Where linear TV was once “untouchable” on media plans, new measurement tools are proving that video campaigns deliver higher ROI, according to Dylan Pritchard, Head of AV at Bicycle.
In this edition of the Buy-Side View, Pritchard discusses the agency’s shift away from linear TV and towards video-first strategies, the role of The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP in enabling that transition, and the uphill struggle for UK broadcasters.
What is your biggest bugbear when it comes to video and CTV advertising?
This is quite a difficult one to answer. I think as an industry it’s blown up quite quickly, and I think the way that inventory is traded for CTV means that there’s a lot of reselling going on, and there’s a lack of detail and information into what is being delivered. So that is probably my biggest bugbear; lots of people selling on behalf of other people, and not being able to provide information on what the inventory is. I think it dampens the overall feeling of quality that you want to feel when you’re buying your video inventory at the cost that it’s being sold.
There’s something going on there that isn’t anyone’s fault necessarily. It’s just the way that trading has evolved through programmatic avenues has meant that people can do that, and I think there’s a bit of a lack of information at the back end, which makes it all a little bit murky, confusing and unnecessary.
How do you think the role of the agency has changed over the past ten years?
I think this is really interesting because it’s changing more now than it has done in the previous ten years. What’s really interesting is the content creator market and the influencer market, and how important that’s becoming. And when you think about the last ten years, the main term that’s come up is in-housing. What good agencies have done well is become advisors. We are the best at connecting dots; we have to be because we look after vast amounts of money that go out into marketplaces on behalf of clients. But when they have in-housing of other spend, what we need to be able to provide is strategies to cohere all of that together.
What we’ll soon see is that social, content creators and influencers are going to become so much more important and prevalent, that maybe the media plans become based off that, rather than the other way around. So I think agencies that have been able to become more advisory in their remit are going to be able to adapt really well to that phenomenon exploding.
Which do you think video advertising is the most effective for – generating awareness and brand-building, or driving short-term sales?
It depends on the asset. What’s been really fascinating is that we are now tracking attribution on video for direct response campaigns, and you would not believe the level of conversion. Up until now, every sort of DR TV spender has been like, ‘no way, I’m not spending on video, it’s too expensive.’ Adalyser has got a really nice attribution solution that is like-for-like with linear in terms of the methodology. And it performs so much better. We’ve migrated clients who were traditionally DR spenders onto predominantly video strategies. And from a conversion perspective, it’s delivering unbelievably well.
But we’re not seeing any drop off on brand, if anything that’s going up. And it makes sense, because anything that you watch on video is technically more engaged with because you’ve literally moved the button around and selected something. Whereas a lot of the time, a TV can be on while you’re doing other things, and it’s just happening in the background, and you might tune in, you might not tune in. And we’ve got loads of case studies now that demonstrate that actually, from an attribution perspective, video is really powerful.
What team within your agency handles CTV, and why?
It could be either programmatic or AV. I think what’s really nice about Bicycle, and something that I’ve been really keen on doing, is integrating the two teams as much as possible. Obviously we’re not going to ever buy display, but we can both buy CTV or video inventory. On a volume basis, the AV team buys way more, but we wouldn’t stop the programmatic team from buying it. If it makes sense from an acquisition perspective as part of their campaign, then they can totally run it. And I think that’s the way it should be, it should be democratised in that sense.
How is the growth of CTV changing your TV buying strategy?
Bicycle as an agency is very aggressive in its shift towards video. There was someone who spoke on one of your VideoWeek panels who said, ‘a smart agency would cut cords with linear now.’ And it was slightly tongue-in-cheek, but I actually went away and thought, that’s the attitude I’m taking now. And even a 50+ audience is getting 60-70 percent video budget now.
And with the growth of CTV, at some point it’s going to become a big part of the budget. But I’d have to say at the moment, it’s not a huge part of the budget, but it’s becoming a bigger consideration for me. Especially as the percentage of our spend shifts further and further towards video, those are clearly going to become important solutions.
The problem is that I’m getting better deals on quality inventory across broadcaster and subscription VOD providers, and they’re cheaper. So at the moment, I’ve got no reason necessarily to buy AVOD and FAST, unless it’s a very bespoke plan, and we can really target audiences through the data that they offer. Fom a mass reach perspective, selling that to a client becomes difficult when I’ve got such competitive rates elsewhere.
