“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.
Univision doesn’t just want measurement – it wants representative measurement.
As a top Spanish-language TV network (now even bigger after a $4.8 billion merger with Televisa), Univision is well aware of the shortfalls of different measurement companies when it comes to capturing its audience.
“One of the challenges – or opportunities – for many of the new measurement companies is representation. That comes into light at Univision because we represent such a strong presence of the Hispanic community,” said Brian Lin, SVP of product management and advanced advertising sales at Univision.
Like most TV programmers these days, Univision is looking into measurement alternatives, from aggregating its own first-party data to partnering with new companies that can add color and nuance to its data. For example, via a partnership with data and analytics providers EDO and datafuelX and global media agency Mediahub, Univision is tracking the correlation between search engagement data and commercials that run on Univision.
Lin spoke with AdExchanger about Univision’s goals to make its TV advertising more measurable to marketers.
AdExchanger: How is measurement changing on TV?
BRIAN LIN: In advanced advertising as a whole, we’ve gone from traditional, panel-based age and gender into the world of audience, where we need more data [to make] television a platform for audience-based optimization and audience definitions.
How does this partnership fit into the direction advanced advertising is going?
We’re taking the search engagement data from EDO and then forecasting on that outcome. It’s one thing to run a campaign and use search signals to create an outcome. But it’s another thing to go and predict what might happen and then be able to build a plan and guarantee against that [outcome] for brands.
This partnership is going beyond just the granular data of television measurement and first- or third-party audience signals. We’re going directly to the outcomes, and we’re tying that to inventory. We [can] show brands that we don’t need to define an audience – rather, we’re going to find more search outcomes for you.
What types of brands and advertisers are you planning on working with?
We’ve leaned into [several] verticals, including telecommunications, and insurance companies that are very focused on outcomes. And then, of course, [there’s] a number of direct-to-consumer and direct-response brands that really want to gather and synthesize these signals.
Do you expect any challenges implementing these new insights?
Representation is so important in a media landscape [that takes] a panel-based approach. We want to make sure that any new measurement companies we partner with have very solid representation [in addition to] solid methodology.
This goes into a lot of the work we’re doing aggregating our first-party data and partnering with different data providers to compose our household graph … [and] solidify that representation of the Hispanic community.
Is there any room to dabble in CTV, or is this initiative strictly linear?
This initiative was beta tested on linear only, [but] we do expect to move this into CTV. [At] Univision, we want to be multiplatform by design. One of our core principles of innovation is tackling aggregation.
Fragmentation continues to happen in the television ecosystem, so it’s important that we put an emphasis on merging measurement and looking at all of these platforms holistically.
What else has Univision been building over the past year?
A lot has been happening for Univision this past year, from Google’s investments in Univision [via a deal that spanned Google Cloud and YouTube] to our new leadership coming onboard [to build out our] household graph.
We’re merging in as many signals as possible to help advertisers and agencies reach their marketing outcomes. We’re taking a data-driven approach, whether it be audience-based optimization or the outcome-based optimization we’re seeing here from this partnership.
What’s on the horizon for 2022?
Engagement. Driving better ad effectiveness through interactivity might come in the form of new ad formats and [even] new partnerships.
We’re also focused on precision. [We want to] utilize our programmatic insights to ensure the right message shows up at the right place in front of the right consumers that are interested in those advertisers. Maximizing ROI for our clients might come in the form of addressable TV, dynamic ad insertion, CTV targeting [or] first-party data onboarding.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
