We’ve got the data. Now what?

The volume of TV audience data now available is growing extremely fast, but advertisers and broadcasters are still struggling to utilise it effectively. Why? Sky IQ’s head of strategy and propositions, Liam Plowman, investigates.

Gathering audience insight has become standard practice for just about every agency and consumer brand today. Advertisers and broadcasters are all aware of the value to be gained in having detailed insight on their customers.

That’s not to say that the job is done when it comes to maximising the value of that data. While businesses have never been more aware of the positive impact that customer insight can bring them, the challenges they face have evolved. The issue many companies now face is at the “smart application” end of the scale; how to put the data they’ve gathered to good use.

This was a hot topic of discussion at the recent Connected Consumer event at Nomura, which I spoke at, and it was an appropriate stage for that debate. The growing number of connected devices that we own – from mobiles to tablets – is fundamentally changing the way we behave when it comes to content consumption.

The connected consumer wants to access content across a growing spectrum of devices, how and when they want. It’s up to content providers to meet that need.

Addressing that challenge is increasingly dependent on the ability to connect multiple datasets. There have never been more “jumping off” points for a consumer on the content continuum. That doesn’t mean that they’re tuning out of what they’ve been watching, just that they may choose to consume it in a different way.

Truly understanding that behaviour means matching up a consumer’s behaviour right across the spectrum, linking it up and distinguishing which media activity is going to be the most relevant and effective.

On stage at Connected Consumer, companies such as Rovi pointed towards the consumer benefits of using data insights correctly. From helping viewers discover more digital content based on previous shows watched, to music lovers being recommended songs of a similar tempo, content consumption and recommendation is becoming increasingly personal.

We’re very rapidly approaching the point at which the same can be achieved in advertising. We already have the ability to geotarget ads, and to serve up ad content based on a consumer’s gender, age and content preferences. That will only become more sophisticated as time goes by.

For broadcasters and advertisers in particular the benefits of data are vast – and in many cases still relatively untapped. With the ability to analyse the plethora of datasets at their fingertips organisations can understand their audiences better; so while broadcasters can offer trailers for relevant programmes they know the household is interested in, advertisers can address a specific customer segment at a time that will result in the biggest ROI for them.

So, what is standing in the way for those companies who have so far been unable to effectively utilise data analysis? For many, there are two big obstacles.

The first of those is all to do with the challenge of connecting disparate datasets. Take Sky as an example: 4.4 million Sky homes now enjoy On Demand services on their TVs. More than one million of those connected their Sky+HD boxes to broadband in the last three months of 2013 alone. Meanwhile, Sky Go viewing requests grew to 750 million, up over 25% on 2012.

In total, Sky customers requested 1.2 billion shows and films through our connected services in 2013, all of which goes to show the scale of the challenge when trying to marry up some of those datasets. And this, of course, is Sky data alone.

The second challenge relates to measurement. It’s a perennial issue, but it is absolutely vital, too. Connecting all of the data together only takes you part of the way; the real victories come from turning that data into insight. That’s how you make better decisions about your advertising and prove success.

This is where I think the greatest wins will come in the next few years, but I think it’s also the area in which the most progress needs to be made. We’re still some way off having an agreed standard for connected media metrics, and that makes it difficult to truly measure ROI. TV advertising “works” – that’s well established; but the industry as a whole needs to get better at showing how, and why.

While this isn’t necessarily new, it is continuing to grow in urgency and significance. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the investment broadcasters and media owners are making in delivering content over connected platforms. In the TV industry, it is clear that co-operation between the broadcasters that run channels, the brands that advertise on them and the technology platforms that bring them together will be vital in order to see measurable results.

For instance, broadcasters and advertisers can see how audiences are interacting with a TV show or consumers are engaging with their brand on social media, where they can interact with them in real time. What they lack often is the ability to take this information and find out how viewing is driving social engagement or vice versa, and the subsequent effects on purchase behaviours.

Brands and broadcasters that invest not only in data collection, but also in understanding the metrics that unify data sets to explain consumer behaviours, are likely to find themselves pulling away from the competition.

The good news is that the industry isn’t burying its head in the sand over this. And certainly our recent Ad Science study revealed that media agency professionals have a ferocious appetite for better measurement. 85% of respondents thought that data was becoming more important to their world, underpinning the planning of campaigns and the measurement of success.

Additionally, 59% thought that data could better help track their client’s real business KPIs, which in turn suggests that mapping media activity to subsequent consumer actions (e.g. purchase) from a single source is of growing importance.

The need to measure and link content consumption has undoubtedly created a new set of challenges. However this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour is unlikely to remain untapped for long.