Viacom's Bryson Gordon on Transforming the Television Business

Gordon39s first job out of college was for a computer security company amp160quotWe were the first to do software as a service SAAS before it was even called software as a servicequot he says amp160quotWe fundamentally changed the business model for that industryquot amp160Then at Microsoft where Gordon held a variety of roles he spent years growing the company39s directtoconsumer business amp160quotIt was a fundamental shift in how it took its product to marketquot he notes amp160Now at Viacom he has found his calling amp160quotHere I have the opportunity to work with an amazing set of people and transform the television business I love thatquotI sat down with Gordon to find out more about how he will transform televisionCharlene Weisler amp160Give me a short overview of your department initiatives Bryson Gordon amp160When we first started Vantage Viacom39s datadriven and predictive ad solution for advertisers it was very much about developing ad capabilities that focused on targeting measurement attribution advanced audience modeling etc amp160I asked myself this question 39What is going to feel different39amp160 Not just some corporate mandate but when do we start to think about the North Star of the organization amp160What will feel different about our capabilities and where we are going in this new advanced advertising organization amp160The fundamental pivot is to shift from capabilities to the customer experience of advertising amp160Customer experience is a loaded term amp160But when we think about Viacom creating new formats and ad experiences across platformsamp160we ask 39Who are the specific audiences that really drive impact What can we do as an organization of data scientists information specialists researchers and product development people to fundamentally evolve the customer experience with advertising so that it is incredible for our customers and for our partners39Charlene amp160How will you achieve thatBrysonamp160 Our team has historically been made up of product managers and data scientists amp160Now the team spans product management data science developers and designers people who are specialists in the launch of multiplatform environments where content ends up the social and digital environment amp160Then we focus on creating not just traditional advertising but also branded marketing content to create the optimal advertising and marketing experiences for our fans in that environment Thenamp160we ask ourselves what we can do to actually orchestrate that in a very thoughtful and methodical way around advanced audience targets that we develop within the organizationCharlene amp160How will your work influence or impact OpenAPBryson amp160OpenAP is foundational to what we are doing within advanced advertising amp160The focus that Sean Moran Head of Sales at Viacom has given us is the opportunity to go across all the different ad formats amp160from digital to social to linear television to OTT to addressable television amp160in our portfolio amp160As we continue to evolve with OpenAP which launches in the fall we are taking this notion of consistent advanced audience targeting beyond just the traditional linear television screen into the multiplatform environmentCharlene amp160What are the overall goals that you want to achieve now and over the next three yearsBryson amp160I start from the position of the customer amp160My odd principle that has stuck with me over the years is Revenue is a byproduct of great customer experience amp160It is simple but if we use that as a lens through which to assess the set of investments we make in the advanced advertising organization it gives us tremendous focus amp160It helps us understand what we need to do to make the ad experience in traditional linear television even better amp160How do we do that through better targeting and through better formats amp160We think about the customer journey in Viacom content that cuts across platforms amp160What can we do not just to connect but to actually orchestrate that amp160That is the thing that a year from now I would like to look back and say was the fundamental thing I wanted to achieve and that I did indeed achieve itCharlene amp160Are you developing attribution models to help you do thatBryson amp160We have been developing attribution models for a couple of years amp160Interestingly our ability to drive precise measurement against advanced advertising on television and across multiple channels has facilitated scaling adoption of this new currency of TV amp160An example amp160for a large automotive client who has done a number of campaigns with us we have that ability to take their target connect that target back to an addressable set top box connect that to mobile phone Geo location dataamp160and actually show them not only the physical list of people going to the auto dealership in a specific window after the campaign but also show them which specific dealers have the best local marketing investment on top of the national spend that was driving the highest lift for their specific regionCharlene amp160Can you influence the ad market with your work Bryson amp160I do because I have already seen that with the reception of Vantage and OpenAPamp160 We continue to see significant yeartoyear growth in both the number of advertisers who are adopting advanced currencies and the amount of dollars flowing through advanced advertising currenciesCharlene amp160Your team comes from many different areas amp160How do you get them to strategize togetherBryson amp160I deliberately try to not place them together amp160One of the things we found that is super interesting is that I have hired a lot of people who don39t know anything about television amp160I hired a PhD in neuroscience from Toronto whose PhD was about how deep memories get formed in the brain amp160He doesn39t know the first thing about GRPs or Nielsen demos amp160What he does know is how you actually influence people and how you drive deep persuadeability amp160We have people who bring perspective and expertise to our team that doesn39t look anything like the TV industry looked like over the past 20 years amp160It makes for an environment where we can have hackathonstyle meetings and have people from industry academia science economics andamp160anthropology mixed with people with deep expertise in television amp160Great things happenCharlene amp160How are you measuring results for advertisers and campaignsBryson amp160There is a lot of customization depending on who is behind it and what the campaign is amp160One of the first conversations we have with an advertiser is What are the KPIs that are important to you amp160Do you want to see a higher density of people within the segment amp160Do you want to see more deduplicated reach within a segment amp160Do you want to measure physical lift to a restaurant auto dealership or a retailer amp160We give them all of the normal measurements such as impressions delivered against your custom audience but we also do a lot of custom reporting for clients depending on what they are trying to achieve amp160These buys are guaranteed as a currency with intarget delivery amp160It makes people really comfortableClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Viacom's Bryson Gordon on Transforming the Television Business

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Charlene Weisler

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