Over the last few days we’ve seen some interesting blog posts, articles and videos from leading agency executives and brand marketers about how they view the emerging opportunities in video and connected TV advertising. Although post-CES excitement can usually be taken with a generous pinch of salt, this year could be different as the hype at CES 2012 surrounded improved reiterations and connectivity of established technologies and services, as opposed to the kind of 3DTVesque gimmickry we saw in 2011. The agency verdict was unanimous: full digital convergence is a hair’s breath away, along with the all the cross-channel optimisation opportunities that convergence offers.
JWT’s Worldmakers
JWT went all out and covered CES with their own ‘Worldmakers’ series on their YouTube Channel, as Worldwide CEO and Chairman, Bob Jeffrey, interviewed some of the attendees who JWT believe will be making an impact on the future of advertising. In an interview with Jeffrey, EA’s Dave Madden says gaming will benefit from convergence as players will be tied to games rather than platforms. So, for instance, a player on a tablet would be able to play a game online with friends playing on a desktop/console/TV:
LG’s Sam Cheng talks about their TV tech and explains how LG are not only comfortable – but almost encouraged – by the fact that Samsung, one of LG’s leading competitors, are also working with YuMe to serve ads on their smart TV platform. He points out that it’s not in anyone’s interests to provide advertisers with fragmented audiences in separate technological silos. This is impressive language from the mouth of someone who works for a hardware manufacturer and it makes you realise that hardware companies like LG and Samsung are now effectively publishers, or at the very least portals, at least in the eyes of agencies and advertisers.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition’s Executive Director, Anne Schelle, explains how US broadcasters have been working (gasp) together to find ways to deliver content to the mobile consumer:
Facial Recognition Opportunities
Writing on his own blog, Bertozzi’s Bytesize, Vivaki’s Marco Bertozzi predicts the end of panel-based audience measurement which he believes is doomed to failure as measurement suddenly needs to incorporate everything the user could be doing on their TV, from apps and social media, to photography and communication. Bertozzi also left CES excited by the opportunities offered by facial recognition:
Right now if we want to personalise through TV it is down to the very early attempts and basic targeting alla Virgin or Sky, if we want to measure TV viewing in the family we have to press buttons or in some cases in the US people are still filling in diaries that a bulti billion pound industry relies on. What about a future when the TV recognises you as you sit down, or whether you are with people, whether you are doing something else as well – are you distracted, advertiser pays less!? All this and more is coming in the new TVs. Facial recognition will be huge, imagine logging in and the TV suggesting the Sopranos episode you missed or show what your friends have been watching or even some Ads based on those you have previously watched all the way through? Facial recognition is going to transform your viewing experience and again will present you with a myriad of entertainment opps before you even get to the first channel you would normally watch!
Bologna Loves Android
Finally, over on TVexchanger, GroupM’s Mike Bologna singled out Android for praise as he thinks the platform is doing a great job of stitching the user’s experience across different screens together:
Android 4.0 is the greatest operating system for connected devices available right now. It works just the same on a 4-inch tablet, a 5-inch smartphone or a 75-inch connected television. Remember, with connected televisions, last year, there was maybe 20 million in play and one million actually being used because you needed a wire to connect it. All of the connected televisions are wireless now. Just like your laptop. No one has an extra wire on the wall where their television is, except for an HDMI line and a power cord. That is the future of this business.
