The rise of media analytics

To maximise programmatic advertising sales and pricing, media enterprises must establish a media business model capable of storing and surfacing accurate, actionable data. Without deep industry knowledge and in-depth analysis of detailed source system data, however, it is impossible to implement the accurate, timely and useful media analytics essential to understanding the value of inventory – the time and audiences that media companies sell – and the potential of new revenue generation opportunities. While many companies promise to tell media enterprises just how much their inventory is worth, rarely do they dive into the enterprise’s transactional systems, pull intrinsic granular data, normalise said data, and apply the critical analytical tools required to discover what is really happening at any given time. To get a true picture of inventory’s opportunistic value, the media enterprise must create a dynamic connection between its media analytics model and transactional systems, and then continually refine forecasts based on best practice data engineering and data management, both informed by in-depth industry experience. This paper describes the value of a central data repository, accurately modelled and based on deep media principles; it discusses the relative merits of various deployment strategies; and outlines the benefits delivered by media analytics.