The Future of Data at Media Companies

Thereamp8217s no question that industry advancements are making it necessary to inspect our research methods and contemplate the role of Big Data at companies It has brought up numerous concerns including What is the right data to have What is the best way to leverage it How should media companies staff for it How should we manage and organize it Where does it fit in with other data sources How do we turn data and insights into actionThese are the same questions our marketing partners have been asking but I want to focus on the media company perspectiveWhen it comes to our industry the myriad of conversations on the topic are missing one important detail the future of data is already here Data has undergone an evolution yes it may be a forced evolution but that doesnamp8217t mean itamp8217s a bad thing In fact as a result of customizable information and the timeshifting and playshifting of mediaamp160consumption the consumer is now in the driveramp8217s seat and there is actually no better time to be a data person The most progressive companies and I am proud to say that iHeartMedia is one of them if not the leader recognize that media companies are data companies and have quietly begun to gather the right data examine the best ways for it to make sense with other sources and most importantly uncover how to turn it into value for their advertising partnersThese companies are embracing the new principles of the brave new world of data which include amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160Creating deep cross company collaboration between insights business intelligence and technical functionsUnderstanding the amp8220opennessamp8221 of data specifically the need to possess your own valuable data as well as strategically tap into a range of other partiesDigitizing broadcast data by using advanced techniques to compile as much knowledge of your broadcast consumer as your digital consumerGetting outside help when needed whether it is hiring consultants or strategic investmentsCommunicating in 21st century appropriate ways by trading in long PowerPoint presentations for realtime dashboards and data visualization to customize your story amp8220in the meetingamp8221And most importantly holding yourself accountable for delivering client resultsAt iHeartMedia weamp8217ve focused on moving away from the flat data sets of the past by applying the principles of digital data to our broadcast entities and creating models that explain to our advertising partners how our research translates to real life In the past year we announced two groundbreaking programs that were the direct result of our goal of bringing the most actionable intelligence to advertisersIn June 2014 we launched AuDiO a firstofitskind radio optimization tool that enables political campaigns to precisely identify the voter segments that are most crucial in key election districts using information from the 245 million monthly listeners of iHeartMediaamp8217s 858 US broadcast radio stations AuDiO addresses a critical need not just for political advertisers but for the radio industry as a wholeAnd this past March we announced the radio industryamp8217s first programmatic realtime ad buying platform which allows iHeartMedia to apply our rich data and insights to the planning process and utilize data sets to enable unique forms of targeting Programmatic the use of technology and audience insights to evaluate buy and run ad campaigns in an automated way is already an important and expected method of ad buying in the digital space Our programmatic platform streamlines the buying process which in turn will allow our clients to focus on capitalizing on radioamp8217s unprecedented 61 ROIThe future of the data and insights shouldnamp8217t cause anxiety instead its progression is one of the most exciting elements of media today amp160As Gayle Fuguitt CEOPresident at ARF noted at their Retailing of the Future event in Bentonville AR data and insights people now have the opportunity to evolve from being the smartest person in the room into the most influential person in the roomThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Media Village management or associated bloggers

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The Future of Data at Media Companies

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Radha Subramanyam

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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