As TV and media become increasingly fragmented, B&T asked Seven’s leadership team whether being the most-watched broadcaster really matters in 2023.
“Abso-f*cking-lutely!” Seven’s CMO Mel Hopkins responded.
“I think that any media channel that can speak to its advertisers actually about the fact that it’s winning, and it’s got breadth and it garners large audiences is super important,” she added.
“I think particularly in a time of media fragmentation, it sort of ends up becoming a little bit of a white flag if people need mass reach and they’re like ‘where do I go’?”
Despite Seven’s unashamed declaration of being the largest broadcast, the Network is far from neglecting optimization and the individual’s viewing experience.
“When you’ve got the best viewing experience, you have a great advertising experience,” Seven’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette said.
Whilst Seven’s collaboration with Databricks is positive for media buyers – as it allows audiences to be predicted in advance – it is also positive for viewers as it allows Seven to give them ads based on their own appetite for advertising, he said.
“What we’ll also do is serve up the right amount of ad load to that individual based on their propensity to take a certain amount of advertising. So what we’re doing is using AI to do that and actually say, what is the best viewing experience and ad experience for you, versus somebody else who might be in a different part of the room watching on a different device”.
Seven is increasing the personalization of its viewing experience with product integration, Seven’s national digital sales director Rachel Page told B&T.
“You might be watching a program, it could be lifestyle, and next thing you’ve got the ad unit on the screen, you can click that to go into the full ad. The content will pause, you’re watching the content that’s relevant because we’ve predetermined that into that environment”.
“Then they’ll interact with that environment with a QR code or URL or whatever it may be, and then back into the content. So there’ll be a lot more of that organic engagement”.