AiThority Interview with Will Keggin, Head of TV at LiveRamp

Will, please tell us about your journey into technology space and how you started at LiveRamp.

I have been working with media and technology for more than 15yrs and have been lucky enough to see the digitisation of Out of Home, TV, and publishing first-hand. Technology has changed the way people engage with media, which has forced the industry to react to the challenges of finding the right person with the right message at the right time. Technology has often found solutions for tackling fragmented ecosystems to plan, activate and measure media investment but not all have respected the privacy of the consumer, or offered a fair value exchange. LiveRamp’s infrastructure makes data safe and easy to use which helps advertisers get closer to their customers, media companies understand the value of their inventory, and consumers get greater choice of media content without compromising their personal data – this is what drew me to LiveRamp.

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How have TV advertising technologies evolved in the last 2-3 years? How do these advancements align with programmatic media planning and supply?

In recent years, big tech companies have had to continually pivot to stay ahead of changing trends and regulation. Privacy is a big part of this, and major emphasis has been placed on policies to ensure consumer protections. On that note, marketers are exploring cookie-free channels of growth that prioritise privacy and transparency.

Connected TV provides a platform for cookieless use of data, that is still incredibly powerful at measurement and provides data for ROI.  The opportunity for broadcasters, marketers, and consumers alike to benefit from this is huge. From a supply perspective, TV players will look to use collaboration to unlock the potential of omnichannel advertising, without ever having to worry about the data “moving.”

Due to the increased consumption of television and the shift towards more integrated internet/TV systems, CTV has emerged as a vehicle for advertising technology to evolve. Considering how recent research suggests that over 77% of brands would like to invest more in CTV advertising in the next year, it’s safe to say that CTV is on the rise in the realm of advertising technologies.

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Tell us more about your TV adtech ecosystem and the partners involved in the tech innovations?

LiveRamp’s ethos is to enable companies and their partners to better collect, connect and collaborate to transform customer experiences and generate more valuable business outcomes. Strong data strategies that prioritise privacy and security for customers, such as LiveRamp Safe Haven, can strengthen businesses’ understanding of their customers, increase customer loyalty, and ensure the recent growth seen in the retail and hospitality sectors is sustained. LiveRamp is partnering with Telco operators, broadcasters, CTV providers along with brands to bring people-based targeting and measurement in a privacy safe and compliant way.

Cookies and TV advertising – are we witnessing TV ad experiences adopting a paradigm shift in the CTV turf?

There is certainly a paradigm shift in the TV ad world where the benefits of CTV are being recognised. In fact 67% of UK advertising professionals think CTV is a more effective ad channel than linear TV, showing the expected growth of CTV beyond traditional linear TV advertising mechanisms.

Trends indicate that CTV advertising is slowly gaining momentum and it will only get stronger now that the end of third-party cookies is drawing near. In fact, the end of third-party cookies gives way for immense opportunities for CTV. By prioritising solutions that don’t rely on device-based IDs, CTV can be used to identify segments that can further bolster the targeting efforts. The landscape of CTV is self-contained, and the data used to target viewers is real-time and deterministic, meaning that it’s based on what audiences are watching on their devices. CTV also has the ability to offer relevant ads through first-party data, meaning brands have safety that their ads will not run alongside compromising content as well as ensuring high quality impressions.

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What are your predictions for the CTV budget for 2022?

Evidence points to CTV budgets increasing in 2022, with CTV expected to explode in the next 12 months. 77% of brands say they would like to invest more in CTV advertising in the next 12 months, due to cost efficiency (52%), the ability to measure and attribute performance (48%), and because it’s effective for brand campaigns and meets campaign goals (38%).

This is also supported by our change in consumption habits, which points to more advertising budgets being funnelled into connected TV.  Ofcom’s 2021 report found that total viewing of audio-visual content increased by 47 minutes to 5 hours 40 minutes per person per day in 2020 relative to 2019. With this expected to rise further in 2022, brands must capitalise on increasing TV viewership to ensure their TV advertising strategies are addressable and targeted.

Thank you, Will! That was fun and we hope to see you back on AiThority.com soon

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]