• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, August 18, 2015

New doors are opening in the TV space thanks to data-driven ad tech. Rex Briggs, founder and CEO of Marketing Evolution, believes programmatic TV tech -- which may be better termed “data-driven TV” -- is growing the pool of people that can participate.

Briggs was speaking on the data-driven TV panel at the Programmatic Insider Summit in Tahoe on Tuesday morning.

To put this “growing pool” in perspective, panel moderator and MediaPost Editor-in-Chief Joe Mandese noted that in the 80’s, only about 200 brands were buying national TV spots. By the end of the 80’s, as more audience data became available, there were 4,000 brands advertising nationally. Today, some estimates put the number of brands using digital advertising (not just TV) to reach national audiences at over three million.

As Big Data gets bigger, new opportunities are born. And that’s what happening in the programmatic TV space, as the tech is "unlocking" new doors, such as local spots at scale or video on demand inventory.

“In addition to some of those smaller advertisers that are going to be buying more TV … I’m excited for some of the bigger advertisers to have more options,” said Bruce Kiernan, managing partner of performance marketing at MEC.

“With more data and insights, we’ll focus more on audience and user," Kiernan added. "So having other options to target that user [in a way that] might be more cost-effective is a huge opportunity for big advertisers as well, and as an agency we will look at the data and insights and make recommendations about not just who we should buy, but where.”