The Rise Of Linear Streaming & What It Means

Summary

MarTech Podcast™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth Episode: The Rise Of Linear Streaming & What It Means Release Date: December 23, 2024 Host: Benjamin Shapiro Guest: Angelina Marmorado, Associate Vice President of North America at Lemma

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the MarTech Podcast™, host Benjamin Shapiro engages in a compelling conversation with Angelina Marmorado, the Associate Vice President of North America at Lemma. The discussion delves deep into the evolving landscape of media streaming, particularly focusing on the rise of linear streaming and the dominance of programmatic media buying. Angelina brings a wealth of experience from her decade-long career in digital advertising, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the current trends and future directions in marketing technology.

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Understanding Linear Streaming

Defining Linear Streaming

The conversation kicks off with Benjamin grappling with the concept of linear streaming. He describes linear TV as the traditional experience where content plays live, akin to channels on a cable setup, and contrasts it with streaming services like Netflix that require active selection of content.

Benjamin Shapiro [04:03]: "What is linear streaming? I think of linear TV specifically being like I turn on the boob tube and there's a channel that's on and then streaming is like I go to Netflix and I have to decide what I want to watch."

Angelina's Explanation

Angelina clarifies that linear streaming merges the traditional linear TV experience with digital streaming capabilities. She explains that while the viewer experience remains similar—turning on the TV to find channels playing live content—the delivery mechanism is through connected TVs and streaming services.

Angelina Marmorado [04:03]: "We've started to kind of classify broadcasting cable together into linear. What makes it interesting, a little tricky though is that there's a new phenomenon to where digital television, what we overarchingly refer to as streaming, now has a linear experience as well."

She introduces the term FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV), highlighting services like Samsung TV Plus, which offer a linear viewing experience without the cost, further blurring the lines between traditional TV and streaming platforms.

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Marketing Mythbusters: Tracking Conversions in Linear and Streaming TV

Challenging Common Beliefs

Benjamin raises a critical point about the perceived limitations of linear and streaming TV in tracking conversions. He contrasts traditional linear TV's broad reach and limited tracking capabilities with streaming TV's ability to target and measure specific audience interactions.

Benjamin Shapiro [06:03]: "Bust the myth here that you can't use any sort of linear or streaming television to actually track the conversions."

Angelina's Rebuttal

Angelina assures that tracking conversions on linear and streaming TV is indeed possible, albeit different from web-based tracking. She explains the reliance on ID graphs and IP addresses for data collection and targeting, enabling marketers to perform detailed audience segmentation and retargeting.

Angelina Marmorado [06:56]: "It's all based on ID graphs that are built around IP addresses, which is what your TV is getting the connected TV data from and any of the content that comes on your screen."

She emphasizes that the ecosystem for connected TV (CTV) is inherently built on programmatic principles, facilitating sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities similar to digital platforms.

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Programmatic Media Buying: Dominance and Strategy

The Power of Programmatic

Benjamin expresses his initial confusion about programmatic buying, highlighting its complexity involving real-time bidding, supply and demand sides, and various technical components. Angelina acknowledges this complexity but underscores the critical role programmatic plays in modern CTV advertising.

Angelina Marmorado [08:18]: "CTV really was built on Programmatic in a way that the web wasn't."

Strategic Allocation of Marketing Budget

Transitioning to practical applications, Benjamin poses a scenario where a mid-market company with some brand recognition must decide how to allocate its marketing budget amidst rising costs in platforms like Google AdWords and social media.

Benjamin Shapiro [09:15]: "Should I be focused on going towards television and doing more media buying with the same creative that I have, or should I be looking to diversify?"

Full Funnel Marketing Approach

Angelina advocates for a full funnel marketing strategy, which balances brand awareness with direct response targeting. She explains how CTV enables this by allowing broad-based campaigns to raise awareness and then leveraging programmatic data to retarget engaged audiences with more specific messages.

Angelina Marmorado [09:41]: "What’s cool about the way that CTV works today is you can accomplish both of those things."

This dual approach ensures that brands can both reach a wide audience and engage individuals based on their interactions and behaviors, optimizing the effectiveness of their marketing spend.

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Implementing Effective Tracking Infrastructure

Setting Up for Success

Benjamin highlights the importance of robust tracking infrastructure for maximizing the effectiveness of CTV campaigns. He emphasizes the need for wide-net casting in initial stages and precise retargeting based on engagement metrics.

