The growth of CTV in multiple markets means agencies are presented with vast amounts of global data on CTV viewing. But for buyers in specific markets, global viewing stats might not be relevant when planning a national video strategy.
In this edition of the Buy-Side View, Mike Williamson, Head of AV Planning at MG OMD, discusses the relevance of CTV data, the need for broadcasters to collaborate on tech, and the agency’s Unified Video framework.
What is your biggest bugbear when it comes to video and CTV advertising?
I’ve got two. The first is the inconsistent use of the term CTV. Often we get asked for a CTV campaign or even a view on the CTV market, and I’ve learned I always need to counter that question with a question. I have to ask, ‘What do you actually mean by CTV?’ because the answer to that can be quite different. We use CTV apps in our campaigns, but in terms of what others might refer to as the CTV landscape, we at MG refer to that as ‘Unified Video’, which encompasses all video: linear TV, BVOD, CTV apps, SVOD, YouTube.
My other bugbear is being presented video or CTV numbers which aren’t UK specific. Global numbers are great, it’s very useful to know what is going on in the world. But I do find they are heavily impacted by other markets, particularly in America where the video market is quite different. Global stats are nice to know, but it’s rare that I can use global stats to rationalise a UK video strategy.
How do you think the role of the agency has changed over the past ten years?
I’d say the core remit of agencies, which is being media and communication experts for our clients, hasn’t changed. But the execution of that is far more complex than it has ever been. We now navigate an expanded video ecosystem, richer data sets, programmatic activations and an evolving measurement landscape. Everything is evolving at pace. There are new developments coming to market on a near daily basis. That could be from a media partner, our own collaborations with those partners, or our own agency proprietary products being developed and rolled out.
These developments are needed to keep pace with changes in viewing and advances in data, and it’s quite competitive, which is great. We no longer just compete on price and trading mechanics; we compete on data capabilities, making the customer journey through the funnel as efficient, effective and connected as possible. It makes every day different, which keeps us all really excited about the job.
And that’s also why we introduced our Unified Video framework, to counter but also embrace the evolving marketplace. It allows us to pivot to market changes. So if a new product comes out, we identify where it sits in the framework so we can talk about it in a unified way. We can embrace it and work it to benefit a client, ideally across the wider video ecosystem and not just in silo.
Which do you think video advertising is the most effective for – generating awareness and brand building, or driving short-term sales?
If we’re talking about the full video landscape, then the answer can be both. We tailor a whole video strategy to deliver a particular objective, but the structure of that plan will be very different depending on which objective we are working to.
I’d personally say that video advertising is the most effective channel for generating awareness, consideration and brand building. It delivers reach, attention and storytelling at scale. As effective as video advertising can be for driving short-term sales, which it absolutely can be, I’d say other channels such as paid search will always be a comparable channel for efficient short-term sales.
There are also varying results on both metrics and what channels you use, which again brings it back to how agency life is a lot more complex. But that’s where we match up smart effectiveness people with smart planning people, to make sure that we capture all the results. Because even if you designed a campaign that is focused on brand building, you will probably get an uptick in short-term sales. That needs to be captured. And if it’s not, you’re not looking at the full effectiveness of video.
What team within your agency handles CTV, and why?
Within our Unified Video approach we operate AV and programmatic teams. They collaborate end to end taking the briefs together, through to activation and post-campaign reporting. The reason we do this is the skillsets needed these days are quite vast, and we require experts at every stage. It’s hard to be an expert at everything. Linear TV trading is very different to utilising all the channel planning products that are now available. So we’ve got cross-functional collaboration, but with clear handoffs through the journeys, which are essential for efficient and effective campaigns.
How is the growth of CTV changing your TV buying strategy?
Across the wider video landscape, there has been huge growth and advances in audiences, in data, and in measurement. And that’s enabled us to drive more efficiencies in how we deliver reach and frequency. We’ve been able to utilise new data sets, which we didn’t have before – whether that’s retail media data, or first, second, third-party data. And it’s all about having that greater understanding of the consumer’s path to purchase. This is possible through utilising OMNI, our end to end platform that connects all our tools and applications, to create customised activations for our clients.
We didn’t have a lot of that five, ten years ago, so we’ve been able to run test and learn approaches to continually evolve. It’s not one change and that’s it; these are continually evolving buying strategies for our clients. And so far we’ve been able to find a strategic video solution for pretty much any client challenge we’ve had, and that may not have been possible five, ten years ago.
What could agencies do better to help clean up the industry?
