Local Heats Up, Cannes Preview
1. Local Heats Up
While everyone waits to see how the big NBA rights deal is going to go down, local TV has quietly been heating up.
Or maybe not so quietly, as Madhive just announced a sizable acquisition of Frequence, an ad serving platform with around 350 employees that gives them omnichannel abilities on local.
“Omnichannel,” which sounds like one of those made-up ad tech words, is actually a pretty significant thing in that it means the same company can plan across TV, digital and other media.
And by “digital and other media” I mean actual digital—banner {“display”) ads, combined with out-of-home, audio and all that. Not “streaming TV ads.”
This has not really been available for local advertisers before, or, to be more exact, in an offering designed specifically for local advertisers.
Why It Matters
It has not quite sunk in with TPTB in the ad industry that all TV advertising in the streaming era is going to be audience-based, rather than national.
Yes, many advertisers will make broad national buys for their clients, but streaming is not like linear in that the ad only plays if someone is watching.
This is a very significant change that means that all streamingTV commercials are, in their way, local, as you can target them to any set of zip codes you want.
This is key for local advertisers who may want to hit a certain DMA and then a few zips outside of that DMA, but it’s also great for national advertisers as it lets them heavy up in areas where they may be underperforming and cut back in areas where they are underperforming to optimize their budgets.
But where omnichannel really comes in is the realization that consumers don’t just watch TV. They’re online a lot too, on their phones and on their laptops and they’re seeing all those ads too.
Given that overfrequency is the number one complaint about streaming, and that one big reason for overfrequency is that all of the various companies buying the ads don’t actually talk to each other, having one company that buys across all of the various media a consumer comes into contact with, is gold.
The local angle takes it to the next level though, as no one is actually focusing solely on local and that is where the ability to do things like use the same first party data across different media types becomes important, mostly because, as noted, the opportunity to easily do so on local has never been available.
What You Need To Do About It
If you are an advertiser or an ad agency and you have been sleeping on local, now is the time to wake up. Everything is local these days and so you really need to stay on top of it.
One way, of course, is to read Tim Hanlon’s “Proximity” column in TVREV every Thursday. The other is just to consider that “local” doesn’t mean a bunch of low rent old people still watching TV with rabbit ears, the way that many of you still think it does. (And you know who you are.)
Pay attention to “omnichannel” too, because being able to use one set of data to plan across all the different media you are being called on to plan across is no small thing.
Finally, if you are Madhive and Frequence, take a bow, job well done.
2. Cannes Preview
Cannes Lions is next week, that time of year when an industry best known for its many layoffs sends hundreds of people to the French Riviera to be photographed partying on yachts, the Marie Antoinetteishness of it all be damned.
If you can get over that visual, there is actually plenty that gets done there, from meetings and conferences to actual exchange of knowledge. But mostly it’s just an excuse to have meetings with people who you can easily get meetings with on Zoom. Only they’re in Cannes to have meetings and so it’s a lot easier to book them.
I am not the first to say this, but you can expect to hear “AI” discussed ad infinitum (see what I did there.) I mean there are some cool use cases for it and all and things that will change the way we do business and create content, but every two-bit company with an algorithm is going to be talking about AI.
Why It Matters
The media industry, if you had not noticed, operates a lot like a colony of lemmings, rushing over the cliff of whatever the latest trend is—this is why they are all in France.
So of course they are all going to be talking about AI.
AI is definitely shaking things up and changing the way we work, and Apple’s new AI-Siri could shake things up even further.
But rather than listen to all of that, check out what TVREV will be up to:
On Sunday, we are hosting a co-dinner with Tatari and our friends Evan Shapiro and Mike Shields.
On Monday, and for the rest of the week, we’ll be shooting some video with our Thought Leaders Circle member and (more important), Rio Damata will be back shooting “Explain It To A Teenager,” wherein various media executives attempt to explain what they and their company do in a way that a high school student can understand it.
Hijinks ensue.
On Wednesday afternoon, we will be emceeing the Titan Ads Launch at the Majestic, starting at 3:30 and running to 5pm. Details in the graphic below, but check out the panel on retail media and CTV.
And then it’s off to Denver for the TVREV Future of FAST Supersession with a cavalcade of stars. Get your VIP passes at the link below.
What You Need to Do About It
If you will be at Cannes or The StreamTV Show, come by our events. We want to see you. We are whores for adulation.
Also, you should also remember to just nod politely when people tell you about “their AI” and then promptly offer to get them another glass of rosé.
At least you are being polite.