Benjamin Shapiro [11:50]: "How do you set up the tracking so it works successfully?"

Angelina's Insights on Tracking Methodologies

Angelina elaborates on the tracking mechanisms, drawing parallels to traditional programmatic campaigns. She discusses the use of pixels and ID graphs to connect various devices and identifiers within a household, acknowledging that while it may not achieve a one-to-one match, the existing networks and graphs are highly effective.

Angelina Marmorado [12:46]: "It's kind of like all the above and the ID graph that is able to connect various devices and various types of IDs all together into one household."

She also notes the challenges posed by the deprecation of cookies but remains optimistic about the capabilities of advanced ID networks in maintaining effective tracking and attribution.

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Conclusion and Key Takeaways

The episode concludes with Benjamin summarizing the key insights from his discussion with Angelina. The primary takeaways include:

1. Evolution of Linear Streaming: Linear streaming represents the fusion of traditional TV viewing experiences with the flexibility and targeting capabilities of digital streaming platforms.
2. Programmatic Dominance: Programmatic media buying is central to the effectiveness of CTV advertising, providing robust targeting, measurement, and data-driven strategies.
3. Comprehensive Marketing Strategies: A full funnel approach, leveraging both broad brand awareness and targeted direct response campaigns, maximizes marketing ROI.
4. Advanced Tracking Solutions: Utilizing ID graphs and IP-based tracking enables precise audience segmentation and retargeting, overcoming previous limitations in tracking conversions on linear and streaming TV.

Angelina Marmorado's expertise underscores the transformative impact of technology on marketing strategies, particularly in the realm of connected television. For marketers looking to navigate the complexities of modern media buying, embracing programmatic approaches and leveraging advanced tracking methodologies are essential for driving business growth.

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Additional Resources

• Angelina Marmorado's LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile
• Lemma Media Website: lemmamedia.com
• MarTech Podcast Website: martechpod.com

Stay updated with future episodes by subscribing to the MarTech Podcast™ and follow Benjamin Shapiro on social media @Benjschapp for more insights into the intersection of marketing and technology.

Transcript

[Benjamin Shapiro]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that used technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

Welcome to the Martech Podcast. I'm your host, Benjamin Shapiro and today we're going to talk a little bit about Programmatic buying, media streaming, all the things with your television infrastructure, all the programmatic things that you're interested in. Joining me today is Angelina Marmorado, who is the Associate Vice President of North America at Lemma, which specializes in emerging formats, connected TV media, helping agencies and brands streamline supply with a privacy first approach and dynamic creative providing unprecedented control of their media inventory. Two very important topics today. One is going to be the rise of linear streaming and the second is going to be why programmatic media buying dominates sales. But first we're going to start off with a fun little pitch that we like to say is elevator pitch. So Angelina, welcome to the Martech Podcast. Very excited to have you here. We're going to start off by playing a little game where we pretend that we're going in an elevator. We are going. You're in New York City, so you're familiar with skyscrapers up 37 different floors. You got about 30 seconds to give us your pitch and tell us a little bit about who you are and what your company does. Ready?

[Angelina Marmorado]

Bing. Hey, Angelina Marmorado here. I've spent basically every day since college working in digital advertising. For the past 10 years that's been exclusively in Programmatic. I've worked for several different companies from each side. So anywhere from publishers to content creators all the way through to the buy side, whether that's demand side platforms or now working for a supply side platform like Lemma. In addition to that covered a lot of different angles as well. So run a lot of different campaigns. As a campaign manager I've done product work, solutions and also sales. So a lot of experience in terms of running any a ton of campaigns from B2B to pharma, et cetera. So a good background in terms of understanding advertisers needs.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I'm really excited that you've got a broad set of experience when it comes to all of the things that are streaming, programmatic media, buying. It's an incredibly complicated space and for the longest time I really didn't quite understand what programmatic was because it seems to be a combination of real time bidding, there's supply side, demand side, all sorts of confusing things. And now there is this new idea where we talk about the rise of linear streaming. So that's going to be our first topic for today. Let's start off with another little segment we'd like to call Talk Tagline. So when we talk about linear streaming, to me that feels a little tagline ish. I'm not sure what linear streaming is. I think of linear TV specifically being like I turn on the boob tube and there's a channel that's on and then streaming is like I go to Netflix and I have to decide what I want to watch. Give me the combination of the two. What is linear streaming?

