Home » Initiative’s Melissa Fein Brands Netflix’s Advertising Launch “Flaccid” At Cannes In Cairns

31 May, 2023

Initiative’s Melissa Fein Brands Netflix’s Advertising Launch “Flaccid” At Cannes In Cairns

Melissa Fein, chief exec of Initiative, told the audience at Cannes in Cairns, that the launch of Netflix’s ad-supported tier amounted to even less than a damp squib. In her words, it was “flaccid.”

Lead image L-R: Gai Le Roy, IAB Australia; Melissa Fein, Initiative; Paul Brooks, Coles360; Nicole Scaglione, PubMatic; Milan Blazevic, Paramount.

Speaking to a packed house, Fein said that, despite the hype, the launch of Netflix’s ad-supported tier left a lot to be desired for media planners and buyers.

In her view, the streaming service left a lot to be desired in terms of the features that agencies were looking for. This, of course, was not an uncommon view within the advertising industry. Netflix proudly proclaimed around the launch that it had a host of top brands signed up and ready to roll. Unfortunately, media planners were left far from impressed.

When asked by Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, about the types of metrics that media agencies want when buying TV — connected or otherwise — Fein said:

“It’s been frustrating for some linear broadcasters to still get judged on overnight ratings and we’ve certainly welcomed the launch of VOZ it’s been years in the making. To have that front and centre now at the agency level gives us an amazing chance to do some unified planning and buying.

“We’ve tried to look at doing the upstream planning side where we’ve been able to effectively look at the convergence from BVOD or AVOD and then into linear TV. With the introduction of FAST, we’re able to make sure that goes all through to execution as well.”

Fein also said that she was proud to see Australia leading the way on unified TV measurement. However, she did note that the US and the UK have significantly more fragmented TV-buying landscapes, something that Nicole Scaglione, PubMatic’s global VP, TTV and CTV business was quick to agree with.

“Last year, when we were talking about this, it was very disruptive, very fragmented and it still is,” she explained.

“But we have seen a lot of partners come together from the publisher side to the advertiser and agency side to the tech side and say ‘Okay, this is the world that we’re in now. Nielsen is part of the conversation but it’s no longer the conversation.’ We just have to agree that this is a disruptive state and that there are different needs.

“Last year, we talked about TTV as the adolescent child who came from a TV parent and a digital parent and wants her own room and her own rules and that was the state of measurement. It still is but everybody is coming together and saying ‘How do we all live in this big crazy house?'”

Paul Brooks, general manager of Coles360, however, said that Australia had to lead the way on measurement because of its smaller market size. In the US, Brooks said that brands could get away with relying on the sheet size of the market.

“I’m surprised by the US in terms of how fragmented it has become in that measurement space. But, if I take a step back, there’s a $100 billion ad market and 330 million people. There are businesses that can almost afford to get that wrong and still have enough scale,” he said.

“I don’t think we will have that opportunity or luxury in Australia in a smaller market.”

Milan Blazevic, head of programmatic, ANZ, Paramount, said that the industry needed to do more in terms of upskilling teams across the programmatic buying path to ensure consistent and effective measurement.

“You have these comprehensive measurement products that can be utilised across many different channels, not just CTV. However, from a marketer perspective, or just an agency buyer perspective, we need to do more as an industry with regards to upskilling them on how to actually implement these measurement tools across each unique channel. We can’t apply display or even social measurements to CTV and expect similar results.

“What we would like to see, not just Paramount but all broadcasters, is more lean in to how we can actually support and work on various initiatives around that.”

Putting the panellists in the hot seat, Le Roy asked each of the panellists for one tip to create a “CTV Nirvana or Xanadu.”

Fein called for “great marketing” to drive “great scale” allowing her and her team to buy easier. Brooks warned of “walled gardens within walled gardens” with the rise of retail media and dominance of big platforms and called for unified and integrated measurement technology.

Blazevic, meanwhile, said that Paramount was going to break down the walls surrounding the gardens.

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