The way people watch television has already changed and it’s about time that advertising models get with the times. While behemoth companies like Time Warner and Viacom are slow to adapt to new methods of distributing content, they’re all about innovating with advertisers. So at least we know they know what’s going on.
Variety reported this week that Time Warner and Viacom are changing the way they approach certain advertisers, straying from the industry standard of what Nielsen does, paying for how often an ad was seen, and instead based on consumer behavior and how viewers interact with a campaign. Variety reports that advertisers are psyched about the shift:
The new efforts show how TV, still considered big-audience media, is trying to get smaller — by mirroring digital media’s ability to isolate narrower consumer niches. Seeing such offers from companies known for TV content “is kind of the Holy Grail,” said Mary Ellen Barto, vice president of brand media at Arby’s, which spends approximately $50 million to $60 million on TV advertisingveach year, and has held talks with Time Warner’s large Turner TV unit. “Consumers now have so many options for how to spend their time and where and when they access content,” Barto said in an interview. “It has really become increasingly challenging for marketers to know where to invest their dollars for maximum effect.”
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While many large media companies are playing around with this, Turner and Viacom are the only to “promise success,” according to the report. This is all promising, really. Right now, the old age and demographic way of thinking doesn’t apply to the way television is watched. Advertisers and marketers need more to work with as they create campaigns across multiple devices, linear television, and social media platforms. It takes more work — working closely with each advertiser to customize a solution. But once advertisers and networks are on the same page about how dynamic the viewing audience is, only good things can follow. It’s like everyone finally noticed: this is getting real.
And the money will be, too, once they figure out how to incentivize viewers to make themselves known.