While marketers looking to achieve both branding and performance goals have been flocking to Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (aka “FAST”) channels the last several years. The problem is that FAST lacks adequate measurement and targeting infrastructure. And that’s creating gaps that walled gardens currently cannot fill for content distributors.
“[FAST] is underserved right now from a measurement standpoint, underserved from a targeting strategy standpoint,” Conor Burgess, VP, Media for MRI-Simmons, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan during Advertising Week New York.
MRI-Simmons, the joint venture research provider majority-owned by GfK, which was combined with NielsenIQ (NIQ )two years ago, is working to close the gaps. Its FAST Channel Audience Profile product uses first-party data enrichment to build ad sales models for channel distribution and content, Burgess noted.
Psychographic meets purchase data
On top of that FAST offering, brands are combining MRI-Simmons psychographic data with NIQ purchase-level information to create comprehensive advertising strategies spanning the complete flywheel from planning through optimization.
“Using the psychographic data from the MRI-Simmons side based on intent, media habits and behavior, and then on the NIQ side, using the purchase level data, this comes together all in one, in a full advertising flywheel,” Burgess said.
This integration covers media decisioning and enrichment, planning, activation, measurement, and optimization within a unified framework rather than treating these stages as separate processes.
Consumer Canvas addresses fragmentation
The ever-constant issue of “media fragmentation” across CTV, retail media, social platforms, and emerging channels requires moving beyond siloed data approaches that fail to generate adequate learning scale, he added.
“Using data within silos really isn’t an efficient way of doing it; it doesn’t give you back the scale of learnings that you really need,” Burgess said.
MRI-Simmons’ Consumer Canvas product focuses on first-party enrichment, high-quality audiences, and precision targeting that works across entire media plans and activation platforms rather than limiting effectiveness to individual channels.
Dynamic audiences replace static targeting
AI enables more dynamic audience approaches by bridging probabilistic and deterministic data sets while improving user interface functionality for partners making data-driven decisions.
“We’re seeing static audiences are no longer the norm. We want to be more dynamic. We’re going to follow the industry trends that way,” Burgess said.
This evolution reflects broader industry movement toward real-time audience updates rather than fixed segments that become outdated as consumer behaviors shift.
Walled gardens limit distribution
Content distributors working with walled gardens face limitations in what they receive back from partners regarding audience insights and measurement capabilities, creating opportunities for third-party measurement providers.
“We’re finding out that walled gardens are limiting what they’re getting back from their partners from a content distribution aspect, and we’re going to work with them together,” Burgess said.