NAB 2025 is highlighting the impact of AI in advertising, the creator economy, sports programming and streaming. All, important challenges/opportunities for the industry. But equal focus should be placed on the consumer.
Ultimately, success – for both publishers and advertisers – is dependent on making advertising work better. It is what drives the industry and its reason for being. That means making sure you can connect with the right viewers, at the right time and with the right message. And to do that, you need better understanding and insight into the consumer, and in real time, to stay ahead of rapidly shifting sentiment.
The paradox of our industry is that actions it takes – whether it be deciding what content to launch or what ads to be placed – are forward looking. But the data used on which to base these decisions is backward looking and usually quite dated. This invariably leads to ineffective decisions.
Past consumer behavior is certainly valuable and important, but as a predictor of future behavior it is of limited value. It simply is not an indicator of how consumers will act when the conditions that led them to past decisions have changed. The same consumer will have a very different sense of what is important to them and will make very different decisions 2 to 3 months from now than they would today or a month ago or a year ago.
Deterministic behavioral data also lacks a critical element for decision making – it does not indicate why a behavior was taken nor whether a consumer might make that same decision in the future. Therefore, it needs to be viewed in conjunction with insights data based on current sentiment – not past sentiment – in order to be useful as a predictive tool.
Consider what is occurring today. Buyers and sellers want to know who auto intenders are and what programming they favor. But this is invariably based on information that is several weeks, if not months, old. The auto-intender’s purchase intentions have changed significantly over the past few weeks since the announcement of tariffs. Historical data simply won’t be able to identify that.
The industry has excelled at increasing efficiency and innovation in delivering content and advertising, but it has not sufficiently embraced the same vigor when it comes to understanding the consumer. The potential of even the best technology will never be realized if the data it is based on is lacking.
The benefits of a greater focus on and understanding of the consumer would be significant. It would produce increased return on advertising through more accurate real time identification of audiences, greater yield inventory for publishers by enabling them to more effectively leverage audiences for all programming, and produce a better ad experience for consumers, delivering more relevant ads and reducing channel switching. As research has shown, consumers don’t hate ads as much as they do irrelevant ads. A better understanding of their sentiments and the direction it is taking will enable the delivery of ads that are more aligned with future consumer needs and wants.
I am looking forward to seeing the advancements in technology that will be unveiled at NAB, and to hear from industry leaders about their plans for further innovation.
But what I hope is part of that discussion is the consumer and how we can understand them better.
Content, advertising and technology is only effective if it accurately aligns with not just where the consumer has been, but accurately predicts where they are going. As we devote resources to AI, sports programming, streaming and the creator economy, let’s have a similar commitment to better understanding the consumer.
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