TWC’s Gillman: ‘Act on the Data’

NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable is unveiling new weapons to cut through the clutter of the TV ad world and find — even create — targeted audiences with big data.

Joan Gillman, executive vice president and chief operating officer of TWC Media Services, said at the Advanced Advertising event that with the video world becoming even more fragmented via the IPTV environment, tools like the TWC Media Ads Everywhere platform is already helping operators and clients to better understand consumption on other screens and how that compares to linear TV watching.

Media Ads Everywhere enables advertisers to dynamically insert customizable, targeted ads into live TV feeds across various devices. Gillman, head of the MSO’s ad sales unit, wants to gauge consumers’ viewing behaviors and how that should better inform attendant ad loads and messaging.

Gillman said early returns show IPTV video looks very similar to linear consumption in that viewers spend more time with smart TVs than they do with tablets and smartphones. Noting that the shows are the same, she said, “It’s the screen influencing the behavior, not the content.”

Multichannel News editor in chief Mark Robichaux turned the conversation to Texas, which will hold 33 primary races on March 4. Gillman said this arena offers essons and that TWC Media Services has seen different approaches from set-top box data, from the Obama presidential re-election campaign to the ramp-up to last year’s New York City mayoral race.

Gillman noted that in New York the candidates focused on six networks, but in Texas it’s “going 24 or 26 deep” with targets on specific shows. She said executives running political campaigns have access to files with information about likely and swing voters.