• by Ross Fadner , June 29, 2012

According to Bonin Bough, VP of global media and consumer engagement for Kraft Foods, the digital media executives inside brands that are having the most success right now realize that they must take advantage of the huge channel that TV is by evolving and integrating it with other media, rather than treating it as its own animal.

Bough, speaking at the Brand Innovators Digital Video Advertising Summit, said the best example of this is the work that the so-called “Godfather of Digital Video,” Marc Fonzetti, media director at Verizon Wireless, is doing.

Shortly before the Digital Content NewFronts in mid-April, Fonzetti organized a ‘Digital Daypart’ summit for all of Verizon’s digital video agencies and partners. The idea was to bring together all providers, both traditional and digital, to break down the silos under which some of them operate in order to have an open strategy session where everyone could voice their concerns and ideas. The results were fantastic, Bough said. 

For its part, Kraft is also being progressive when it comes to embracing digital video, Bough said. “We’re going after digital video (and mobile) in a massive way. We are moving to screen-neutral watching -- why wouldn’t we?”

However, he noted that there are some tough obstacles to fully justify digital video buying to the most senior brand managers. Even though he agreed that the GRP sells digital short, Bough said marketers need to work with what’s currently available and they need to push the measurement folks to get it right.