Scott Ferber of Videology on Cross Screen Planning, Buying and More

In this interview Ferber talks about his role in the company, metrics, partnerships, global differences and challenges in the digital space. He also looks ahead to the next three to five years to predict how the video landscape will change.

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about your current job and your company.

Scott Ferber: Videology is a software provider that helps brand advertisers, agencies and media companies drive better results through cross-screen planning, buying and measurement.

CW: What type of metrics do you use?

SF: We are integrated with over 40 third party data providers such as Nielsen, Oracle, Adobe, comScore, Experian, Axciom, BlueKai, JD Power, Rentrak and Kantar Shopcom, so the range of measurement that we offer our users is broad and aligns with their overall goals.  That said, increasingly advertisers are interested in measuring for actual brand metrics ranging from brand awareness to whether a campaign actually moved product off the shelves.  Much of our innovation is focused on measuring that type of ROI.

CW: With whom do you partner?

SF: We are a huge systems integrator. On a high level, we provide software used by advertisers, agencies and media companies to create and measure effective ad campaigns that sell more product with greater efficiency. We count some of the largest media agencies, global brands and media companies as our partners and clients.

CW: Do you include radio, out of home and print in your cross media system?

SF: Currently we are focused on television and video.  However, our software can work with any media that can be measured through digital distribution channels. For instance, we can measure digital radio but not terrestrial radio. Outdoor video is also of growing importance and we can include that. And of course we include digital print publications.

CW: What is your cross platform unifying metric?

SF: There is a debate going on right now about the best measurement for digital cross-screen viewing.  Some believe the solution lies with a more digitally-influenced metric, others believe it should be a more traditional TV ratings metric. What everyone does agree upon however is the need for a unifying metric.  One example of how Videology is helping to solve for that is with a direct integration with Nielsen which allows us to tie television viewing behavior to online viewing behavior.  Ultimately, in many ad categories, we are then able to help our users drive campaign results by correlating ad exposure to cross-screen return on investment (ROI) and offline sales. This type of closed-loop, cross-screen measurement is the end goal that most advertisers are looking for.

CW: What are the challenges to your business and how can you overcome them?

SF: One of the primary factors holding back convergence is legacy systems which were not built for a cross-platform world. The hard part is to bridge the old and the new worlds. To do this, we need to unify legacy technology systems, be respectful of current business models and workflows and ensure the fluidity of data across digital and linear video channels, as well as between targeting parameters on the front end and measurement metrics on the back end.

CW: Give me some predictions of how the media landscape will look in the next three to five years.

SF: Right now about 7% of the total video ad marketplace -- including TV -- is automated and data-driven.  Within the next 3-5 years that will increase to around 50%.  Keep in mind that automation and data do not equate to “biddable” which only comprises about 1% of the total video marketplace today and will likely remain less than 10%.  So this means that the majority of growth will come from bringing automation and data to traditional television workflows which are primarily focused on scheduled inventory purchased in an upfront, reserved manner, not from real-time bidding.

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