Why ‘Searchable TV’ May Be In Your Company’s Future

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LAS VEGAS — Of the thousands of individuals enjoying libations at the Wynn Hotel, schmoozing with the suits at a C-Suite-friendly cocktail party, or busily chatting with attendees from their exhibitor booths at the recent 2017 NAB Show, an innovator and pioneer in decision studies from Philadelphia may be one of the key people TV industry decision-makers may wish to know.


He’s also happens to be a Database Marketing adjunct professor at Villanova University … where’s he also the Assistant Men’s LaCrosse Coach. This individual is also on the Forbes Technology Council.

What’s his story? His company, iQ Media, can offer a TV station “real-time access to both paid and earned media.”

Over the cacophony of conversation at the Wynn, company founder John Derham shared some of the key reasons why he’s seeking meetings with the TV industry’s biggest players.

“We’re offering actionable, real-time ROI visibility across TV, digital and social,” says Derham.

In short, iQ Media’s calling card is combining internet-based search with TV programming.

How? It’s all about the logos.

Think of a logo seen on the ice during a NHL telecast, or a logo shown during a prime-time scripted or non-scripted series, thanks perhaps to a product placement accord.

This was originally designed to drive awareness, sales, and ROI for venue attendees. That’s because there wasn’t an accurate metric that could tie TV viewers to the brand logos seen during a telecast, and then tie that to sales in that viewer’s geographic zone.

Now, there is.

And, it appears companies such as iQ Media are challenging the established audience measurement providers by eliminating “lagging 30, 60 or 90-day turnaround times for TV data” by promising to give clients a clear view of how their audience reacts to a TV spot within minutes.

Derham says the iQ Media platform that offers such in-home measurement of tele-viewed logos was built six years ago.

At present, iQ Media has 450 clients. Some are broadcasters, some are the brands, and some are government accounts.

“All are educating themselves over what is above and beyond the audience numbers,” Derham says.

 

On Monday afternoon (5/15) at the Beacon Theater in New York, FOX held its 2017-2018 Upfront presentation. Among the big shows for the Fox network, once again, is Empire. 

Airing Wednesdays at 8pm Eastern, the show has teamed with Pepsi-Cola by embedding logo visibility and product placement into the storyline.

It’s similar to the now-concluded NBC series Heroes, which featured a key character insisting on driving a Nissan Versa because he saw it in a vision.

Companies such as Kantar Media, Derham says, focus on the paid ad slots.

That’s why he built an in-house system at iQ that has become a database of searchable content.

“We wanted to take the technology and also help all 216 DMAs, not just national,” he explains. “We are capturing content, and indexing it.”

Clients can look at their own brands and their competitors, Derham adds. This eliminates the need for a post-log.

One of the key takeaways from the Fox upfront, as reported by Cynopsis, is that the Fox Networks Group is abandoning standard commercials for digital and on-demand content. Instead, Fox will pitch advertisers exclusive sponsorship of on-demand streams and “sequenced creative executions through shows that are streamed.”

Why? Fox hopes to “bring better attention and focus” to ads appearing in digital streams.

Such a pronouncement puts companies like iQ Media front-and-center in the shift to “over-the-top” (OTT) platforms.

At iQ Media, the SQAD dynamic software and data set for advertisers, agencies, and brands is a partner, as is Nielsen. What Derham’s team does is takes their data, and interprets it.

 

“Big broadcasters and cable companies use our data to feed into their platforms,” he says. “Buyers can look at where the client is spending in that market, and address what is happening with local avails.”

Also presenting on Monday during Upfront Week was NBCUniversal Hispanic network Telemundo, which closed the evening with a private concert from Enrique Iglesias.

“We’re helping Telemundo with programmatic digital buys,” Derham notes.

The goal, he adds, is to reinforce the digital spend as it is tied to TV.

“When a commercial comes on, we reinforce this with a target approach,” he says.

The result: Clients can see their competitors being viewed on TV, and they can then counter it with a digital buy, if they choose.

That’s not to suggest this technology is designed to further hasten a transition of dollars to digital media from traditional media such as TV.

John Derham, founder, iQ Media

“TV is still robust,” Derham notes. “Yet, ad agencies and brands are slowly moving away from the Upfronts. The move is not dramatic, but it is happening in significant strides.”

In fact, Derham envisions a not-so-distant future where 100% of ad spend will be programmatic.

Getting there is the key.

 

“Inventory in the local markets is flying without a net,” Derham believes. “With a combination of paid versus earned media across news, commercials, shows, and live events, we can show the brands where the exposure is.”

Yes, the news is now a monetization opportunity for CMOs and brand managers. Of course, there are issues. Let’s say there’s a hold-up at a donut shop with a national brand footprint. Yes, the logo of the donut shop is seen, but is it recalled in a negative or positive way?

That’s yet to be hashed out. The key is register receipts: If there’s a boost in sales following the news report, perhaps the logo’s visibility had a positive outcome.

Therein lies the key selling point for iQ Media: Any visibility is good visibility, and now it can be accurately measured and monetized.

The next step for iQ Media is building its own visibility.

Derham says, “We don’t come from the media space. Thus, we aren’t very well known. But, our value proposition is simple. We’re bringing a layer of insights and data that hasn’t been there before, and we need the environment of TV to start thinking differently.”

He also wants ad agencies involved in the process, so they can be in sync with the brand manager and CMO.

But, most importantly, the big sell requires a big win with the big broadcasting and cable groups.

“We like working with the big broadcasting groups and we like working with the cable companies … Their calculations of ROI are very different.”

Derham hopes a little iQ boost will help expand their ways to build their return on investment.

RBR+TVBR TECH


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