• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, December 3, 2015

A SpotX whitepaper finds that broadcasters distribute video content via as many as 30 different vehicles, but most have yet to realize the true value of their ad placements.

The whitepaper suggests broadcasters must look beyond programmatic and use econometrics to monetize video content. The correlation between screens and consumer outcomes is critical to this task.

For example, a consumer may record a show on a DVR, but end up streaming the content on a mobile device during transit. The viewer has three potential ways of watching the same content: live, streaming and playback. In many cases all of these ad opportunities are not being monetized to their full value. The whitepaper’s findings suggest that media companies need to use a single platform to plan all screens and connect the data from consumers watching across devices.

The whitepaper, “Activating Cross-Screen Campaigns for Media Owners”, suggests that with dozens of potential content delivery points across multiple screens, the task of monetizing what was once a linear TV ad placement to the same, or even higher, value requires visibility into the entire ecosystem.

Among the findings:

• The use of first- and third-party datasets to establish the value of audiences is increasing in significance, mitigating the role that age and gender proxy currencies play in driving rate.
• The value of audience is directly tied to its availability in a given channel. Greater scarcity of an audience target typically drives rates higher, and understanding the capacity of that audience across all distribution channels helps drive yield.
• Insights into how campaign audiences are fulfilling across each channel within the course of the campaign (or even, a fllght) empowers yield optimization, the ability to reach audiences endemic to digital or TV, and facilitates retargeting strategies based on a viewer’s engagement with multiple distribution channels.

“Age and gender are no longer the primary basis of media value, with advertisers looking to leverage data to deliver video ads with maximum impact. Media companies must offer the opportunity to do this, as well as capitalize on ad opportunities across all delivery points, in order to maximize yield," Randy Cooke, VP of programmatic TV,  stated in a release.

“Understanding these relationships in the data, like correlations between ad exposures and consumer outcomes, provides insight into channel efficacy, which can be leveraged over time to establish better pricing rules for each channel," he added.

SpotX is a video inventory management platform for premium publishers and broadcasters.