The VAB recommends buyers “update” how premium video campaign audiences are guaranteed. They advise that the new standard should be P2+ effective immediately. LOL ! P2+ ?? ..very funny !! “The move offers a more stable, future-ready foundation that better supports advanced targeting and cross-platform measurement.” Translation: we need more impressions to keep the gravy train rolling.
I’m pretty sure “future ready” means “we’ll figure out if it makes sense later” but “stable” is a poor choice of word. Data provides plenty of stability. What is needed is a bigger pool of humans to drop into larger data buckets to lower CTV”s astoundingly high frequency caps.
What Digicasters miss in their obsession with targeting (or don’t want to admit) is that “traditional” demos were never meant to be dead-on accurate, just close approximations that were good enough because, regardless, the medium was so powerful it almost didn’t matter. False positives (over-delivering), and false negatives (reaching those outside the purchased demo), were part of the deal and reaching a broad swath of in and out of market shoppers helped bring in new customers of all kinds; the opposite of behavioral targeting, it was meant to change behavior. Data targeting is not compatible with this approach and it is limiting to a degree. So, P2+ is the answer.
Then you have a Digiday article conflating said Streaming frequency issues, with Linear TV. “We’ve all had that negative experience of seeing the same ad repeat over and over again in either linear or streaming show”. It’s the same script; everything bad about streaming is somehow also linear TV ‘s problem, and all the benefits of linear are new and improved in streaming…. pay attention.
Frequency is a DV issue folks – That ad fires at YOU, not a broad and random audience as in Linear, which changes with HUT/PUT levels over time. PepsiCo’s Media lead, Caitlin Winsor, goes on to espouse the miracle of controlling frequency by “linking exposure to outcomes” so that “we’re better equipped to calibrate investment.” Ok so why pump $25 Million into the Superbowl this year with Pepsi Zero Sugar, Poppi and Lay’s linear ads… you know, the type that are so far from the sale that attribution is impossible to measure?
It’s just, enough already with talking out of both sides of the mouth and jumbling up what has become a very esoteric and nuanced space. New TV in all it’s various forms including Linear, AVOD/CTV, FAST and DV/OTT all have a sliding scale of benefits and drawbacks that customize to a given campaign. Linear TV does not have frequency issues. Digital Video does. And that’s ok – because there’s other benefits to Digital Video that Linear does not have. There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
