Shared garden trumps walled garden: UK broadcasters join forces to tell TV story
With Tuesday’s announcement of a shared self-serve ad marketplace for Channel 4, ITV and Sky, UK broadcasters have made a co-ordinated return to Cannes this week after being absent for a number of years.
At a panel chaired by Thinkbox CEO Lindsey Clay, Channel 4 chief commercial officer Rak Patel, Sky Media UK and Ireland managing director Brett Aumuller, ITV managing director, commercial, Kelly Williams and Disney Advertising EMEA senior vice-president Deborah Armstrong made their case for TV’s role and why collaboration is key.
TV is the “most powerful medium on the planet”, according to Williams. Citing data that suggests the average UK person sees 5,000 ad messages a day and that 99% who see an ad are not in the market at that moment to buy that product or service, advertising is in effect “a competition for memory.”
“We connect emotionally, we do this in a highly trusted environment, we have very high attention metrics,” Williams stressed.
Armstrong, meanwhile, pointed to TV’s high-quality storytelling and, for brands, “being adjacent to that environment is so important” since consumers “intuitively” trust the advertising. This is also because TV is highly regulated, Patel added.
Getting on the front foot
The new TV ad marketplace is the latest example in the increasing collaboration seen in the medium.
Aumuller said: “TV needs to lean in to that space and get on the front foot to do something about it.”
Armstrong called for a need to flip attention back to TV and for the industry to highlight the big storytelling opportunities and also the “incredible” data now available.
“What we need to do collaboratively is to grow the pie for TV, not compete with each other,” she noted.
While Williams called this “radical collaboration,” Patel said simply: “Who needs a walled garden when you can have a shared garden?”
Educating advertisers
A key part of that collaborative play is about highlighting TV’s abilities.
Observing that digital players “have taken over this town” in Cannes, Williams explained how TV has historically been good at measuring output, while digital competitors are measuring outcomes: “As a result, they have taken a lot of the credit of what TV has contributed.”
“TV is also powerful for outcomes,” Aumuller emphasised.
With the upcoming outcomes-based Lantern tool and findings from the “landmark” Profit Ability 2 research, Williams declared: “Our right to win in this market is effectiveness.”
Patel added: “Our job is to educate our partners and advertisers so they’re aware of where we are today and where we want to go tomorrow.”