Paul McIntyre
DAVID VERKLIN is a little twitchy about how traditional TV audiences are going to react to what he calls "behavioural targeting".
Online players such as Google are already using such technologies but the technique is now headed to TV land as the broadcast spectrum goes digital, paving the way for electronic program guides and TiVo-style program scheduling and recording.
These developments throw up a "data trail" that can be analysed for advertising, says Verklin, who controls about $US8 billion ($9.3 billion) in media-buying budgets as the chief executive of Carat Americas and chairman of the group's Asia Pacific operation.
He says that within three years Australian TV viewers will see advertisers start to track and analyse their actual TV viewing patterns that might then be overlaid with online viewing behaviour.
"It's what Google already does online," he says. "They take a look at your cookie behaviour and deduce you are interested in certain kinds of ads based on your online search behaviour. You are going to see that in TV. It will get there soon enough - as TV goes digital. It's definitely possible right now as we speak. We're not doing it yet but you will see it proliferate in the next 24 months and it will be in Australia in 36 months."
Verklin, who is recognised as a leading media mind in North America, says Microsoft's $US6 billion acquisition of ad serving network and digital marketing agency group aQuantive and Google's $US3.2 billion takeover of rival online adserving firm DoubleClick this year is the start of an urgent global push to accumulate more data for behavioural tracking.
He admits it might prove controversial but is part of a trend he calls "advertising to the interested".
"It's all about data and targeting," he says. "That's why Microsoft wants aQuantive and Google wants DoubleClick. It's about getting access to that customer data on advertising on top of their online search behaviours. For Google, it means they start to build a database of what just about every person in the world is interested in. All you're trying to do is refine your [advertising] targeting."
Mr Verklin says the same applications for digital broadcast TV will deliver smaller but "super-concentrated" audiences to advertisers. "If you don't own a dog, you don't want to see a dog food ad," he says. "With the changes taking place in the marketplace, it's going to be much easier to put a dog food ad in front of people who own a dog. That's where the business is going."
While Verklin predicts such advancements for traditional TV, last year he made a bold prediction in the US that the annual "upfront" TV ad revenue deals had peaked for the broadcast networks.
"TV is vulnerable for the first time in 30 years," he says. "But we are seeing a new definition of what TV is. We need to lose the word 'commercial' and replace it with 'video persuasion'. Using video for commercial persuasion across numerous touchpoints is alive and well. The traditional use of 30-second blocks running on networks is quite vulnerable. We also need to change the business we are in from advertising to commercial persuasion."
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