Analyst Brian Wieser, Fox Network Group President of Ad Revenue Joe Marchese, NBC Universal Chairman of Ad Sales and Client Partnerships Linda Yaccarino and NBCU Media Executive VP for Portfolio Sales and Strategy Mike Rosen. Credit: NBC Universal
“We have a problem. I know it; you know it; we all know it.”
That’s how NBCUniversal’s ad sales chief, Linda Yaccarino, opened an event Tuesday morning that she organized for some of the biggest names in the advertising and media businesses to try to tackle the many issues plaguing the industry.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the “State of the Industry Forum” touched on everything from how to better reach consumers to overcoming measurement hurdles across platforms from television to digital.
“We’re committed to making television smarter,” said Ms. Yaccarino. “That means improving the consumer experience, making marketing more effective and most importantly it means weaning ourselves off a single currency metric and become more committed and focused on addressing real business objectives.”
The event was unique in bringing together rivals from Fox and NBCU, among other media, agency and marketing bigwigs, but it largely served to illuminate the industry’s many challenges, generating more questions than answers.
Advertising and media businesses are looking for new ways to reach and track consumers who are shifting their viewing habits from traditional TV to digital platforms like Netflix, YouTube and Facebook . Ad executives are grappling with challenges in measuring consumer behavior across traditional and digital media platforms, as well as increased ad blocking, viewability and fraud issues.
Earlier this week, Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser cut his forecast for U.S. ad spending to 4.1% this year, slightly below his earlier expectation for 4.4% growth.
During Tuesday’s event, media companies talked about the need to improve the commercial experience, while many brands focused on the opportunities—and challenges—resulting from improved technology.
AdAge reports the talks didn't provide fresh takes. Panelists kicked around the dire need to count viewers no matter where or how they watch, and to improve the TV experience as people increasingly turn to platforms that don't carry ads.
For NBCU's part, Yaccarino said the company will make TV smarter by "improving the consumer experience, making marketing more effective, weaning ourselves off single currency metric and become more committed and focused on addressing real business objectives."
"Who knows, we might even reduce commercial loads across the board," she added. Exactly how the company would do that wasn't discussed. Networks already trying to trim commercial minutes have to convince marketers to pay more for the remaining time if they're going to avoid losing revenue.
Several people who attended said afterward that they don't think anything was achieved.
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