-side firms are starting to use performance as a currency and Ampersand is one of them leading the way.

With 85M households, Ampersand has a tremendous footprint in the U.S. Now that it has integrated TVSquared’s attribution technology, its advertisers have access to always-on performance insights that show how their TV campaigns directly impacted KPIs. Ampersand AEs then work with the advertisers to review findings and continuously optimize buys for performance, which is a consultative approach that hasn’t really existed between the buy and sell sides before.

What startups in the Marketing industry are you watching right now?

Blockgraph, which is Comcast’s Blockchain-based data sharing solution to power addressable TV. I think companies like this help to shape a better customer experience but also drive the industry forward to leverage data at scale across the TV and premium video ecosystem.

What is one word that best describes how you work.

Hustle

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

The MINDBODY app; I travel constantly and it helps me find hot yoga studios no matter where I am in the world.

What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?

Cutting internal meetings down to 20 minutes and external ones to 45 minutes. Adding space to breathe and grab a mindful moment can change the productivity of the entire day.

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne. It’s so easy to get caught up in work, get stressed out and lose sight of what’s important. This book is a wonderful reminder of the importance of gratitude.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Anything is possible

Something you do better than others – what’s the secret of your success?

For the TV industry to truly transform, we must be brutally honest with what needs to change and how it can happen. Then we need to do it. My motto is “just say yes,” which is about taking action and moving the needle. That’s a big reason why TVSquared has been so successful. We’re a team of action-oriented individuals – we know what has to be done and we’re doing it.

Tag the one person (or more) in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read.

Andrea Zapata, the Vice President of Data Innovation and Insights at Effectv. She is another person who always speaks the truth, and what her team has done at Effectv, essentially leading the entire industry in adopting proof of performance for local TV, is game changing.

Thank you, Jo Kinsella! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.