Sarah Schuman

In class this semester, many of our discussions circled back to traditional television eventually being replaced by streaming video. That shift has already begun to take place as streaming networks like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon create original programming with skyrocketing popularity. In considering that transition in the industrial contexts of television, we have ignored a crucial yet overlooked aspect of television studies: advertising and advertising technology. Streaming networks have been the foundation for the growth of a new type of advertising, programmatic, that redefines how brands, networks, and viewers interact, and thus is a necessary addition to the industrial context section of the Comm 440 syllabus. Because of its perceived negative impact on the traditional moneymakers of the television industry and its advantages in a more and more fragmented television media landscape, programmatic advertising on television deserves to be explored upon in a television studies course. The topic complements existing elements of the “Industrial Contexts” unit, while simultaneously adding dimensions to audience engagement and the changing cultural practices of television viewing.

Television advertising transactions traditionally have been based on a network’s demographics. In the past, marketers relied on these rating demographics to determine desirable audiences for their ads. For example, a marketer selling women’s shampoo would determine buys on ABC based on the percentage of females 18-34 tuning into Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights. Now, however, a brand determines their “desirable” audience by targeting a population that fits a series of criteria, such as females with an income of $100,000+ who own a tablet, regardless of whether they’re watching Grey’s Anatomy or Dancing With the Stars (Blattberg, 2014). These redefined advertising transactions utilize a technology called “programmatic.” Programmatic advertising, generally, is the “data-driven automation of audience based advertising transactions” (Blattberg, 2014). This data-driven system of audience buys affords more specificity. Rather, than relying on ratings for specific shows or channels, marketers utilize programmatic technology to reach a more specific subset of consumers, like the females with a certain income level and tablet ownership mentioned above. Then, advertisers can target that extremely specific group with relevant ads across programs, channels, and devices (Blattberg 2014).

A major reason for the growing recognition of the significance of programmatic TV is its recent contributions to the commoditization and devaluation of the traditional television industry, and its predicted future impact (Green, 2015). In considering more than just the basic demographics to analyze specific qualities of a particular television viewer and best serve them ads, programmatic advertisers get the upper hand over traditional television advertisers. Programmatic advertisers theoretically save money when they serve advertisements only to those who would find them relevant and also theoretically serve higher quality advertisements. Traditional advertisers and networks are left in the dust, furthering their commoditization of demographic groups and losing money when those groups get served irrelevant, low quality advertisements. These changes worry major players in the television industry. Their antiquated strategy of aligning content and ratings with viewers and advertisements puts too high of a price on individual viewers who may not actually be their target, and their inventory just does not match up with the higher quality inventory spreading across newer streaming networks. Large networks, the traditional moneymakers of the television industry, are losing power to brands, agencies, and the technology vendors that facilitate digital transactions. These technology vendors, like Google, Turn and TubeMogul determine the pricing and locations of premium inventory, and therefore have the power of designating who amongst advertisers and networks receives the best ad space, and the price they must pay for it. Jeff Green, the founder and CEO of the Trade Desk, a global demand-side platform in advertising’s $5 billion RTB industry, explains, “The draw for advertisers, International Data Corporation (IDC) explains in its report on programmatic TV trends, is that with programmatic TV, ‘marketers and agencies get better targeting, access to new inventory and a unified interface which integrates and simplifies the workflow,’” (Green, 2015). These big network execs fall back to the older, slower system of targeting and inventory selection while marketers and agencies have fast, innovative methods of buying. Power in the television advertising is rapidly changing hands in our ever-changing media landscape, a crucial development that should be introduced in the way advertising should be studied in a television class.

In an age of the highest ever fragmentation in the media landscape, programmatic TV becomes a moneymaking machine replacing traditional TV. Television consumers are beginning to watch programming on a big black box less and less. Instead, programming is viewed across multiple channels and multiple devices, from computers and tablets to mobile phones (Green, 2015). In this complicated space, marketers must work toward a form of advertising that’s accepted by brands, content creators, and consumers, which is where programmatic comes in. Green lays out three ways programmatic acts as a conversation starter between viewers and brands in a fragmented media landscape. First, advertisers understand purchase cycles best and can customize messages differently for different devices, for example, on an iPhone versus a laptop. Second of all, “sequential messaging” can drive users down the purchase funnel from awareness to preference to purchase across devices. And lastly, brands address consumers anywhere and everywhere through cross-channel targeting. A branding campaign on TV could drive purchases through rich video on mobile or desktop (Green, 2015). Essentially, programmatic spending is much lower and return much greater because it retains target viewers across devices and across channels.

