Week In Review: Let's All Pile On The Digital Guys; Roku Comes Out On Top At The Cable Show
- Let’s All Pile On The Digital Guys
Lucky NBC. Their upfront was first, so they didn’t need to find a more-clever-than-the-last-guy way to mock digital media properties and their metrics during their upfront last week.Because if there was one constant theme all week, it was how much digital ratings suck. Inevitably delivered in the style of an early 90s stand-up, the rant went something like this: “Can you believe these guys? Three seconds and they’re calling that a view? You know what I can do in three seconds? [PAUSE] Well, that’s what my girlfriend says anyway, but seriously folks, how do you compare those three seconds with the engagement you get from a 30 or 60 minute television show? I mean cats are cute and everything, but….”So there was that.It was a well-taken point though, because as we noted the other day, for too long we’ve been comparing “apples and elephants,” giving the digital video giants a free pass because those numbers made for great headlines and because the whole notion that they were piling on the viewers fit with Silicon Valley’s “TV is dead” storyline.So it’s no surprise TV fought back.The other way TV fought back was with data. NBCU, Turner and Viacom in particular had impressive offerings (Viacom even called their upfront the “datafront”) that promised to help advertisers target audiences with greater precision. Viacom’s notion, that upper middle class, blue state-based media planners often forget that there’s a whole wide swath of America they’re missing is one that’s near and dear to our heart. and something the industry really needs to bear in mind.Why It Matters TV does offer better engagement and thus a better environment for advertising of all types: interruptive, native, interactive and branded content. What’s more, people do actually watch a lot of television, a figure we expect to be validated with the release of Nielsen TAM later this year, which will start to track all of that online viewing. The data piece matters because the networks need to up their targeting game. And while creating a fully addressable marketplace is going to be long and painful process, the current moves of better indexing, optimization and automation are definitely steps in the right direction.What You Need To Do About It Stop moving your budgets to digital. Unless, of course, it makes sense to move your budgets to digital. But if your agency is pushing the whole notion of a “holistic video buy” and claiming that there’s no difference between NBC and YouTube, you need to kick them in the shins and find a new agency.
- Roku Comes Out On Top At The Cable Show
The poor hapless Cable Show, now known as INTX (a four letter acronym no one ever seems to remember) scored one of the best known scheduling faux pas this year, planting their event smack in the middle of the upfronts. And while the ad community may have stayed home, there were a couple of significant announcements, including the fact that Roku was beating out Amazon, Apple and Google, with 30% of the streaming device market.Why It Matters Roku is The Little Engine That Could. They have a better interface and better pricing than their heavily funded competitors and the marketplace seems to be rewarding them for it.What You Need To Do About ItMake sure a Roku app is front and center of your OTT plans. This is especially important for smaller OTT providers as Roku has hundreds of available channels and is a great place to reach your audience. Remember that people like to watch TV on a TV— 70% of Hulu’s viewing is done on a television set, and when it comes to TV, size matters.
