Streaming Media Connect Sneak Preview: Ad Counsel - Delivering Streaming Ads That Convert, With Estrella Media, Vevo, TVREV, Initiative, and Advertiser Perceptions
No other events provide the clarity and information you'll find at Streaming Media conferences. That’s why Streaming Media attracts serious, high-level technology decision makers ready to do business. For more than 20 years, our events have been the No. 1 gathering place for streaming industry professionals. Join us this August 20-22 for the next installment of Streaming Media Connect, a FREE online event.
On Tuesday, August 20, Alan Wolk, Co-Founder/Lead Analyst, TVREV, will moderate the panel “Ad Counsel: Delivering Streaming Ads That Convert.” Advertising on CTV, OTT, and mobile streaming is a red-hot topic these days, in part because even formerly subscription-centric streaming services and platforms are increasingly adjusting their monetization models to build advertising revenue. It’s also because measuring and maximizing advertising in the ecosystem involves elusive art and science.
This session confronts the current challenges (or, some would say, failures) to reliably deliver the right ads to viewers and measurable results to brands and discusses innovative technologies and strategies to make streaming ads perform.
Confirmed panelists include Christina Chung, VP Business Operations, Digital and Streaming Media, Estrella MediaCo, Julie Triolo, SVP of Research & Marketing, Vevo, Erin Firneno, SVP, Business Intelligence, Advertiser Perceptions, and C.J. Leonard, Director, Ad Operations & Technology, Infinitive.
Christina Chung oversees Estrella MediaCo’s digital operating infrastructure, ensuring both process efficiencies and revenue generation effectiveness. She has been instrumental in launching the ad and product tech stack solutions, establishing data-driven business intelligence, and selecting and curating numerous vendor integrations critical for monetizing a rapidly growing multi-platform business.
“One of the biggest issues preventing advertising from being more effective is around content signals. We just are not fully aligned as an industry and easily could agree on standards that work for everyone,” Chung says. “Video supply is fragmented—especially premium inventory. Then combine this with over-zealous hypertargeting to find the perfect match through various means of direct, open market and PMPs and ad frequency is going to rear its head. Sometimes it’s just much better to do less and simplify.”
Regarding whether she believes hybrid streaming monetization models are working, Chung says, “Yes and no. It seems from what we are seeing with big players that the real challenge is around the economics of creating content for new distribution and consumption that is not replacing the value of old media. Adding ads helps but it cannot solve everything.”
Chung will also address the technical challenges to delivering a smooth and reliable streaming ad experience. “We can have a better streaming ad experience tomorrow by delivering more relevant ads with enough variety but this can only happen if there are less walled garden policies and barriers on tech that make it more difficult for publishers matching the right content and viewer to the right advertiser across lots of different endpoints,” she says.
As Vevo’s Senior Vice President of Research & Marketing, Julie Triolo brings together Vevo’s Research, Ad Product, and Media & Distribution Marketing teams, which serve as the backbone of Vevo’s insights-driven go-to-market product executions for partners, brands, and fans.
"In a recent quantitative study we conducted about CTV/streaming behavior, we saw a notable uptick in the consumption of premium ad-supported video content, with 40% of the audience dedicating more time vs. a year ago,” Triolo says. “This has been primarily driven by Gen Z. Given the proliferation of quality content in these ad-supported environments, it’s become clear that streamers can unlock more value to consumers and brands by offering an ad-supported tier. Delivering on a customer at the center strategy not only meets consumers exactly where they are, but provides advertisers the opportunity to meet hard-to-reach audiences in the right place with the right message. While we’ve seen a lot of advancements for campaign effectiveness in the CTV space, there is still opportunity for optimization. For example, consumers inherently expect advertising across the streaming landscape to be digital in nature, such as more personalization and interactivity. Another challenge in the space is frequency capping to ensure the best experience for both audiences and advertisers.
“To sum it up, while the CTV landscape is getting better on the transparency, viewability, and measurement side, there is still work to be done in maximizing the viewer experience with more relevancy and balanced ad exposure.”