Another element of this media fragmentation is the extent to which we are letting content into our lives in a more intimate and pervasive way than ever before. This intimate interaction with programming is encouraged with programming being available on multiple devices, no matter how small, and across multiple channels. Out of this comes a need for a way to understand how consumers use television across devices so that they can drive purchases in this new atmosphere. Despite a fragmented landscape, the distribution of effective advertising has become more seamless and integrated than ever before with programmatic advertising. Even though programmatic may only be a technological “phase” of advertising, it is still worth studying because as long as content owners deliver sharp programming and advertisers create relevant, creative ads, the future of programmatic TV will remain promising.

Advertising is a major element of the television business, and I believe it is crucial to include as a part of discussing TV industrial contexts. Advertising is relevant to topics from that unit such as “flow,” the way a network brands itself, and also is important when considering “quality” television, as quality television programs commonly have higher quality advertising inventory. Because technological developments in television and advertising change key concepts like flow and network branding, the “Programmatic TV and the New Brand-Viewer Dynamic” unit would fit best in between those two concepts. It will come after the flow readings and before the network branding reading on “Comedy Central in the Post TV Era.”

As a consequence of the above-mentioned fragmentation in the television industry, networks and brands must work together to deliver high quality content to pre-built audience segments no matter the type of screen from which they watch or where they watch. Original, creative programming and advertisements still have the potential to create a water cooler effect in the age of media fragmentation. If advertisers deliver ads that are closely tailored to you and create a relevant, personalized flow, you’re more likely to connect with people who have similar interests to you, regardless of if you’re watching the same exact show at the same exact time. For example, although my friends and I may watch Quantico on our laptops on different nights, if we have all shown interest in gum brands, we may all be delivered an ad for Extra Gum. When we all get together for dinner a few days later, we can connect over seeing that specific commercial and about Quantico. Thus advertising technology impacts flow, and would logically be discussed after the introduction of the basics of flow.

Networks brand themselves through content that can increase loyalty of an already established audience segment, or through content that seeks to engage a newer, desirable audience segment. Networks will brand their content to audiences determined through ratings and data, which tie into programmatic advertising. In section, we discussed the reading that explained how Comedy Central utilized existing programming and developed new programming that addressed diverse audiences but did not lose sight of their core audience. Comedy Central could utilize programmatic advertising to strengthen their brand. They could collect rating and demographic data of their key consumers and target cross-channel advertisements to those consumers that relate to the network content. Comedy Central could follow the example of other networks that are changing the method of constructing their brand cross-channel through advertisements tailored to their brand that also reach people wherever and whenever they view network programming.

Programmatic advertising can be considered in industrial contexts, but also relates to audience engagement and the changing cultural practices of television viewing. Media fragmentation, a topic studied within the changing cultural practices of television viewing, has created opportunity for advertisers, and programmatic advertisers in particular. It has the potential to bring fragmented audiences together by creating “communities” of audiences with similar interests that are being served similar content. Advertising also is important when considering audience engagement and fandom, because the quality of one’s viewing experience can be highly impacted by the advertisements they see. If they receive more relevant advertisements at the right time, their perception of a program may improve.

The ways people predominantly watch television today, especially on streaming networks outside of a traditional television set, is changing rapidly. So many class discussions reverted back to this massive change and its impact on industry, television culture, audiences, and programming content itself. Ignored however, were the technological changes and advertising practices that drive moneymaking in the industry. Spending on programmatic TV will grow from $50 million in 2014 to $11.4 billion in 2019 (Weide, 2015). The $70 billion television advertising business is poised for a change, and it can be especially exciting for television studies students to be on the fringes of this change.

References

Blattberg, E. (2014, October 13). WTF is programmatic TV advertising?

Green, J. (2015, April 26). How content owners will make more money than they do today. Adweek.

Green, J. (2015, August 23). 3 ways programmatic TV addresses the new brand-viewer dynamic. Adweek.

Weide, K. (2015, August). Programmatic TV advertising: Bigger than RTB by 2019 [White paper].