Omnicom Media Group’s Kelly Metz breaks down the future of addressability and accountability in streaming TV

For Kelly Metz, Omnicom Media Group’s managing director of advanced TV activation, the path forward for brands to succeed with streaming TV is addressability and accountability. With relevant ad solutions, brands can help make their campaigns more pertinent and engaging with audiences while measuring the effectiveness of their storytelling.

At the 2023 NewFronts, which will take place in New York City the first week of May, Amazon Ads will be presenting ad solutions that can help brands inspire audiences through content and guide them to the products and services they are looking to purchase. Ahead of Amazon’s presentation this year, the Amazon Ads editorial team sat down with Metz, who heads the Advanced TV Center of Excellence in North America. Her team makes activation, planning, and measurement a reality for clients in the video and advanced TV space. In this interview, she dives into the latest advertising trends in streaming TV and why streaming accountability matters more than ever.

What excites me the most about streaming is the addressability. I don’t have “advanced TV” in my title for nothing. If you look at what’s possible with addressable television, you can have more relevant ads, different creative, better storytelling, more ability for audiences to engage with the content in ways that they couldn’t with our traditional delivery methods. I think that really is the potential, and I hope to see it achieved in the best possible way.

We’re working with a lot of clients in the streaming space who are introducing some really compelling ad units around shoppability within the programming that doesn’t disturb audiences’ viewing experience with the programming. Instead, in my opinion, it can help prevent audiences from going to their phones and getting distracted, and it creates a frictionless experience that helps consumers purchase the product they want when they see them.

I think there’s huge opportunity for direct-to-consumer commerce and on the creative side around the addressability. It also opens up more opportunities for how we’re going to manage those consumer experiences with advertising campaigns because we can engage in much more nuanced storytelling and calls to action in the creative because we have the ability to know how these ads can be sequenced and can run. It’s definitely going to change the game. That’s what I’m most excited about doing for our clients.

Streaming accountability is really about holding the streaming components of our campaign as accountable as we currently hold the traditional linear components. When I say accountable, I mean, I want my streaming partners to tell me exact information about reach and at what frequency. Although that seems like it should be readily available, it’s not. That’s actually a big ask.

Advertisers don’t necessarily want to have to place a tag to be able to do that. We need transparency in measurement. Additionally, advertisers need to know the context in which they’re running their ads: Where did my ads actually show up? That’s what I mean by accountability. We haven’t really had that on the streaming side. There’s been a lot of trust. And trust is great, but now it’s about trust and verification.

Whenever we contemplate buying media, the big question is what audience are we reaching. We’re asking: What is the purpose of the media that you’re buying? What audience are you trying to reach? What’s the scale, and what’s the cost benefit of that scale on that reach? Those are the three pillars to think about when you’re buying media.

Additionally, context is really important. That’s why we need to see the transparency of where ads are running because we need to make a quality and a brand safety determination on behalf of our clients.

We love what Amazon Ads is doing with Thursday Night Football and live sports. We’re excited about the reach and measurement prospects with live sports because, as I mentioned before, streaming accountability is important. I also think there’s real potential for new ad experiences to be explored.

With new innovations, there are ways that our advertisers can engage in the streaming space that really feel seamless for audiences. And I really want to see more of that creativity in streaming because it brings more opportunities and potential, and we should be embracing it.