Which ad tech solution has delivered the most impact for your business?
The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP have allowed us to really push on this video-first approach. They’ve given us the tools, and being trained up on those platforms then gives us the language to be able to then go and talk to clients about the importance of handling the buying of video.
One thing I’ve always hated, and I honestly thought it spelt the end of my career, was when I would just sign IOs and just send them back to a media owner. I felt like, as the growth of VOD continued exponentially, and I was just signing IOs to Channel 4 or whoever, I was just signing my own death warrant. From a background of literally buying every single spot that went out for my clients, to literally signing off hundreds of thousands of pounds without any involvement, I was really worried.
So those two platforms have reignited my belief in what we can add from a value perspective, and especially with in-housing on the rise, we need to be absolute experts in how we buy VOD. Otherwise they could just in-house The Trade Desk and just click a couple of things and that would be job done. But we need to be able to tell them, for example, the best time to actually scale up your spend is early in a video campaign on Channel 4, because people miss their creative deadlines, so we can really deliver a lot of impacts early doors for fairly cheap because inventory is plentiful. There are little nuances that even if you say it once like that to a client, they’ll never remember or be able to train it to people, but we know. And the only way we can properly use that is by buying at a PMP level on DSPs, and that’s what we’re doing.
Which metrics do you value the most when it comes to video and CTV advertising?
For so many years, linear was untouchable because of historic ROI and because of attribution. I’m now proving that wrong on both counts. Since we’ve taken on this video strategy, we’re starting to get MMM (marketing mix modeling) back that is completely discounting TV being the leader in ROI from an AV perspective. It’s not at all, it’s getting battered by video every single time, every single campaign. And then the Adalyser piece has helped further validate that notion.
But normally I’m just looking for unique reach, to be honest. A lot of the buying to do with TV was always aimed at ensuring that you hit the unique reach that you planned for, and that becomes more complicated in video. Also the tools that we use are very different and quite clunky in terms of what we can do and how we can optimise. So I’m basically always looking to make sure that I haven’t messed that metric up. That’s the key thing really.
What could publishers, broadcasters and pay TV companies do to compete more effectively with the tech giants?
For me it’s clear that TV companies are better at producing content. However, I find it really odd that, for example, I rewatched a Channel 4 program called Accused on Netflix rather than on Channel Four. I think there’s something seriously wrong there, because the content was incredible, but the fact that the tech on Netflix was better at finding that program for me than the actual station that made it is a massive red flag for me.
I think it shows why Netflix are light-years ahead. And I think the second they sort their sales proposition out, they’re going to be tough to stop. They’ve always had content, but the way that journey on Netflix is being managed by the technology they have, it’s just going to sweep the floor with everyone. I think that’s a serious worry for the broadcasters, because I don’t see them competing with that.
And then you’ve got people like ITV who won’t even lean in at a very basic level. They won’t even supply on programmatic avenues, and that for me is like a death warrant. So that’s one end of the spectrum, then the other end of the spectrum is, how do you compete on that journey that Netflix creates for every single user individually? And as I say, I’m watching programs that were out on Channel 4 15 years ago, and I’m enjoying them on Netflix now. I think that’s concerning.
Which person in the industry inspires you the most today?
It’s going to be Reed Hastings, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Netflix. If anyone’s not read his book about the culture, you have to, it’s like a business necessity. There’s something really powerful about the system he’s created at Netflix, which just really empowers progressive thinking, fearless feedback and forward motion.
Out of all the video and TV advertising campaigns you’ve been involved with, which are you most proud of?
I’m really proud of all of them, to be honest, because I sold in a strategy that got brought in by the board, and I then sold it to clients. I won a pitch for Warner Hotels off a video strategy. Warner Hotels is a hotel group for 55+ but really most of them are 70+. So for me to say, sack off linear TV mostly, and let’s start thinking about a video strategy for this, then the results have been absolutely insane.
We’re used to trading TV, and there are so many misconceptions attached to that. The idea that we have to spend on TV to reach 50+ audiences, that is fucking bullshit. Those people’s behaviours are changing quicker than anyone’s. They’re watching more and more VOD. And I think so many people are ignoring that. It feels really satisfying to have found an angle on a market that people made such broad, sweeping assumptions on, and then we were the ones reaping the benefits.
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