Sandro Catanzaro
Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, dataxu

dataxu recently announced its new solution for media companies, TotalTV which enables owners of high-quality TV content to offer audience-based targeting and unify disparate distribution channels and consumer devices. We spoke to dataxu’s Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Sandro Catanzaro, to understand how they leverage the analytics and what they do to assure brand safety and prevent ad fraud.

Tell us about your role at dataxu and the team/technology you handle.

I am a co-founder of dataxu and its Chief Innovation Officer. In this capacity, I oversee our TV and media business, on both the buy- and sell-side. My team is responsible for bringing our TV and media solutions to market, from pre-sale to customer integration and all the steps in between.

Dataxu is uniquely positioned to meet both advertiser and publisher needs around advanced TV, so it’s an exciting time to be leading the charge in a hot market.

How could advertisers and marketing teams benefit from TV Advertising Data?

When it comes to the data gathered from OTT buys, it’s a whole new world for marketers and agencies. With standard linear TV buys, you’re targeting your messages based on a network or specific show– very broad demographics, very difficult to measure effectiveness. For OTT TV buying, marketers are able to reach much more granular, specific audiences and attribute actions directly back to the TV advertising. This resulting data is incredibly useful, and can be used to inform marketing campaigns across channels and media types, both on OTT devices and beyond. This combination of digital audience targeting and TV reach is why so many marketers and agencies are jumping on the OTT bandwagon in 2018, and the demand is only set to grow.

Which regulations are in place to defend brands and customers, respectively, from ad fraud in TV adtech industry?

Frankly, we have seen very limited fraudulent activity or quality issues when it comes to OTT TV inventory to date, but it’s likely that as the availability continues to explode, the fraudsters will seek out this greener pasture. At dataxu, we are not waiting for regulations, and we take a proactive approach to ensure a safe environment for our clients by utilizing a defense-in-depth approach to prevent fraud across all channels. For TV specifically, we only transact directly with publishers via private marketplace channels, never on the open exchange, so we know exactly who we’re buying from and what we’re getting, and we are able to pass that peace of mind onto our customers.

What are the core tenets driving dataxu’s TotaTV? How does it help marketers and publishers improve their ad campaigns?

TotalTV is dataxu’s first offering for the sell-side; it allows media companies to enhance their high-quality TV and online video content with advanced audience targeting.

The solution allows broadcasters, programmers and distributors to understand, engage and monetize audiences across devices at the individual consumer level. At its core, TotalTV simplifies to a media buying process by aggregating massive pools of inventory into a single source, creating efficiencies for advertisers and agencies and allowing media companies to better monetize their audiences. Advertisers are more able to target and reach their core audiences, and publishers are able to provide a better, more targeted experience for marketers and consumers, while consumers are going to experience a reduced ad load.

How do you leverage audience data platform to build better advertising attribution models?

At the core of the dataxu platform is OneView, a highly effective cross-device software that allows to link exposure through any device, with conversions happening in any other device, fully automated and self-service. An agency is using the platform to create an audience from consumers who downloaded a mobile app, targeting those consumers in their living room with 30 second ads on their TV set, and measuring conversions on a desktop computer or mobile phone, all self-service and with reporting at a cost per conversion.

How do you work with Data Science and AI/ML for TV advertising?

Our platform leverages AI to help users achieve more in less time. Ad agency specialists instruct the AI engine to automatically maximize conversion volume, driving efficiencies for their performance driven advertisers. The AI engine leverages custom algorithms that track campaign conversions across devices, such as digital engagement or sales, to learn as much as possible about those converting viewers in order to optimize subsequent media buying towards impressions that are most likely to lead to more conversions. This has been especially successful for direct response advertisers.

What tools and technologies would deliver better cross-channel identity management and resolution in 2018-2022?

The best tools for cross-channel identity are able to leverage multiple graphs in real time and a large volume of segment data. This helps increase the targetability of media attached to them and create accurate and comprehensive attribution models.

Our OneView software was built with the philosophy that a platform ought to be flexible enough to operate in different regulatory environments and provide the best solution to marketers in each country. Scale, flexibility and performance are driving great growth in this offering for dataxu.

Would GDPR impact your data management and retention models?

Yes, GDPR will impact our data retention, but will have a limited effect in data management. In order to honor the principle of data minimization under the GDPR, dataxu is implementing a process to delete any EU data subject personal data collected post-GDPR. Additionally, dataxu has processes in place to comply with data subject requests, including the right to restriction and right to erasure.

Thanks for chatting with us, Sandro.
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