-->

SMNYC Keynote Highlights: Beat The BUZZR & Brand Vs. Retail

Article Featured Image

On Tuesday, May 21, at Streaming Media NYC, a series of morning keynotes featuring leading industry figures covered a wide range of topics, including how Microsoft and Fremantle are gamifying FAST and capitalizing interactive TV, and a lively debate about brand versus retail with Crackle, Uber Advertising, IAB, and Witz About Her.

Microsoft and Fremantle Reimagine and Reinvigorate Retro Content

Nadine Krefetz, Consultant, Reality Software and Contributing Editor, Streaming Media, moderated a panel with guests Laura Florence, SVP Global FAST Channels, Fremantle, and Andy Beach, CTO, Media & Entertainment, Worldwide, Microsoft. Fremantle’s data and AI-powered Beat the BUZZR platform was developed in collaboration with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and other key technology partners. Leveraging content from the Fremantle BUZZR Network's deep reservoir of classic TV game shows from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, Beat the BUZZR launches FAST viewers headlong into the game with quizzes, trivia, and personalized insights, pointing the way to revolutionary, readily monetizable opportunities for interactive FAST.

Krefetz asked how Microsoft, Fremantle, and their technology partners amassed the rich data resources to build a scalable tech stack and make this new interactive platform viable while creating a "watch party vibe" to make it irresistible to viewers. Beach said that AI was integral for the huge scale required to make the platform function, with a workflow that included transcripts, information, and metadata given to ChatGPT. They worked with Alice & Smith to build the platform over Playfab and with Prime Focus Technologies to assist with upping the resolution of these classic shows to 4K and with MediaKind for playout.

Florence highlighted the many sponsorable elements to Beat the BUZZR and said that the ROI for it is highly trackable via hours watched, with clear engagement through localized delivery. With 70% of viewers on their phones during Freemantle watching, second screen usage is advantageous for gathering first-party data. 

The Battle of Brand vs. Retail

Mike Duffy, Co-founder/CEO, YumCrunch, moderated a spirited debate addressing the ways that big tech has upset the balance between brand and performance marketing and between awareness and shopability. On “Team Brand” were Laura Sandoval, Head of Media & Entertainment, Uber Advertising and Lauren Denowitz, Founder, Witz About Her - Brand Entertainment & Marketing Consulting and Founder & Former Global Studio Head, draftLine Entertainment @ ABInBev. “Team Retail” was represented by Michele Fino, Head of Branded Entertainment, Crackle, and Pam Zucker, Chief Strategy Officer, IAB.

The questions at play: In a world of increasingly commoditized impressions and audiences, where is a marketer’s money best spent—premium TV environments for brand awareness, but less attribution, or performance marketing? Can TV publishers compete with social video on performance-based advertising? Should they, or are they risking brand damage?

The Brand vs. Retail debate

The divide between Team Brand and Team Retail was immediately clear: Fino stated outright that most people are “dumb,” and that on average it takes seven times for a consumer to retain a brand’s marketing message. Whereas Denowitz emphasized that brands are relationship-oriented, focusing on stories, partnerships, and talent, Zucker shot back “Where are the goods?” She said that brands should not just be mushy relationship-based foundations and that instead retail retains the strengths of what she calls “pre-tail,” with quantifiable attributes such as real-time optimization leading to more authentic personalization, enhanced measuring, attribution, improved ROI, localization, and specific data points directly relevant to individual consumers.

Sandoval pushed back by underscoring the need for a sense of relationship and guidance with brands, saying that people need to be taken through a journey and highlighting that on average, people need “15 touch points” before seeing a current movie in a theater. Denowitz also said that this relationship-oriented personalized approach also helps to ensure brand safety by clearly revealing what an audience wants and who they are, beyond mere data points.

Despite these different viewpoints, both teams ultimately agreed that a well-balanced mix of “brand and retail” are essential for the overall success of sales and for the satisfaction of users.

Streaming Covers
Free
for qualified subscribers
Subscribe Now Current Issue Past Issues
Related Articles

SMNYC 2024: Fremantle's Laura Florence Talks FAST Gamification and Beat the BUZZR

Streaming Media's Tim Siglin interviews Fremantle's Laura Florence at Streaming Media NYC. She discusses how Fremantle seeks to engage audiences with older content by incorporating interactive elements, such as trivia and fun facts, into the viewing experience, allowing users to interact with the content through a mobile app. She also discusses the use of restorative AI to improve the quality of older content shot on tape for modern viewing platforms.

Data, Personalization, and Practical Magic

Discussions of data acquisition, application, and monetization that would have seemed like the most mind-blowing magic to denizens of other eras proved ever-present at Streaming Media NYC, the reimagined and rebooted Streaming Media event that made its raucously well-received return to Manhattan in May.

SMNYC 2024: Microsoft CTO Andy Beach Talks Gamified FAST and Leveraging AI to Make Old Content Feel New

Streaming Media's Tim Siglin interviews Microsoft CTO Andy Beach at Streaming Media NYC 2024 about gamification ideas for FAST. Beach discusses the concepts of creating trivia and interactivity through a second-screen app that allows users to connect and compete with each other. He also talks about the technical challenges of bringing old content into 2024, the potential of generative AI, and integrating physical events into the gamification process.

SMNYC: Four Debates, Two Topics, One Educational Day

On Monday, May 20, Streaming Media NYC hosted four debates on two topics that represented a fantastic programming win for the conference. The first half of the day was dedicated to AI and covered the full range of topics from authorship to copyright to privacy and more. The second half of the day featured two panels debating the definition of premium content, the value of social media as well as the question of how CTV measures up against mobile as an advertising platform. Read on to get caught up.

SMNYC Highlight: Fireside Chat With Roku President Charlie Collier and Media Cartographer Evan Shapiro

On Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at Streaming Media NYC, media cartographer Evan Shapiro sat down with Charlie Collier, President of Roku Media and former President of AMC, for a deep dive discussion about the development and current dominance of Roku, the #1 streaming TV platform in America. They talked about how Roku's UI brings "simplicity and delight" to their EPG, the ways that Roku collaborates with other platforms and publishers, and the need for a new media ecosystem to support creative risk-taking in the streaming era.

SMNYC Debates: TO AI, OR NOT TO AI?

On Monday, May 20, at Streaming Media NYC, two lively debates on the topic of AI in Media and Entertainment showcased leading industry figures. The first, "AI: Boon Or Bubble?" examined the ways that AI has entered every sector of the media, business, and technology worlds, and it explored how much of AI's insurgency is a fad, and how much of it is the actual future of streaming. The second, "The Real Value Of Artificial Intelligence," explored the fearmongering around the idea that "AI is coming for our jobs," and focused on how AI/ML might make workflows more efficient and effective, grow or refine reach, and help to boost bottom lines.

SMNYC Sneak Preview: Keynote: Microsoft and Fremantle Beat the BUZZR with Gamified FAST

On Tuesday, May 21, Microsoft CTO Andy Beach and Fremantle SVP, Global FAST Channels Laura Florence will present Streaming Media NYC's opening keynote. They will discuss the new Beat the BUZZR platform, how it gamifies FAST and capitalizes TV, the collaboration that brought it about, and the AI under the hood.

The Struggle for Brand Identity Across Multiplatform Streaming Apps

A new study from Hub Entertainment Research reveals that viewers are still chasing shows rather than specific streaming brands, which poses challenges for programming providers looking to create a consistent brand identity across various platforms. James Lauzun of MagellanTV and Tom Hurlbutt of Crunchyroll also weighed in on this issue during a recent Streaming Media Connect 2024 session.

Companies and Suppliers Mentioned