[Angelina Marmorado]

So I think the moniker linear TV in general comes from exactly what you just said, the viewer experience, which is you turn the TV on and there's something live playing, you're joining the content in progress. So that's the traditional experience you get with either broadcast or cable television as an industry. We've started to kind of classify broadcasting cable together into linear. What makes it interesting, a little tricky though is that there's a new phenomenon to where digital television, what we overarchingly refer to as streaming. Now there's a linear experience for that as well. So same experience to where if you turn on your tv, there'll be a channel there playing and then you can flip through the channels, you can do the guide. It's a very linear TV experience, but this time it's through a connected tv. So that's where it gets a little confusing. Another interest or another term to know is fast, which is free ad supported streaming tv. That is basically channels that are a hundred percent ad supported and many of them are in the linear format. So a good example is if you own a Samsung tv, if you turn it on these days, it will take you immediately to Samsung TV plus, which is their fast service. And so it's going to send you to a channel. You can then go to the guide. The experience being and feeling very much like cable television, but it's free.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I struggle with the experience because they're different depending on your device. I think of you've got a set top box and a cable that would be linear. I have Apple TVs in my house, so I am very sort of app by app focused. And I'm guessing that I have to choose an app and then choose what to watch. And it sounds like there's also some hardware where you turn it off and it's just playing. But it is ad supported yet. Streaming tv. Am I getting the segmentation right?

[Angelina Marmorado]

What you're mentioning here is just the huge fragmentation that exists in the space and you mentioned a lot of the players and a lot of those players have rights to content. And so it gets very confusing not only for the consumer but for the media buyer as well. So yes, it's very confusing and probably in the short term will remain that way.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

So let's go on to our next topic. We're going to call it marketing Mythbusters. Everything that I know about linear television or linear streaming is it's supposed to be like OTT in the sense that you get this value of sight sound in motion from your television ads. You get all the benefits of the digital format. And that to me is always the dividing line is linear television. You get huge reach but it's really hard to track. You're looking at day parting and what channel you're on and what media you're playing. And streaming tv, you get actual who you're serving. So you can be a little bit more specific at targeting. With none of these are you able to get real click to conversion attribution. Bust the myth here that you can't use any sort of linear or streaming television to actually track the conversions.

[Angelina Marmorado]

Yeah, you absolutely can. It's a little bit different than web based tracking conversions. The television set itself is not a cookie based environment, so tracking looks a little different. It's all based on ID graphs that are built around IP addresses, which is what your TV is getting the connected TV data from and any of the content that comes on your screen. So same thing is true for ad serving and all the data that comes with that. I think you touched on an interesting point too, just about the experience of linear. You're mentioning that you turn on the TV and it's there. There's a lot of different ways to access. So it could be an app on your tv. It could be that you have a device plugged in. Maybe you have the Amazon Fire stick, maybe you have the Roku stick. Each and every pieces and parts of this and changes the viewer's side of things, but it also and the backend changes from a marketer's perspective where and how they're able to access that inventory. And going back to what you were saying about Programmatic and media buying and the benefits of Programmatic, CTV really was built on Programmatic in a way that the web wasn't. So that's a very positive thing in that most transactions, even if they're bought directly with a publisher, so if I go buy directly from Disney, they will still be run programmatically, whether or not, even if it's just a direct deal, it's very specific inventory. They're often actually served through Programmatic. So it is necessary. And the good news is that the ecosystem is built on it. So yes, it does provide for a lot more targeting, measurement, a lot more data to be passed and used.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I want to hold off on going too deep in Programmatic because we're going to talk about that in our second segment. So there's a lot to cover there about CTV and Programmatic. I want to jump into what's the media buying strategy here. So let's talk a little bit about the game plan. When you are a brand, not necessarily a media buyer, but I am the in house marketer and I'm thinking, okay, I've got this war chest of budget that I'm going to spend. I can only spend so much. With Google AdWords, we're seeing some conversions in our social media ad spend, but it's getting more and more expensive. Should I be focused on going towards television and doing more media buying with the same creative that I have, or should I be looking to diversify, starting to work with influencers, maybe some offline channels? What's the game plan when you're thinking about budget allocation when it comes to linear streaming television, first and foremost for.

