When It Comes to Currency, A+E Networks Is Leaning Into a Flexible Future

For its part in this matrixedcurrency future AE Networks is expanding on its business outcome guarantees to advertisers and offering them a unique opportunity to better understand alternative currency measurement The omnichannel media powerhouse believes that as the consumer enjoys unlimited choice so should marketers quotWe39re not in the business of forcing anyone39s hand down one path or another We are learning today so we will have smarter deals and transactions for tomorrow next year and the year after thatquot explains Roseann Montenes AE Networks39 Head of Strategic Audience Solutions and Alternative Currency MeasurementThe effort is in part a response to quotchallenges to not having optionality in the marketplacequot adds Suzanne Persechino Senior Vice President of Ad Sales Research quotThere are a lot of different individual solutions but they lack scale or they lack competitive benchmarks amp8230 but at the heart of it really is just a desire for innovation for both the buy and the sell side of the business That optionality is something that I think we can all agree is good for the marketplacequotThe freeflowing exchange between Montenes and Persechino is a window into the lockstep relationship AE Networks has cultivated between sales and research operations in solving the currency question Where methodology matters on one end activation matters on the other and the programmer has astutely aligned its executives for the challenge Persechino points out that having quotinteroperability among all the different parts of the business that are going to transact or use this data from an enterprise perspectivequot requires a quotcertain level of checks and balancesquot and quotexecutive supportquotThe task is admittedly daunting Consider the upheaval involved when the adsupported media industry pivoted from Nielsen39s average minute audience to average commercial minute audience 3 days C3 in 2007 The waters being tread today are exponentially more complicated involving not just variations in metrics or vendors based on platforms different industry standards for analog vs digital but competitive suitors within the same platforms Nielsen Comscore iSpot Samba etc The traditional questions about accuracy representativeness and universality are now being considered alongside the concerns of a bigdata enabled world namely technology ampamp infrastructure interoperability privacy transparency governance and transaction flexibility and crossplatform measurement integration and stewardship The challenges are considerable enough to invoke paralysis and stasisWhile other publishers and programmers are quickly making commitments and headlines AE Networks sees it differently preferring depth over primacy It39s not so much about the quotwhatquot or the quotwhoquot they partner with as it is the quotwhyquot With a remit of driving business outcomes for marketers the programmer is laserfocused on pinpointing the value of alternative currencies for individual clients in the contexts that are most meaningful for them quotWe are really trying to get deep into the facts behind the measurementquot Montenes explains quotThere are different values and there are different pieces to that puzzle that just won39t fit together and make sense We39re trying to explain that and be educators in the market for our clientsquotThe key according to Montenes is flexibility quotWe39re not going to force a client into any particular directionquot she saysGoing into the 2024 Upfront AE Networks will be launching a clientfirst flexible approach to testing and learning with various forms of currency To date clients can activate with AE against iSpot VideoAMP Nielsen BDS and Comscore The expectation is that alternative currency reads will be made available on a casebycase basis depending on strategic goals Persechino39s team will be charged with pressuretesting capabilities and designing consistent measurement solutions regardless of how impressions may be quotgradedquotUltimately the programmer believes that with the gift of time testing and collaboration a large pool of solutions will eventually yield to a smaller subset of consistent dependable options Marketers in the automotive retail and QSR categories have already begun leaning into currency conversations with the AE teamsIn the notsodistant future it39s possible that advertisers and their agencies will be specifying their preferred currency solutions in much the same way they39ve delineated their content preferences AE Networks is building for such an inevitability quotWe39re ready to meet the momentquot says PersechinoThe new thrust in currency conversations is about pioneering flexible innovative and sound currency solutions for its advertising clients Although challenging Montenes sees no reason why they won39t continue to be a quotonestop shop to get marketer deals donequotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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When It Comes to Currency, A+E Networks Is Leaning Into a Flexible Future

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Stacey Lynn Schulman

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When It Comes to Currency, A+E Networks Is Leaning Into a Flexible Future

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