Today, Comcast Advertising, the advertising arm of Comcast Cable, a
division of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA), announced the launch of
a new initiative called On Addressability. The broad goal of this
initiative is to help the industry deliver a sound, scalable and
sustainable addressable solution to marketers that maximizes the impact
and value of television as a marketing platform. Charter Communications
and Cox Media, Cox Communications’ ad division, have joined Comcast
Advertising in this effort.
“TV is a tremendous, resilient medium with unparalleled reach and
engagement, but data has changed the way that marketers use media.
Historically, TV has lagged digital in this area, and this must change,”
said Marcien Jenckes, President, Advertising, Comcast Cable. “Our
industry needs to find a way to fully participate in, and lead, the
data-driven future of advertising as only TV can. We’re fully committed
to making this happen. That’s the impetus behind the On Addressability
initiative.”
Enabling full addressability will involve the entire advertising
ecosystem, from marketers and content owners, to measurement companies
and tech providers. Comcast Advertising is spearheading this initiative,
along with Charter and Cox, because addressability begins with the
content distributors.
“It’s the distributors who bring the ads into viewers’ households each
day. It is therefore incumbent upon us to lay the groundwork and set up
the infrastructure to truly ‘turn on’ addressability for the industry in
a way that is secure, scalable and effective,” added Jenckes.
The importance of bringing increased addressability to television
advertising is supported by a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey,
commissioned by Comcast Advertising, showing that 92% of advertisers
agree that enabling greater addressability is very important to the
future of TV advertising. (Advertiser Perceptions, May 2019, 290
advertisers and agencies)
“Advertisers want to use television as a full-funnel solution that
marries the best of traditional television, with increased data-driven
capabilities for targeting and measurement,” said David Kline, Executive
Vice President, Charter Communications and President, Spectrum Reach.
“We look forward to working with Comcast, and the rest of the industry,
to establish best-in-class practices that learn from digital media, yet
maintain the security and brand safety that have long been at the core
of television advertising.”
While the initial focus of On Addressability will be to help
distributors with the “how to” of enabling addressability based on the
collective learnings of Comcast, its European affiliate, Sky Media, and
the other distributors participating in the initiative, other areas of
focus are also planned. These include: working with the industry around
definitions and standards; educating advertisers on the use cases and
value that they can achieve in a fully-activated addressable world; and
finally, for inventory and content owners, identifying best practices
and business standards for transacting on addressable campaigns.
The focus of the initiative was guided, in part, by input from
advertisers and clients. The Advertiser Perceptions research
commissioned by Comcast Advertising showed that advertisers would be
more willing to buy more addressable TV advertising if several key
challenges were addressed, including:
- Better measurement solutions (53%)
- Proof of ROI (51%)
- Easier to buy at scale (48%)
- More addressable inventory availability (34%)
- Agreed upon standards across the industry (34%)
- Better ways to ensure consumer privacy (32%)
- More secure ways to share data (31%)
-
Better understanding of appropriate use cases (29%)
(Source:
Advertiser Perceptions, May 2019, 290 advertisers and agencies. % of
respondents who said selected factor might influence them to buy more
addressable TV.)
“Clients face a common set of challenges to increase addressability to
their TV advertising strategies. As an industry, we must find a common
set of solutions to these challenges in order to offer the scale,
security and ease of buying that today’s advertisers demand,” said Louis
Gump, senior vice president, Cox Media. “We look forward to working with
Comcast, Charter and a growing list of other partners to make this
happen.”
“NCC is speaking to national advertisers who are eager to put
addressable TV to work for their brands. NCC is committed to working
with MVPDs and the broader On Addressability initiative to address and
solve for the roadblocks that have stunted addressability to date,” said
Nicolle Pangis, Chief Executive Officer at NCC Media, which is owned by
Charter, Comcast and Cox.
For more information and to receive updates on the On Addressability
initiative, please visit www.comcastadvertising.com/onaddressability.
About Comcast Advertising
Comcast Advertising, the advertising arm of Comcast Cable, is dedicated
to bringing industry-leading television and video solutions to
marketers. It is comprised of two primary businesses: Comcast Spotlight
and FreeWheel. Comcast Spotlight, www.comcastspotlight.com,
is the advertising sales division that helps put the power of cable to
use for local, regional and national advertisers. FreeWheel, www.freewheel.com,
offers advertising management solutions for “The New TV” ecosystem and
beyond, enabling its diverse client base — comprised of some of the
largest agency, media and entertainment companies — to manage and
maximize value from their TV and premium video media. Comcast Cable,
along with NBCUniversal and Sky, is part of the Comcast Corporation
(Nasdaq:CMCSA). Visit www.comcastadvertising.com
to learn more.
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