[Angelina Marmorado]

All media buying, it depends on where you are as a brand. Do you already have great brand recognition to where brand awareness isn't as necessary? You're really looking to get people to go ahead and buy or are you brand new to the market and nobody knows who you are?

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Let's say we're somewhere in between. We've got some brand recognition, but we're a mid market company, not publicly traded. We're not Coca Cola, people know us, but we're still getting off the ground.

[Angelina Marmorado]

That's totally Fair. Then in that case, you're going to want what's called a full funnel marketing approach to where you're touching both of the aspects we just mentioned. First being brand awareness and then more of direct response type of targeting as well. What's cool about the way that CTV works today is you can accomplish both of those things. So if you're wanting to do a broad awareness type of campaign, you're going to look very broadly for content that matches the basic demographic makeup of who your target audience is. So that could be a much more broad buy that looks a lot more like a traditional television buy. What's cool about that though is serving it through the same system. And programmatically you'll be able to collect all of these folks into your marketing funnel. So then when you move down the funnel and you, let's say you have a different message for folks that have already seen the initial brand messaging ad a few times, then you can retarget them with a message that's more focused on, okay, and here's how you buy the product, here's the recommended action to take. So what's cool is that based on the data that we know there, you can go find them where they are in the connected TV universe, whether it's on Netflix or whether it's on a fast channel, you can find them.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

What I'm hearing from you is that you're thinking about your television media buying as still a top of funnel channel where you're getting reach awareness, essentially serving what I would call more of a brand message. But the benefit of connected TV is that you are able to understand an IP address. You're able to continue to remarket or retarget to those consumers in channels that are more direct response driven. Is it, hey, here's our brand, here's our message. Great. Now I'm going to hit you up on LinkedIn when it's buy time.

[Angelina Marmorado]

To your point exactly. I do want to stress that I think television overarchingly has been thought of as a more of a brand awareness play. But with today's sophistication and the way that we're able to do tracking, like I said, with IP based being the core for how you're measuring, you know, the household. Yes. You can get very detailed in how you're targeting somebody and you can, instead of just saying, I want to serve only on Hulu, I want to find this specific household. I know that there's somebody in there that's been to my website or been to my LinkedIn. If you have that pixeled properly. So yeah, that's a great example.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Talk to me a little bit about setting up the tracking infrastructure. It seems like that's a big component of making these campaigns work is we're going to cast a wide net with CTV in this sort of high fidelity medium. Then we're going to retarget and see where there's actual engagement and interaction. How do you set up the tracking so it works successfully?

[Angelina Marmorado]

The tracking to that is very similar to any programmatic campaign. If you think of a more traditional display or online video campaign that involves any sort of performance element and same thing for Facebook, you know, you're going to be placing either in the case of Facebook, the Facebook pixel in this case, whichever buy side technology you're working with will have their own pixel and so that you'll place that on your website and then you'll be able to track any visitors of those that have been exposed to the ad.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

So is it a pixel based methodology or are you IP mapping? Because I feel like there's a really big difference in terms of how effective those two channels are or those two tracking methodologies are.

[Angelina Marmorado]

It's kind of like all the above and the ID graph that is able to connect various devices and various types of IDs all together into one household. So yes, is it a very clean one to one match? I would say not. And I would say that as cookies deprecate, this gets signal losses there. But I do think that there are very strong IG networks and graphs out there that make this possible.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

And that wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thanks to Angelina Marmorado, the Associate Vice President of North America at Lemma, for joining us. If you'd like to learn more about Angelina, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or you can visit her company's website, which is lemmamedia.com, l E M M A M E D I A.com Just one more link in our show notes I'd like to tell you about. If you're listening to this in the live stream, by all means feel free to comment. Even though it's after the fact, we will still respond to you. If you are listening on the podcast and you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening, head over to martechpod.com we have summaries of all of our episodes. You can get contact information for our guests, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and then you can even apply to be a guest speaker on the Martech podcast. And of course you can always reach out to us on social media. This livestream was published on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn as well. You can reach out to me there. My handle is Ben jschapp. You can also find our content at martechpod. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast Feedback we publish episodes every day during the work week, so hit the subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy. Foreign.

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