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Unlocking the Value of Your Subscriber Data for Advanced

Advertising

Brian CappellaniCTO, Sigma Systems

Threats to Cable Advertising Market Share

• Growth in Internet advertising expenditure– Ability to highly target ads – Easy to create and execute advertising

campaign– Links for more information or purchase– Excellent reporting for assessing campaign

success and ROI

• Increased competition from video service alternatives – Satellite– Telco TV– Over-the-Top Internet video services

• Increased PVR penetration– More fast-forwarding through ads

• To compete, cable needs to extend their infrastructure to support:• Hyper Targeting based on detailed knowledge of

the viewer• Interactive ad capabilities and content• Simple interfaces to create and execute

campaigns• Detailed Reporting

• Cost–effective advanced advertising delivery through:• Standardizations between components• Reuse of existing infrastructure• Leveraging existing repositories of subscriber

information

• Opportunity to provide significantly superior advanced advertising platform vs. Internet• Superior targeting information, video ad quality• Propensity for TV viewers to watch ads

Cable’s Opportunity with Advanced Advertising

New Targeted Advertising Opportunities

• Cable Operator now has access to many new mechanisms to target advertising:– Dynamic add insertion at a HE or node,

• Target linear programs ads to a geographical zone,

– Use STB to switch ads – Video on Demand – pre & post roll ads,

pause ads– Interactive Ads and telescoping ads

through tru2way™– On screen displays (EPG, overlay

graphics, etc)

• Unicast environment of VoD, SDV, tru2way,EPG – Ability to target ads at the individual

subscriber

Sources of Existing Subscriber Information

Cable Operators have multiple silos of subscriber information of value for targeted advertising

– Subscriber service profiles in Service Management Systems

• Existing services, customer address, STBs IDs, # of emails, location in network

– VoD & PPV viewing records• Genre preferences and behavior

– Long Distance usage records– Customer viewing habits and preferences

• OpenCable™/tru2way STBs

• Information can be supplemented with 3rd-party demographic and psychographic information

SCTE 130 Standard For Advanced Advertising

New standard defined by the SCTE DPI working group:• Standardized, extensible message-based interfaces with a

minimal set of cooperating logical services necessary to communicate :– Placement opportunities, – Placement decisions, – Placement related event data for accountability

measurements

• Enable multi-vendor interoperability through framework of interfaces among a set of advertising system logical services

• Defines Subscriber Information Service (SIS)– Logical component of consolidated subscriber information

used by advanced advertising

• Standard receiving consideration in IPTV world as well

Subscriber Information System (SIS)

Demographic Data

Viewing HistoryData

Subscriber Information Service (SIS)

SMSData

Demographic Data

Viewing HistoryData

SIS Client SIS Client SIS Client

Viewing HistoryData

Other SubscriberData

SIS Interface

• SIS provides subscriber metadata query and notification services to other logical SCTE 130 components, and campaign managers.• SIS “rolls up” information from multiple data sources into a unified format

• SIS exposes subscriber data as "Audience Qualifier" (AQ).• Simple name/value pair (e.g. Age/18-25) that defines an advertising-relevant

attribute about subscriber

• Combination of Audience Qualifiers is called an “Audience Qualifier Sequence” (AQS) • Characterize desired population of subscribers – i.e. a market segment

Subscriber Information System (SIS)

SIS will need to respond to real-time queries as well as non real–time queries

Queries that SIS will support include:

– AQs for particular STB– List of names for all available

AQs in SIS– List of possible values for a

particular name– Number of subscribers that

match particular AQS– List of STBs that have

particular AQS

Campaign Order Management System

Subscriber Information System

(SIS)

Advertiser

Ad Decision

System

(ADS)

Ad Management

System

(ADM)

Placement Opportunity

Information System

(POIS)

Campaign Order Management System

Subscriber Information System

(SIS)

Advertiser

Ad Decision

System

(ADS)

Ad Management

System

(ADM)

Placement Opportunity

Information System

(POIS)

Challenges in Collection and Correlation

• Data will be in different formats– Require different collection mechanisms– Different collection frequencies

• Subscriber association keys are different – i.e. MAC, STB ID, account number, etc.– Need different mechanisms to resolve to

subscriber

• Subscriber may have several STBs– Need to consolidate info to derive composite

view

Challenges in Collection and Correlation of Viewing History Data (ie STB data)

Raw usage information will need additional processing to derive useful information

– Identify programs watched and genre for programs

– Identify subscriber– Analyze month+ of history to infer

subscriber attributes and assign AQs• i.e. interests, single vs. couple or family, lifestyle

interests, age groups represented, etc.• Consolidate viewing history sources to develop

composite subscriber view

Privacy and Security

• Privacy of subscriber information must be strictly enforced– No access to the AQ profile for an

identifiable subscriber • i.e. name and address

– Strong firewalls to protect access to SIS

• May need to be an option for a subscriber to opt out

SIS Evolution

• SIS can start small and evolve to incorporate more information sources and AQs over time– Service Management System info provides

good starting point for developing AQs• Subscriber location – address and network• Current video, Internet, and voice services

– Premium channels/packages, # of emails, etc.

• STB IDs and type

Subscriber Information System (SIS) : Other Uses

• Automated targeted up-sell recommendations/promotions for CSR, IVR on-hold messaging, Web portal

• Customer care retention program

• Marketing reports to assist in new service products definitions

• Personalize video and Internet value-add applications

Other Operational Requirements for Advanced Advertising

• High level of automation for campaign execution and reporting– Rapid deployment of campaigns– Automated collection of campaign

results and report generation – Could leverage existing process

automation capabilities in service management solutions

In Conclusion

• Subscriber data is a critical building block for any Advanced Advertising system to effectively target ads to the viewer

• Subscriber Information Systems (SIS) and associated collection and analytics are key infrastructure to unlock value of this data

• The SIS system can start small leveraging existing information in a service management system

• Appropriately designed, this SIS infrastructure can also be utilized to:– Help MSOs to more effectively up-sell/promote their services– Support other MSO created applications