walt horstman

Articles by walt All articles by walt

• 'Risk Sharing' With Audience Data: It's Complicated in Audience Buying Insider on 06/05/2015
  

  Audience data for TV has quickly become the defining trend for 2015. Like many other industries in the Big Data era, TV has never had so much data available before. Spending patterns from credit card databases are now matched to TV viewership trends. So are shopper card databases from retailers and auto registrations. With all this new data, it's possible to now know what Oreo cookie lovers watch on TV and which networks are big hits with United Airlines frequent flyers.

• Demystifying The Use Of TV Audience Data: A Call For Standardization in Audience Buying Insider on 05/08/2015
  

  Network groups' increasing investments in TV audience data suggest that this is not a passing fad -- and may soon become the lingua franca for most TV campaigns. That means TV media buying is about to become very complex very quickly. To build a data-driven TV plan requires understanding several key aspects of the data available and how it will be applied to the inventory.

• TV Audience Buying Is Only Half the Story in Audience Buying Insider on 04/17/2015
  

  TV audience buying is only half the story of programmatic TV. The other half is technology automation. And the good news is that the tech is much further along than many realize. In fact, in some areas, it has leapfrogged over digital tech.

• Is A Programmatic TV Upfront Like Managing Your 401K? in Audience Buying Insider on 04/09/2015
  

  As the TV upfront season begins in earnest this year, many agencies and their clients are asking central questions about programmatic TV. "How does programmatic TV fit into the upfront?" Or, "Should a programmatic TV upfront exist? " At first blush, the answers are "it doesn't" and "no." Programmatic TV is the marriage of TV audience data with tech automation to optimize a campaign in-flight. The attraction of programmatic TV stems from its agility and immediacy in TV planning and buying. Programmatic TV is at its best when optimizing campaigns on TV inventory this week, next week, or even next month; the upfront is about securing scarce inventory several months into the future. Programmatic TV and the upfront therefore seem quite at odds. But everyone is talking about TV audience data as they go into the upfront.

• Programmatic TV Is A Job Creator in Audience Buying Insider on 03/13/2015
  

  With each week, it seems that more TV networks and media agencies are embracing the future of programmatic TV. The benefits for TV advertising are simple and straightforward: Automation and audience data benefit all the players in the ecosystem. But now the question on many minds is coming up with greater frequency, often in a hushed aside, "Is this all really a job killer?" The answer is "No." Programmatic TV will not kill jobs. In fact, just the opposite is true. Programmatic will create jobs in TV advertising.

• The Big Bang: TV and Online Data Join To Form New Media World in Audience Buying Insider on 03/06/2015
  

  The major recent M&A announcements in the data industry are spurring the Big Bang in media: the powerful joining of online/digital audience data with TV viewership data. This union of formerly very disparate data sets has significant implications not only for TV targeting -- but, even more important, for the structure of media planning and execution.

• Programmatic TV: Planning And Buying Tie The Knot in Audience Buying Insider on 02/06/2015
  

  Programmatic brings value to the TV ecosystem by using data to find audiences in TV inventory that were previously unknown. Programmatic TV technology allows TV to be planned, optimized and measured in near real-time using the audience data for advanced targeting. The tech brings the same agility and measurability to TV that already exists in digital. In doing so, programmatic TV also fundamentally marries traditional TV planning and buying. This marriage ultimately yields better business outcomes from TV advertising and increases its value.

• TV Audience Buying Is Only Half the Story in Audience Buying Insider on 01/08/2015
  

  As I read through the multiple year-end wrap-ups on the growth and future of programmatic in media, it seems many commenters put TV at a disadvantage. But TV audience buying is only half the story of programmatic TV. The other half is technology automation. And the good news is that the tech is much further along than many realize. In fact, in some areas, it has leapfrogged over digital tech.

• TV Automation is Already Here -- Retire The Fax Jokes in Audience Buying Insider on 12/12/2014
  

  Programmatic TV is the combination of audience data and automated execution to make TV planning, buying, optimizing and reporting smarter and more effective. Over the past few years, we have built a wealth of audience data from multiple online and offline sources that we now can use in TV. Then comes the invariable "BUT" -- and we hear the sound of the programmatic TV gears stripping. "But programmatic TV needs automation and TV is not automated," or, "Can you believe they still use fax machines in TV?"

• Programmatic Measurement: Confirming The Outsize Value Of TV in Audience Buying Insider on 12/04/2014
  

  As programmatic brings a richer data-driven sensibility to TV planning, buying and optimization, measurement of TV will begin to play an important role. Precision measurement for TV will benefit the health of the cosystem, because TV delivers outsize value when outcomes are measured.

Comments by walt All comments by walt

• Traditional TV Ad Revs: Still To Grow, Perhaps At Expense Of Digital Platforms by Wayne Friedman (TV Watch on 09/29/2014)
  

  Most long-range forecasts of the growth in digital video at the expense of TV likely assume that TV remains unchanged and does not adopt programmatic audience buying. Once that assumption is corrected, then the forecasting models will have a different outcome.

About Edit

You haven't told us anything about yourself! Surely you've got something to say. Tell us a little something.