Leading Through Change: Our Connected Future

2020 has arguably been the most transformative year for the media industry in recent memory.

A global pandemic has seen consumption patterns change, advertisers are faced with the challenge of providing more granular data than ever before and CTV/BVOD has had a breakout year.

But amid this rapidly changing media landscape lies opportunities for those who are able to navigate it.

Speaking as part of PubMatic’s Leading Through Change series, PubMatic regional director for ANZ Peter Barry [feature image] mapped out how he views the industry in 2020.

“The coronavirus pandemic has been the greatest disruptive force in our industry for a generation, but with this disruption comes an opportunity to innovate,” he said.

From a business operations perspective, the speed of change the industry has seen this year has been an eye-opening experience, Barry said.

“We’ve learned by navigating these changes that our customers’ businesses are ever-changing and evolving, and we need to evolve with their businesses,” he said.

“We’ve also learned that it’s incredibly important to have an efficient and profitable business in good times, which means you’re able to weather the storm during bad times.

Old media and new media converging

There’s now doubt BVOD is here to stay. The Trade Desk’s senior director business development ANZ Stephanie Famolaro pointed to the exponential growth that the ad tech company has seen in the space so far this year.

However, Famolaro believes BVOD can work alongside traditional linear TV to deliver better results.

“We also believe that we’ll continue to see the convergence of linear TV and BVOD with the inception of ACR data and technology improving in terms of being able to measure incremental reach and forecast incremental reach across both BVOD and linear,” she said.

For Network 10, rethinking how it could deliver content that was relevant and engaging to a locked down audience was critical during COVID-19.

“With people consuming more content at home during the pandemic, we invested in acquiring additional content tailored for our baby audiences. The ‘10 Days Of 10 Play was fast-tracked, binge worthy content available specifically for our logged in subscribers,” said Network 10’s head of video ad product & technology Ashton De Santis.

“We’ve also invested in Nickelodeon app inventory, comedy classics, like Big Bang Theory, and Russell Coight, a vast Survivor backlog and the launch of our new channel 10Shake.

The role of data and insights

For Publicis Media commercial director Jodi Fraser, the challenges of the pandemic have highlighted the importance of data, particularly when it comes to working with Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs).

“By navigating through these changes, we’ve really learned the insight is everything. And we’ve been able to take a little bit more time to really look at the granularity of the insights that SSPs can provide us. And that’s given us better results for our clients that we can use in the future.

She explained that Publicis Media has started to work with SSPs in a new way.

“We’ve had to rely on our SSP partners like we haven’t before,” she said.

“And they’ve also given us better insight into which DSPs we can use those insights in, and really more information around auction dynamics, and pricing, which has allowed us to have more control.

News Corp Australia, meanwhile, has shifted the way it operates its ad stack to accommodate for the changes.

“Prebid is increasingly becoming a core part of our ad serving stack at News Corp Australia,” said News Corp Australia GM, commercial operations Jason Denny.

“We’ve recently expanded our Prebid footprint into an app across Google AMP pages and video.”

To learn more about how PubMatic is responding to the shifting media industry and optimising these opportunities, particularly around OTT and CTV, click here.

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