TechBytes with Brad Danaher, Director of TV Services at Experian Marketing Services

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

Experian has a background in direct mail and realized that addressable TV was just direct mail applied to TV. Thus, my role is to help companies use advanced segmentation in the TV ecosystem. It’s no secret that people have shifted the way they consume video – relying less on traditional TV and more on streaming services and mobile devices. However, TV remains a viable option for brands to reach their best customers, but they need more advanced data to find those customers.

As Experian’s Director of TV solutions, my team and I are responsible for helping advanced TV companies leverage data and technology to deliver and measure TV advertisements more effectively and efficiently – whether it’s across linear TV, over-the-top or addressable. Additionally, we support agencies to tell a consistent story across multiple marketing channels and measure the success of TV campaigns.

What is the current technology roadmap to build TV Analytics and Attribution models?

For many years, the barometer for TV success has been brand sentiment and ratings. Advertisers wanted to know if the commercial was memorable and if it reached a large viewership – it didn’t necessarily matter if it reached the right customers. But given the shift in how consumers engage with brands, it’s become more important to understand the impact of each marketing tactic. And identity resolution sits at the center of today’s TV ecosystem that now includes linear, addressable, connected and over-the-top TV.

Experian leverages technology to assist in the application of identity resolution, audience segmentation, analytics and measurement across all modes of advanced TV. In doing so, we help advertisers and agencies understand who their ideal consumers are, where they consume media, and apply measurement within, and across, these platforms in a consistent manner.

What are the key TV Analytics/metrics that Digital Advertising and Marketing teams should be keenly following?

Historically, TV performance was limited to incredibly basic terms of implied success. The advanced TV provides for the unique opportunity to understand how well a data-driven campaign performed – not simply based on how many eyeballs ‘may’ have seen the ad, but based on the test over control revenue outcomes tied to the KPI’s that are meaningful to the advertiser. Brands need to establish KPI’s in advance of the campaign to best prepare for an optimal read. Regardless of the outcome, the learnings provide any opportunity to optimize future campaigns.

How is Experian’s TV Analytics technology transforming the way modern brands do their Marketing and Sales?

Consumers need to be at the heart of every advertising strategy and decision. And using identity resolution to pinpoint your customers is the most efficient and effective way to accomplish that objective. Brands and agencies that leverage a combination of first-party data and Experian data, along with our advanced technology, such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, are better positioned to create a truly cross-channel campaign. It’s no longer enough to implement a single-channel campaign – the TV commercial needs to work with a brand’s email campaign, as well as its banner ads. Experian allows brands to link all these channels and providers seamlessly.

To make this easier for brands, we work with nearly every addressable TV provider – cable, satellite, TV networks, OTT, CTV – to deliver effective campaigns across all of them.

Why do brands fail to fully understand real-time TV Analytics? How do you train your customers to understand these analytics better?

Historically, TV is not planned, bought or sold in real-time. Hence, this type of data is unfamiliar to TV buyers. Most buyers still rely on traditional TV ratings and brand sentiment measures to evaluate the success of TV campaigns. But with more and more people consuming TV through non-traditional platforms, such as streaming services and smartphones, brands and agencies need to rely more heavily on identity resolution and new data, such as TV viewership from smart TVs.

In my experience, to understand these analytics, customers need to “test and learn”. They need to test the data-driven approach, evaluate it and funnel those learnings into the next campaign.

Tell us more about your AI and Machine Learning initiatives for TV Attribution.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning open the door for marketers to use data more effectively and gain deeper insight into their customers — understanding their preferences. At Experian, we have a Research and Development group, Experian DataLabs, and they are constantly testing new data sets and employing Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques to address challenges across all marketing channels.

What are the biggest challenges in measuring the ROI of TV-focused Advertising? How do these compete with ad formats such as Search, Display, and Programmatic?

Traditionally, TV audience measurement has focused simply on projected counts that represented national viewership. Today, using alternative TV viewership data sets represent just a portion of the viewing landscape and lack the scale that brands need to provide statistically accurate results.

TV competes with digital channels by focusing on better measurement, cross-channel impact, and attribution of sales. This has been a weakness of TV in the past, but it is turning into a strength.

Through better identity linkage and the advanced measurement, brands can better understand the customer’s complete path to purchase. Proper identity resolution removes the need to think with a single-channel mindset and create more cross-channel campaigns.

What is your prediction on the disruptive application of TV Analytics in B2B and B2C marketing initiatives?

Data will continue to have a tremendous impact on how brands connect with people, regardless of how technology shifts. I believe TV advertising will become akin to direct marketing – more segmented, more relevant and more measurable.