The IoT transformation of television is shifting marketing from "probability" to "fact."

The Potential of TVs as IoT Devices

The term "Internet of Things" (or "Internet of Everything") is gaining significant attention. The market holds high expectations for the potential of not just smartphones, but all things in the world connecting to the internet and creating new experiential value. It's not merely about devices (things) connecting to the net; rather, the resulting promotion of user experience value and consumer behavior suggests it's less an "Internet of Things" and more an "Internet of Everything."

This IoT reveals diverse possibilities even within the advertising world alone. One such possibility is the "connection of the television set device to the internet." What kinds of experiential value and potential consumer behaviors could emerge from "televisions connecting to the internet"?

A Paradigm Shift in Marketing: From "Integrated Media Planning" to "Integrated Marketing"

Traditionally, when planning integrated offline and online media, the primary approach was to analyze the relationship between TV commercials and digital ads using sampled panel data representative of the general population. Based on estimated probabilities, digital ads were then delivered to those likely to have seen the TV commercial, aiming to increase synergy through overlapping exposure. This is what is known as integrated media planning. Considering the term "media planner" first emerged around 1999, this approach has been in use for quite some time.

However, in recent years, the proliferation of VOD services and recommendation services on television sets has significantly increased the proportion of TVs connected to the internet. By utilizing viewing log data, obtained with user consent, it has become possible to identify or estimate individuals who actually saw a TV commercial through access logs and then deliver digital ads to them.

This "connection of TV to the internet" holds significant potential to expand beyond probability-based planning and effectiveness verification, enabling marketing grounded in the actual fact of TV commercial exposure. In terms of dramatically enhancing the synergy between offline and online, it is no exaggeration to call this a paradigm shift in marketing.

Against this backdrop, Dentsu Inc. released STADIA (beta version), enabling web ad delivery using TV viewing log data, and began proof-of-concept testing in March 2016. STADIA stands for System for TV Audience Data Integration Architecture. The term "stadia" originally refers to a method of measuring distance between two points difficult to measure directly: by setting up a graduated rod (stadia rod), observing it with optical instruments, and measuring the distance between two parallel lines engraved in the field of view to determine the distance to the rod.

STADIA was named with the goal of becoming an ecosystem that enables measurement and evaluation between television and the web—two entities inherently difficult to measure directly—in marketing.

STADIA (β version)'s two roles in digital marketing

A paradigm shift in marketing... While the vision is expansive, through proof-of-concept experiments, we've come to understand that advertisers in the field primarily expect two key things.

One is whether it can capture or influence the attitudes of "potential customers" who couldn't be fully acquired or supplemented using web audience data alone (Figure 1). For example, for a new product, we can estimate people who haven't searched online yet but became vaguely interested after seeing it on TV, based on their TV commercial exposure frequency and their usual online browsing behavior. By then introducing a trial campaign to them online, we might reach these "potential customers" within the overall customer base. We believe that exposing individuals in this state of vague interest to advertising represents a form of "information hospitality," as it has the potential to bring them new discoveries.

The second point is whether we can analyze and verify the effectiveness of relatively detailed actions from TV viewing to web conversion using a single source (Figure 2). Previous single-source data combining TV and web lacked sufficient sample size to analyze detailed web conversions. However, verification using actual logs—large-scale data samples—enables integrated offline/online analysis using the conversion measurement data itself. This visualizes previously unseen advertising effects of TV commercials and web ads, suggesting more effective integrated marketing and enabling the establishment of new KPIs.

These two areas represent significant challenges for advertising agencies, yet they are also highly rewarding. Through our proof-of-concept experiments, we have gained a tangible sense of the substantial demand and expanding possibilities.

Finally: The Importance of Returning Value to Users from Viewing Log Data

We believe the key challenges identified in the pilot are raising public awareness of the benefits of utilizing viewing log data and enhancing the scale and quality of this data. As the IoT world expands, we aim to broaden our perspective on the potential of viewing log data—including integration with home appliances and smartphones—to create value for advertisers, publishers, and users alike. We intend to steadily build upon what advertising agencies can achieve.