MIAMI - Bill Livek has many ways to describe advanced advertising targeting--a train, a steamroller, a big snowball. Whatever the metaphor, it's particularly advanced at the local level, says the President of measurement provider comScore.
"The thing that we're seeing is that advanced targeting is more advanced in local markets," Livek says in an interview with Beet.TV.
In response to a question from interviewer Matt Prohaska, CEO and Principal of Prohaska Consulting, Livek credits local advertising agencies.
"I think that's because the local ad agencies that live in those local markets see that when they make a different decision based on advanced targets, advanced demos, they get better results," Livek says.
Advanced targeting ends up flowing uphill as it becomes "more accepted in the national market," he adds. "As advertisers push for this greater accountability, they can look at how local markets are different."
With the exception of video on demand, a truly census-based viewer measurement system for TV does not exist. "It's massive and passive working with a large number of the multi-platform video programming distributors in satellite, telco and in cable," Livek says.
And while the current system is still dependent upon targeting audiences by age and sex demographics, advanced targeting is gaining headway. This is true not only of high-profit product/service categories but consumer packaged-goods.
"You look at Jimmy Dean sausage and Ball Park franks. You're never going to sell those products to a vegan," Livek says. "They really do transcend age and sex. Picking the right TV shows are important."
So it's too late to "get out of the way of this train of advanced targeting or what I call advanced demographics," says Livek. "We're in this steamroller."
Then he paraphrases "a wise old" man who described how to build a big snowball by first finding a large hill covered with wet snow. "And that's what advanced television is today. We're rolling down a nice hill with wet snow. It's fairly steep. We're early in a mega trend."
This interview was conducted at Beet Retreat 2016: The Transformation of Television Advertising, an executive retreat presented by Videology with AT&T AdWorks and the 605. Please find more videos from the event here.
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