While buyers point out that there are numerous challenges to advertising on streaming TV, Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer at NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships, insists real solutions to those issues exist today.
Reacting to a story in The Wall Street Journal quoting prominent media-agency executives in a note being sent to about 50,000 brands, agencies, ad tech vendors and measurement companies, Bhatia said "the gloom and doom about AVOD is overhyped" and that "those of us doing business in today's modern digital marketplace are embracing modern, digital tools."
For several years, NBCU has been outspoken about improving advertising for both advertisers and viewers. It promised to cut ad loads in shows like Saturday Night Live, held "developer meetings" to tout its ad tech, invited data and research companies to find better ways to count viewers and evaluate campaigns, and worked with marketers to determine what streaming service Peacock would do for them.
To be sure, there are issues with streaming advertising including transparency, measurement, repetitive ads, even fraud. "Fortunately, across every corner of this industry, we are working with partners committed to accelerating our industry's transformation," Bhatia said.
Bhatia insists the evolution of TV to streaming is going better than when cable TV changed the industry. TV advertising got worse in the cable era with more clutter, antiquated viewer measurement and stalled innovation, he said.
Instead, "this shift to digital and streaming has introduced new technologies, new data, and new capabilities that offer fixes for old problems and the creation of new experiences and capabilities," he said.
He pointed to technology that enables streaming media platforms and advertisers to cap frequency, ensuring that viewers aren't annoyed by seeing the same commercial over and over.
"Frequency management tools coupled with Ad IDs, which allow marketers and programmers to track and manage which ads deliver how often across different platforms, and prevent wasted exposures, are ready to use today," he said. "And as targeting has gotten more sophisticated, audience attributes have rendered traditional age and gender proxies less relevant, making the advertising viewers see in streaming only more relevant."
Strides are also being made in measurement, with NBCU's request-for-proposal process uncovering more than 150 measurement companies that can help reflect consumer behavior and measure advertising impact.
While complaints and challenges may be sexier to write about, Bhatia said a lot of progress is being made, specifically on four fronts:
- NBCU has "created a superior experience for viewers and advertisers by sitting marketers next to engineers."
- It has built interoperable systems that work seamlessly for advertisers
- It has invested in data and identity.
- It has accelerated new measurement.
"To realize the full potential of this transformation, we must recognize and adopt the innovation that already exists and seek out more partners building for the future. When we do, we will accelerate the progress we've already made — but we must all see it, own it and push it forward, together," Bhatia said. ■
