Nexxen Connect: Q&A on Political Advertising with Chauncey Southworth
Chauncey is Head of Revenue at Cross Screen Media, overseeing CSM’s relationships with political and public affairs agencies. Cross Screen Media was born out of an agency and its unified solution empowers local agencies to use data to navigate the video ad market, win and maintain business, and break down traditional silos.
How is Cross Screen Media helping buyers this cycle?
We got our start in a political agency; we understand the challenges agencies face every election year. Our customers use our solution to easily make decisions across channels and stay ahead of the competition – unifying video advertising.
Chauncey Southworth
Head of Revenue, Cross Screen Media
Think of it this way. Our agency customers come to us with an audience and a race – Presidential to local – we provide them with an analysis of how their audience consumes video across all screens. We create custom execution plans and then measure across screens. Meaning we show total reach across Broadcast, Cable, CTV, and Mobile/Desktop.
We have over 15 years of experience optimizing political advertising campaigns across linear and digital channels. Our team members have worked on elections at every level of politics, from local to presidential, so in addition to the data-driven planning, we also serve as a strategic partner for our customers at every stage of the campaign process.
Your team serves both linear and digital buyers. Where do you think CTV fits in the picture?
Voters don’t know the difference between CTV and linear ads. They are watching content and often switching back and forth between CTV and Linear. 2024 consumption is far different than 2022, and before – plans should not be the same.
In our recent political ad spend report, we project CTV spend this political cycle to hit $2.4B, surpassing cable TV and second only to broadcast. The argument for removing silos between linear and digital buyers is stronger than ever, as whoever controls the CTV budget controls the video ad budget into the future. In the fight for CTV ad dollars, the agencies that adopt cross-screen planning, activation, and measurement will have a clear advantage.
In the fight for CTV ad dollars, the agencies that adopt cross-screen planning, activation, and measurement will have a clear advantage.
In the fight for CTV ad dollars, the agencies that adopt cross-screen planning, activation, and measurement will have a clear advantage.
How are agencies approaching measurement across channels and how are they turning it into action?
Buyers should understand the reach and frequency of their buys holistically and on each channel. For example, in New Hampshire, while only 49% of Republican Primary voters saw a Trump ad, those 49% saw over 100 of them! We give our customers the same data for their CTV buys and show the overlap/incremental reach with TV.
Once an agency has that data, they have a clear path to driving incremental reach across channels while keeping frequency in their target range.
How do you use TV data to inform your buying strategies?
In the planning phase, there are two ways: consumption habit reports and competitive linear measurement. For every campaign we run, at every level, our team creates a comprehensive report of how the exact audience consumes video across all markets and channels. We know going in the portion of the audience that is easier to reach on CTV and the portion that is easier to reach on TV. We build our market-by-market plans based on this consumption data.
We then measure the reach and frequency of competitive linear ads. Our agency customers need to know how their campaign reach stacks up with their opponents. So, we’re constantly pulling data on opponents’ reach and implementing targeting and ACR strategies to maximize impact on the voters who will decide each election. For example, our customers can target voters who did or did not see their opponent’s ad.
What is the secret to achieving effective incremental reach across channels?
- Build your plan based on how the audience is consuming video.
- Don’t let the budget breakouts from last cycle dictate this cycle’s budget.
- Consistently measure your campaigns and track reach, frequency, and channel overlap across Broadcast, Cable, CTV, and Mobile/Desktop.
- Based on this data, we consistently update our strategies to get every possible percentage point of incremental reach.
- By executing this process effectively, we’ve seen campaigns move from 65% total reach to 88%.
What are your post-election plans? Trips? Purchases?
I am very excited to get married in Seattle 26 days after Inauguration Day.
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