Panel moderator Alan Wolk, a much sought-after writer, speaker and consultant, has established himself as one of the M&E industry's most influential thought leaders. By focusing on the intersection of streaming and advertising, Wolk—who coined the acronym FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) and his TVREV colleagues have helped make the firm one of the media industry’s go-to resources as it attempts to process the changes brought about by the shift to streaming. A contributing writer at Forbes, NextTV, StreamTV Insider and other industry news sites, Wolk has been interviewed and quoted by everyone from NPR to The New York Times and is a regular guest on Cheddar TV, offering expert opinion on breaking stories in the media industry.
Panelist C.J. Leonard is Director, Ad Operation & Technology at Infinitive. As a streaming media and convergence consultant, she has extensive expertise in digital ad operations, ad tech, content delivery, and end-to-end monetization tactics. She’s worked across the advertising and content supply chain from Publishers to Advertisers, Content Delivery Systems to all forms of Revenue Generation platforms while at NBC Universal, CBS Local, Allen Media Group, Magnite (Telaria), IRIS.TV, and beyond. She brings a unique blend of innovation, strategy, and practicality.
Panelist Erin Firneno is a published thought leader. She advises leading media companies on important marketing trends and industry dynamics. Erin has extensive experience conducting strategic research on the value and effectiveness of TV and digital media as advertising platforms. Firneno has deep expertise in market research and has led the research work at advertising sales organizations, including The New York Times. At Advertiser Perceptions, Erin is focused on working with clients such as Tubi, The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Roku, and Snapchat.
Register now for Streaming Media Connect 2024!
Related Articles
On Tuesday, August 20, leading streaming consultant Nadine Krefetz will moderate the panel "Hat Trick: Delivering Live-Streaming Experiences That Scale, Perform, and Engage." Live streams at scale offer great payoffs for fans and brands alike for all kinds of events, from sports to concerts and festivals. Effective streams deliver personalised, interactive experiences that traditional broadcasts can't match. A panel of industry experts from DAZN, AWS, B Live, and Infinitive will delve into the ongoing challenges of delivering great streams at scale in 2024.
13 Aug 2024
On Wednesday, August 21, adtech expert Tim Ware will moderate the panel "Over the Hedge: Monetizing CTV and FAST Channels as Walled Gardens Proliferate." The emergence of the smart TV OEM has created increasing opportunities for platform distributors and challenges for content providers as distributors grab greater percentages of inventory and revenue splits to generate greater revenue upside to selling the hardware. How do programmers contend with the high costs of programming that require ad support among the next generation of walled gardens in smart TV OEMs? A panel of industry experts from Samsung, Roku, TVREV, and IAB will discuss these issues in-depth.
06 Aug 2024
Now that FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) has arguably moved past the "landgrab for distribution" phase and matured well beyond its initial preponderance of legacy content, are independent streamers' investments in FAST proving worthwhile? Execs from Crackle, Tastemade, and DangerTV—all members of the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA)—discuss the challenges overcome and the challenges ahead in this discussion with Streaming Made Easy's Marion Ranchet at Streaming Media NYC.
16 Jul 2024
Given that traditional media measurement companies have always underrepresented diverse audiences, minority-owned content companies targeting multicultural audiences face unique challenges in tracking those audiences and leveraging the data to monetise their channels, as Publicis Media EVP Cultural Investment & Innovation Stephen Paez explains in this candid discussion with media universe cartographer Evan Shapiro at Streaming Media NYC.
16 Jul 2024
Arguably, the two biggest challenges in the FAST ecosystem are managing the ad experience and delivering ROI for the brands that support the platform. Experts, from Fremantle's Laura Florence to Fuse Media's Patrick Courtney to Media Cartographer Evan Shapiro, agree that standardising the data they collect and delivering on the promise of programmatic advertising is the key to making it all work. But as this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024 reveals, it's easier said than done.
09 Apr 2024