Turner, together with Fox and Viacom, announced OpenAP, an advanced audience platform that brings a digital buying mindset to television. Its goal is to simplify audience buying for brands, while utilizing a third-party auditor in Accenture.
For Turner, this launch was the culmination of years of work in advanced advertising and further positioned the company as a leader determined to drive strong outcomes for brands. Donna Speciale, president of Turner Ad Sales, shares what this all means for the future of advertising.
Q: Was that the goal of OpenAP – to simplify audience targeting?
A: Yes. The clients asked us to come together. They needed it to be scalable. We can’t revolutionize advertising if we are all working in silos. We needed partners like Fox and Viacom to raise their hands and understand that when this is successful, we and our partners win. Television is a platform—we all own just a piece of it. And it doesn’t stop here. Client input will continue to inform our capabilities and decision-making. It is crucial in the evolution of platforms like OpenAP.
Q: Earlier this month, Procter & Gamble’s Marc Pritchard spoke at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference about the importance of one-to-one marketing, at scale. If this topic is resonating with marketers, why are some hesitant to come on board with audience buying?
A: The why is complex. It’s having more leaders like Marc step forward and push for this level of connection and innovation. And the marketers need to prepare by deepening their understanding of their own target segments, building out the right systems to inform these types of buys, and providing agencies the greenlight to make it happen. At Turner, we need to share more of the ROI wins to better educate the community. We already transformed our entire framework. The people, technology and the systems needed to be overhauled. We invested in that process and have seen huge amounts of value. And through it all, we’ve learned through testing and have since simplified the process for our partners.
Donna Speciale. Change Now or Get Left Behind. AdAge.