• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, June 10, 2016

GroupM’s Modi Media took center stage on Friday at MediaPost’s TV Insider Summit, where Jamie Power, Modi’s managing partner, spoke about the need for a pure-play addressable/programmatic TV agency.

Interviewed by MediaPost Editor in Chief Joe Mandese, Power said Modi, founded 2.5 years ago, was the first pure-play addressable/programmatic TV shop. Power said that Modi was needed because traditional TV buyers didn’t really have the knowledge to work with addressable and programmatic TV. Since its founding, the shop has grown from two people to 25 and doubled its revenues each year. Power noted that Modi has already reached its revenue target for 2016.

Modi focuses on addressable TV to the household, by zone and device. “It starts with a TV campaign and then we tie in other formats,” Power said. Audience targeting and data capabilities are a big part of the mix, as Modi clients -- 70% of which are GroupM clients and 30% outside of GroupM -- seek to make their TV buys more targeted and efficient.

Power noted that GroupM has typically stayed away from using the world  “programmatic." The reason? “It’s confusing.” Still, Power said GroupM’s definition of programmatic TV (PTV) is the application of data for yield management and schedule optimization -- or, as she noted, “it’s better data.”

Power explained that TV has always been planned using data, but now agencies finally have better data because they can access set-top-box, purchase-level and behavioral data. GroupM, she said, has been doing PTV for years: “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Power noted that even when the entire universe of TV households goes addressable, Modi would never advise a 100% addressable campaign. Right now, 30% of U.S. households are addressable and that’s projected to be 50% by year-end.

One of the advantages of addressable is that it allows Modi to use TV lower in the funnel to target consumers. Further, she said: “PTV is simply how we plan TV and how we optimize the mix, so they’re [addressable and PTV] complementary.” The important thing is using datasets to help clients get better business results.

At Modi, the approach to PTV, or what Power referred to as “high-indexing media,” is that it would rather bring data in-house and optimize a client’s entire portfolio, then transact based on those insights. Bringing data in-house keeps costs down.

One of the challenges right now with addressable TV, Power said, is that you can’t do dynamic ad insertion and you have to set up targeting two to three weeks in advance. As the technology evolves, these challenges will ease. 

The sweet spot for addressable TV? When you can target between 5% and 30% of U.S. households, Power said.