Monica C. Smith, CEO and founder of i.Predictus, started her career at a strategic marketing firm in 1999 that was in the direct-to-consumer space. But seven years ago she had the opportunity to
look into TV advertising and found it fascinating. She says, “I then started my own company to make TV buying more accountable.”
Smith is very self-effacing, but that
belies her canny abilities in entrepreneurship and data. She has built her business from the ground up based on her conviction that the business of television can be done better. And she has proved it
out with her firm i.Predictus.
The following is an excerpt from a longer interview that can be accessed here.
Charlene Weisler: Tell me about i.Predictus.
Monica C.
Smith: i.Predictus is a media analytics platform, SaaS-based, that uses a series of algorithms to use past performance of television advertising to predict the future of individual
advertising airings. There are around 120 attributes that media buyers, analysts, and planners use to make decisions on the best media airings to buy or plan for their clients. It is very similar in
digital, and somewhat similar to direct mail.
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We have looked at the way those attributes interact with each other, and created 3 million formulas that answer the questions that most media
planners and analysts would ask of their data.
CW: What are some of these attributes?
MS: They can be cost per point or Nielsen ratings, number of rotations,
daypart analysis, seasonality, creative, competitive information — things that absolutely have an impact on whether a campaign is hitting or will hit its goals, or taking historical
information… to bring in all the data and to use it appropriately. So in addition to not only the standard attributes that we are looking at, to make decisions… we are also taking
historical information, whether it is from a day ago, a month ago, or a year ago.
CW: What is the challenge of cross platform measurement?
MS: In cross
platform, the challenge is that the data is not uniform. So unless someone steps up and creates that standard for uniform data, the platforms most likely cannot communicate as well as they should. And
therefore you’re left with humans to create that data ingestion process. Data purity is a multiyear journey — but at i.Predictus, we started with a standard. If our standard is accepted,
then cross-platform will become a reality for many organizations.
CW: What predictions do you have for the media landscape in the next five years?
MS: I think
television advertising and digital advertising will be held to a much higher standard, something much more accountable — which is right around the corner. This means that agencies will have to
have a higher level of transparency on what they are buying, an understanding of what is driving them to make those purchasing decisions and what outcomes are expected. And I think technology and
marketing automation will allow for all of that.
My second prediction is that conglomerates such as the MSOs and their consolidation will essentially change how television is viewed. Consumers
will ultimately be able to make more decisions on what they are viewing from an advertising perspective, possibly through individual servers at their house. Addressable advertising will be the next
phase beyond programmatic — and I think that agencies will prepare for a much more strategic buying practice than they are used to right now.