M+E Daily

The state of TV Everywhere, the challenges of content identification and measurement, and the latest in the standards behind advertising workflows will be discussed Feb. 23 during the Smart Content Summit at the Microsoft Technology Center in New York.

Media and entertainment executives will be treated to a day of panels and keynotes tackling recent advancements and best practices in both advertising and broadcast interoperability, with speakers from all corners of the industry, including TiVo, the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), Viacom, Comcast, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Ad-ID and Cox Communications.

Here’s a look at what attendees can expect:

• The first panel of the day, “Advertising Workflows and Audience Measurement,” will see Harold Geller, chief growth officer for Ad-ID and conference chairman, leading a group of experts in a discussion about the standardization efforts currently underway to help systems interoperate smoothly, from both operational and measurement standpoints. Speakers include Alanna Gombert, deputy GM of the IAB Tech Lab, and VP of technology and ad operations for IAB; George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the Media Ratings Council; and Chris Pizzurro, head of business development, sales and marketing for Canoe Ventures.

• The keynote of the summit — “Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems” — has author and lecturer John Palfrey, current head of school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. and former executive director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, tackling all things interoperable, specifically for the media and entertainment industry.

His Smart Content keynote is titled after a book he co-authored, which tackles the importance of interoperability, or the standardization and integration of technology.

“Every major industry, including the media and entertainment industry, benefits from high levels of interoperability every day,” he said. “There is an endless array of possible examples. Consider the experience of a consumer using the Internet on a daily basis, engaging with media and entertainment.

“Consumers don’t want to have to fool around with installing lots of different plug-ins, browsers, and ways of viewing content. Interoperability allows for digital content — created once — to be experienced everywhere.”

• In the panel “Content Identification, Measurement and Interoperability” Geller will lead a discussion around the Open Binding of IDs (OBID) initiative, a Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) partnership that aims to create an open standard audio watermark that can bind industry-standard content identifiers (Ad-ID for ads and EIDR for programming) into the audiovisual content itself.  Jane Clarke, CEO and managing director of CIMM; Don Dulchinos, executive director of EIDR; Scott Maddux, VP of business development for TiVo; and Paul Mears, CTO of ‎Copperline Media, will all be on hand.

Part of their discussion will include the Feb. 16 announcement regarding new audio watermarking technology (from Kantar Media) for binding Ad-IDs to commercials and EIDR codes to programming content, as part of the standardization process for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ (SMPTE) 24TB Open Binding of IDs Drafting Group.

“The use of standardized identifiers is critical to the advancement of both the advertising and content ecosystems,” said Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. “With viewing behavior continually fragmenting, the ability to have an open standard for embedding both Ad-ID and EIDR represents a critical step in bringing marketers the media planning and measurement tools they’ve been demanding.”

• A trio of Viacom data heads will gather to talk about how their internal platform is helping optimize programming and better plan their digital marketing. The panel — “Delivering Smart(er) Content Using On-Demand Advanced Analytics” — will include Fabio Luzzi, VP of data science strategy, Chris McGrath, SVP of data strategy and consumer intelligence, and Amy Sinensky, director of data science, insights and strategy, as they show how Viacom’s advanced analytics platform, built in the cloud, offers easy-to-use apps that enable problem-solvers to find answers using data both internal and external.

• In “Where are We (and Where are We Going) with TV Everywhere?” speakers from CTAM, Viacom, Comcast and Cox Communications will look at the best practices and technology advances being made to make TV content more accessible and monetizable in the TV Everywhere space.

• In “Smart Content Starts with the Content,” Bunker Sessions, senior director of strategic product development for Comcast Technology Solutions, will share his thoughts on the elements needed self-delivering Smart Media, including a common Smart Content library available to the ecosystem, and tight linkage between campaign management systems, asset management systems and content distribution.

• To wrap the day, Chick Foxgrover, chief digital officer for 4A’s, Joe Barone, managing director of digital ad operations for GroupM, and Olin Graczyk, channel director for Commerce VML, will discuss where efficiencies can be improved in order to enhance best practices between creative and media ad teams at agencies, in the discussion “Interop: The Agency’s View.”

Produced by MESA, the New York Smart Content Summit is sponsored by TiVo, Avanade, Crawford Media Services, MarkLogic, Nuxeo and Microsoft Azure.

Association partners include Ad-ID, the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), the Smart Content Council and the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM).

To register for the summit, click here.