I think cleaning up the ecosystem is a shared responsibility across agencies, publishers, platforms, tech vendors, everybody who’s involved. Agencies have created proprietary products to ensure ads are consumed by people. There are hand-selected lineups, and we have rigorous tests and processes that partners have to adhere to. It’s about making sure that we continue that, but it also needs to evolve. What’s fit for purpose now may not be fit for purpose in a year or two’s time.
Which ad tech solution has delivered the most impact for your business?
I won’t name a single ad tech solution, just because it’s so different for different clients; some clients are more performance-based, some are more brand building-based. And again, our Unified Video framework allows us to plug in the best-in-class tech, whether that’s audience tools, retail media data or attention measurement – and we have our own AV attention panel as well. If we didn’t have this framework, our campaigns would arguably be a bit more disjointed, and not as effective as they are under this framework.
Which metrics do you value the most when it comes to video and CTV advertising?
Again it depends on the client challenge and the KPIs, but for me it always comes back to reach. It’s still the dominant metric that I get asked about on the campaigns that I work on. That probably sounds quite simplistic in this data-rich, tech-rich age. But my view is that reach is a bedrock for many other outputs and outcomes. You need reach to increase light buyer purchases, to increase the volume of new-to-brand consumers, to maximise mental availability, to build brand fame, to increase share of voice.
But then it becomes about how we achieve that reach, which is the challenging bit. And that’s where we have products that let us look at different video channels’ reach side by side, to look at cost-efficient reach, cost per cover point, incremental reach etc. So it’s about how those channels work together to deliver that reach.
What could publishers, broadcasters and pay TV companies do to compete more effectively with the tech giants?
There’s a phrase I heard a couple of years ago from the broadcasters which has stuck with me: ‘collaborate on tech and compete on content’. That felt quite simple but really effective. The public’s love of long-form, premium, well-crafted storytelling is as strong as ever. And broadcasters have got an advantage over some of the tech giants within that space. That should be quite easy to maintain because of ITV Studios, Sky Originals etc. There are endless amounts of drama, entertainment and sporting events being shown on our screens.
But the bigger opportunity to compete is around collaborating on tech and data. And they’ve been doing it pretty well, much more than they were five, ten years ago. Look at C-Flight, Project Lantern etc. They need to keep their eyes open to look at working with different third parties – that could be ACR data providers, that could be measurement partners. The sum of the broadcasters is pretty powerful to compete with these tech giants. They’ve got the content, they’ve got the scale, they’ve got the legacy. If they continue to evolve the tech and data opportunities, it will be very beneficial for everybody.
Which person in the industry inspires you the most today?
I haven’t got a specific name, but what motivates me most is the leadership within MG OMD, who are continually moving the agency forward. They set a high bar, stay close to the work, and create an environment where people genuinely want to do better. They’re competitive in the right way – focused on great work, happy clients and new opportunities – whilst making sure our core values remain at the heart of everything.
Our CEO Natalie [Bell] always says, “We bloody love media.” It’s a simple line, but it sums up the culture here. We love finding new ways to make a difference for our clients, for the industry and for each other. That energy is what keeps me inspired and still loving what I do.
Out of all the video and TV advertising campaigns you’ve been involved with, which are you most proud of?
One recent campaign that springs to mind is our work on a brand called Optimum Nutrition, which is a leading sports nutrition brand. It’s a campaign that started as a new business pitch, and it ended up being an award-winning campaign.
The strategy was born from audience insights that we discovered, which was around the audience’s love of sporting journeys. We partnered Optimum Nutrition with Sky Sports, which might seem a really obvious choice for a sports nutrition brand, but the reason we used Sky was because of their vast amounts of data, their talent (because we needed co-produced assets with ambassadors from Optimum Nutrition and also ambassadors from the media partner) and their wide range of channels and platforms.
We built a tailored campaign with clear roles for linear, for VOD, for YouTube, and their other digital channels, all with co-produced creatives. And to cut a long story short, the pitch was successful, and it’s one of those times where a client said, well done, we want to activate that campaign. It was a great example of insight to activation to measurement.
That’s one of many, but it was really nice to be involved literally from the beginning; they’d not been on TV, they’d not run a huge amount of video in general, they needed to increase metrics such as awareness and consideration to build their brand, but they were looking for short-term sales as well. We needed to ensure all of those objectives were met, to get the customer to go through the journey, and it was really nice to win a Thinkbox award for Best Newcomer.
Follow VideoWeek on LinkedIn.
