A tech solution to a media buyer conundrum?

The 21st century media planner faces a raft of taxing questions, but some emerging technologies are about to make their lives much easier, says Yummi’s AJ Simpson.

Media buyers are facing a problem.

Five years ago, 90% of their spend would go on traditional channels and 10% on digital ones. Now, that ratio is probably closer to 50:50. The shift reflects both our changing media consumption and the fact digital advertising offers previously unimagined levels of behaviour data and trackability.

Traditional channels – the X-factor ad break spot and the six-sheet poster people pass on their way to work – builds brand recognition and aspiration. The digital channel then homes in on that desire, often when people are ‘media stacking’ with their smartphone while the TV is on, and leads people to the checkout.

The model is, mostly, slick, effective and provides rich insight to feed back into the media planning machine. So where’s the problem?

Take a traditional advertising staple: the 30-second TV spot. TV advertising has been around for over 70 years, a time span that has allowed it to develop into a multi-billion pound, global machine that everyone in the industry understands inside out. With one creative and one phone call, media planners can get a brand on as many TV channels as they want, pretty much anywhere in the world.

Digital advertising is a completely different beast. Sticking with X-Factor as an example, once the TV spot has been secured, the supporting digital activity will need to stretch across Facebook, Twitter, at least one app (with at least two operating systems) and countless websites – all of which will require separate calls and most of which will require different variations on the core creative.

As well as the extra work and complexity, the planner is faced with an information gap. Nineteenth century retail pioneer John Wanamaker was, famously, vexed by the question: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

The 21st century media planner faces a raft of equally taxing questions. Have enough people seen my ‘big’ traditional aspirational advertising to provide a decent target audience for the digital ads? If not, can this problem be solved by simply increasing the traditional ad spend? If the traditional ad spend eats into the digital spend, am I compromising people’s ability to buy the product in the way they want?

Brands have tried to solve this problem by using codes and other links in their traditional advertising for shoppers to use when they switch to digital. But this requires effort from the consumer and, even if they bother to remember the code, is only likely to be used by a tiny percentage of those presented with the “opportunity to see”.

Better solutions lie in passive advertising technology which has a subtler, less invasive way of attracting consumers’ attention (while retaining trackability) using the environment surrounding them.

The obvious way to do this is via smartphones – the tiny, powerful computers most people carry in their pockets whether they are in a cinema, at a live event, or slumped in front of their TV. I work with a team which has spent the last three years developing app technology that combines a series of component background detection technologies (fingerprinting, image recognition, geo-location and audio watermarking technology) to sync and trigger content without the need for a 3G or internet connection.

And because it’s digital and personalised, brands and creative agencies get a full campaign management system.

Another ‘smart’ route is through Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). If people have their TV supplied via the internet (as supposed to an aerial or dish), the path from passive content consumption to actively seeking out and purchasing a product is concentrated in the same place. Not only that, but IPTV technology allows brands to start tailoring advertising based on what people actually watch.

These technologies are relatively new, but every new smartphone launch and every new upgrade to the broadband network (both in the ground and in the ether) increases their relevance.

And, in turn, makes things easier for media buyers.