It’s Time to Trust the Video Everywhere Environment: Q&A with Josh Speyer, AerServ

Speaking to ExchangeWire, Josh Speyer (pictured below), CEO, AerServ, discusses the changes mobile publishers can focus on to make it easier for TV dollars to move into the channel, and what traditional TV media buyers need in order to feel more receptive to embracing mobile video.

ExchangeWire: Mobile advertising has been one of the top reasons for expanded digital video budgets. What kinds of systems and processes are TV media buyers using now that can be potential challenges (and opportunities) for transitioning to mobile?

Josh Speyer: It’s pretty amazing that, since 2015, IAB’s latest video study forecasts 67% growth in digital/mobile video. For TV media buyers, this climate offers the perfect time to capture creative new opportunities to reach consumers and take advantage of capabilities unique to mobile such as location-based intelligence. But we’re at a point where neither the required mindset shift nor the skillsets have caught up with mobile innovation yet.

Mediaocean, Strata, and Core are the three primary buying platforms used by broadcast media buying teams for order entry and invoicing. While they’ve served their respective purposes well for traditional TV buys, taking advantage of mobile demands that leverage these platforms with partners like AerServ helps extend the brand’s footprint into this new channel.

This transition can seem like a daunting challenge to traditional broadcast media buyers and there is an essential learning curve to overcome. However, with the continued erosion of linear TV viewing audiences, and traditional broadcast media buys underperforming, our more progressive clients are supplementing underperforming broadcast media buys with mobile video audience extension.

How long do you think it will take for the industry to develop the infrastructure/pipes for traditional TV dollars to easily flow through mobile? What kind of approach does the industry need to take in order to facilitate this transition?

I think the infrastructure/pipes are largely in place today to enable TV media buyers since we are seeing traditional TV dollars increasingly flow to mobile right now.

We see the primary challenge to accelerating this transition as no longer a technological one; rather, the value, power, and performance of mobile video must be evangelised. We need ad agencies and media buyers to educate and embolden their clients to trust the new 'video everywhere' environment. For example, some progressive agencies are training their teams to better understand value of mobile video and how they can leverage this new format’s competitive advantages to achieve their clients objectives.

In addition, success metrics need to become integrated into every conversation, panel, and presentation going forward. The power of mobile video is the ability to provide insights, tracking and transparency simply not possible with linear TV.

Finally, habits are powerful, but an open-minded approach to what can be better will help agencies serve their clients best, and clients achieve their outcomes.

What does AerServ do, and how are you in a position to help mobile publishers help TV media buyers?

AerServ is the leading inventory and audience-management technology for mobile publishers and advertisers. Premium app publishers use our SDK to render targeted mobile videos ads quickly and seamlessly. Our technology and unmatched scale across more than 1,000 publishers. Our publisher direct inventory allows broadcast media buyers to supplement their buys with highly viewable, guaranteed inventory to reach their target audience whenever and wherever a user chooses to engage with an app on their mobile device.

We’re constantly launching new products and partnering with best-of-breed solutions to add value to our customers. For example, we most recently announced a product called DataServ to open up mobile data as a new revenue stream for publishers and partnered with Strata to make our mobile video ad inventory available through their media buying software. These and other forthcoming innovations make us especially well-positioned to pave the path forward for both mobile publishers and TV media buyers.

In working with more than 1,000 mobile publishers, what are some specific key areas they should focus on to help TV media buyers accomplish their goals?

Mobile publishers should focus on three key areas: making it easy for TV buyers to access engaging mobile video formats, ensuring high-quality, brand-safe inventory, and providing robust mobile measurement. The key to coaxing TV media buyers will be to lead them one step at a time, allaying their concerns at every step.

To start, publishers should adopt standard video units such as full-screen video. Most agencies look for full-screen video units that play across the entirety of the mobile device. Publishers looking to get started install the AerServ SDK which offers better audience targeting, viewability metrics, ad delivery, and a better, faster user experience.

Is there a learning curve for TV buyers? What are some of the steps the industry needs to do to support and encourage this change?

There is a learning curve for traditional broadcast media buyers that are new to digital; however, the inclusion of AerServ mobile inventory embedded in the existing market-leading buying systems like MediaOcean and Strata, flattens much of that curve as buyers are able to buy an alternative, entirely new format within the familiar and well-understood systems they continue to use today.

More progressive buyers and industry participants can work with trusted partners like AerServ to help leverage their familiarity with the existing technology to buy something entirely new, and take advantage of the opportunity.

Attribution and ROI is always key to adopting change, what do you think is working currently, and what still needs work for more ad dollars to continue the switch to mobile advertising?

First and foremost, advertisers and their agents must press for better targeting, transparency and, ultimately, attributive proof of ROI for every ad dollar. Brands and agencies have the power to move the market and unlock the flow of traditional dollars, which are unspecific and un-trackable to specific and trackable in the mobile market.

Habit, fear, and inertia are reasons that the transition is not happening more quickly, but thankfully brands and agencies keep pushing hard for efficiency and attribution, as well as branding in their media mix. The opportunity to use existing platforms to purchase exciting new inventory that provides attribution is extremely compelling. I’m thrilled to see progress made to date, and expect that more ad dollars from traditional TV as well as other traditional formats will continue to flow into mobile as consumers shift from less sedentary to more mobile behaviours.