As a platform for brands and advertisers, television remains unbeatable. But, the industry needs to be more agile, collaborative and vocal about its advantages.
“We need to stand up and share our strengths with the market,” said Maxime André, director of marketing, innovation and communication at the M6 agency, in a discussion that kicked off with a debate about confidence in TV.
Estelle Zeitoun, digital and ad sales director at WBD, acknowledged that linear is under pressure but TV remains “the most trusted media in France”. She added: “We have four hours and 30 minutes of video watching, and TV represents 70% of this time.”
Ton Rozestraten, CEO of Ad Alliance Nederland, dismissed the notion of TV lacking confidence, saying: “We can still do the magic for the advertisers to be the brand builders.”
“TV's growing and it's fabulous,” said Deborah Armstrong, Disney’s general manager of media networks and advertising in EMEA. “Linear still has legs in markets like central, eastern and southern Europe.”
Mood for change
And yet, TV must not be complacent. “TV is reinventing itself,” said André. “It’s offering new streaming platforms, with cool features and interactivity. But the way we tell the story has to change – we don’t need to forgive ourselves for being old media.”
There was a mood for change among the panel. “We have to change our technical approach,” said Frank Vogel, managing director of Ad Alliance Germany, the sales house for RTL. “And, in Germany, we have to change the pricing system – we’re spot by spot now but we need to open up more to CPM [cost per thousand].”
André countered: “We thought about CPM but GRP [gross ratings points] is the best indicator to measure audience coverage.”
Mad about measurement
There were differences of opinion about methods of measurement. Rozestraten was outspoken about his frustration with the JICs [Joint Industry Committee] system in the Netherlands.
“I’m not happy with the speed of JICs and we might break away,” said Rozestraten. “Advertisers and agencies are asking for a lot of extra metrics. We’re introducing addressable advertising in Holland and there’s always a difference between the panel and the census data. We would like to introduce it right now, learn from it and adapt. We have to go back to the operators again to ask for the census data.”
Both Zeitoun and André were happy with the French set-up, with Médiamétrie as the independent reference point. “We don’t want to be like the US with its Tower of Babel of currency,” said André.
Zeitoun added: “It’s important to have a single authority.” Everyone agreed that advertisers increasingly want an ‘outcomes-based’ approach to TV measurement.
The collaboration conundrum
Working together is essential and earlier this year in Germany, RTL joined forces with ProSiebenSat to launch an adtech platform. “It took much too long but we have to celebrate,” said Vogel. “It helps the transformation of linear TV towards a digital business. It’s up against the American tech platforms and I think it's more trustworthy for European broadcasters.”
There is desire for a common buying platform but there are doubts about whether it can be achieved. “We can always be better but you can’t forget that TV is a market with competitors,” said André.
“There is real opportunity for us to collaborate,” said Marc Rogers, VP of global partnerships strategy for NBCUniversal. “We feel quite strongly about working together and transforming the way that we go to market. We need to move fast.” NBCU recently launched their own adtech platform, NBCUniversal One Platform.
Stephane Coruble, CEO of RTL AdAlliance, believes there is “more appetite for global, multi-market, multi-regional deals”, to create efficiencies and lower costs.
YouTube if you want to
There is an ongoing tension between traditional broadcasters and streamers with everyone acknowledging that the latter are friends not foes.
Armstrong believes in “the power of partnerships”. She added: “Partnerships are fundamental to growing the pie. We believe in the vibrancy of local ecosystems.” That might mean licencing, franchising or co-creation.
YouTube cannot be ignored but the question is what sort of relationship do broadcasters have with the streaming giant. For the behemoths such as Disney and NBCUniversal, YouTube offers a route to a new audience. Others are more circumspect.
“Overall, we’re leaning in,” said Rogers, citing a partnership with YouTube creators utilising NBCU’s media rights for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. “That is a tremendously valuable association.”
For Armstrong’s Disney, it’s a “fantastic promotional tool” because “our fans want to consume our content in many different ways. The reality is we do what works best at any particular instance for what we're trying to achieve.” She acknowledged that the top dollar is earned for premium content on a trusted platform (ie: Disney).
“It’s a good way of connecting with your audience,” said Coruble, “but from a sales perspective, it’s very hard to do good business with YouTube and Google.”
Mollier agreed that YouTube, and social media more generally, is a useful way to “tease” potential new subscribers for a pay TV company such as Canal+ but it’s hard to monetise because of the low cost of youTube ads.
The panelists
Panel one: Maxime André, director of marketing, innovation and communication at the M6 agency; Estelle Zeitoun, digital and ad sales director at WBD; Ton Rozestraten, CEO of Ad Alliance Nederland; Frank Vogel, managing director of Ad Alliance Germany, the sales house for RTL.
Panel two: Deborah Armstrong, Disney’s general manager of media networks and advertising in EMEA; Fabrice Mollier, president of Canal+ brand solutions; Marc Rogers, VP of global partnerships strategy for NBCUniversal; Stephane Coruble, CEO of RTL AdAlliance
