As the video options explode - across linear, VOD, OTT, addressable/programmatic TV and the vast online terrain, what is a media buyer to do? We ask a team of video strategists to share what they have learned about how each of these channels maps against specific campaign and marketing goals. Where are they finding the right targeting data, audiences, scale to justify their time and investment? Which of these channels integrates best with larger marketing plans and casts of the results data advertisers most need? Our panel of media buyers share how they are knitting together planning, creative and measurement approaches from a fragmented landscape. 

Another day, another OTT streaming service. From niche special interest channels to cord-cutter alternative packages, to broadcast network apps, OTT has both grown and diversified faster than any other video source. The question for advertisers is how to evaluate and test the opportunities here. What is to be gained and lost from working at the platform level or buying into specific apps and services? Is OTT really reaching the otherwise unreachable? At scale? And is IP-based TV really delivering on its promise of better targeting and accountability? Where does the medium need to go next to earn a regular place on a media plan?

What Does a Cross-Screen Video Strategy Look Like? - Richard Boland, Director Sales, Oath
Branding For Performance - Nancy Briscoe, Audience Development Manager, Digital & Social Media, GE
Mapping the OTT World - Carlos Ramirez, Group Director, Quigley Simpson

Audiences are not only fragmented but increasingly distracted. Where are planners finding and best using data to target their customers in places where it matters? Knitting together the data that accurately assembles these audiences among these screens is an improvised dance with on-boarding first party data, vaulting walled gardens and sorting through uneven third-party data. We ask a panel of seasoned cross screen buyers for examples of how they are knitting together targeted audiences from this mixed data pile.

Building Video Audiences - Andrew Eklund, Founder and CEO, Ciceron
Brand Safety - Lindsay Pullins, Director, Programmatic Media, Empower MediaMarketing
Measurement Across Screens - Maggie McKemie-Lee, Account executive, Simulmedia

In recent years, political advertising has gotten a reputation for being on the bleeding edge of audience segmentation, data infused video buying, and even real time dynamic ad creation. Two veterans of political and advocacy campaigning share what they have learned about advanced video and targeting that brand marketers may apply in the consumer space.

Video is a tactic, not a strategy…and one size does not fit all brand goals. For Crocs, video placements are only 6-7% of our overall digital media mix. The brand’s media buying team shows how they “mitigate” risk by limiting spend, using video placements very purposefully to serve objectives that aren’t as directly addressed by display or other tactics, diversify and optimize those placements. From pre-roll and cross-platform video, long form content creation to social video, the team shares how it targets video buys tactically, affordably to optimize value and impact.

The chief media strategist for Lexus discusses their approach to emerging video channels and their integration with TV. How is a category that traditionally leaned so heavily on broad-brand-building TV advertising use digital video channels to target different points in the customer journey with greater precision and creative range?

Learning from Politics - Robert Aho, Partner, BrabenderCox; Joe Fuld, President, Campaign Workshop
Video in the Display Mix - Swapnil Patel, Director of Media, McKinney; Greg Barnes, Media Supervisor, McKinney