Spectrum Reach will be hosting a NewFront on May 5, its first as a combined company. We spoke with David Kline, EVP of Charter Communications and president of Spectrum Reach, about the company’s plans.
Spectrum Reach is the only MVPD doing a NewFront this year. How are you investing to improve TV targeting and performance?
There are a couple of ways. The first is programmatic, which to me means infusing lots of data into advertising and then automating the back end to make it easier to buy. We’re bringing that to TV. So we’ll be able to walk into a national advertiser’s office and use audience-based planning tools to show them how to optimize their linear television buys.
The second is household addressability, which we’re launching in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas/Ft. Worth this year, and then beyond in 2018. It will allow advertisers to pinpoint specific targets by household in an aggregated and anonymized way. So the guy at 101 Main St. at the same break on ESPN will see a different ad than the guy at 102 Main St., based on publicly available data that we buy or license.
What is the role of TV in a multi-platform video buy?
We know we have to be on every platform. We know that people are watching at home and out of home; we know they’re watching on traditional television sets and on tablets and on their mobile devices. So we have to make sure the client’s marketing needs are met on every one of those platforms.
We’ve got products that do that today. We are one of the few in any of our markets that can give you linear TV, on-demand TV, TV on IP. We can give you out of home with TV Everywhere ads on streaming devices. We can be everywhere you want to be.
How can an advertiser approach you to make digital video work for them?
We don’t look at it as digital vs. traditional. I think advertisers want to get their message out and they don’t really care whether it’s digital or it’s analog or it’s traditional or it’s up-and-coming.
Let’s talk a moment about local advertising. How do you differentiate yourself?
We have things that broadcasters in our market can’t do. With Spectrum Reach, you can tailor your messages to your target audience. We’re able to market ourselves much more around customer needs—not the entire market, but specific segments of the market. We have 2.5 million spots a year in each one of our zones. That’s much more inventory than a local broadcaster has. And we can pinpoint to the household with our addressable technology once it’s rolled out. So we have a lot of tools in our belt that our competitors don’t have.
