The advertising world is undergoing a significant transformation with the rise of biddable inventory in streaming, especially impacting sports advertising. Mark Zamuner, president of Juice Media, a company acquired by Altice USA in 2022, offers valuable insights into this evolving landscape. Zamuner's expertise in growth strategy, media buying, and analytics provides a unique perspective on how brands are approaching media investment in this new era.
This Executive Q&A explores the increased accessibility of live sports advertising, the role of advanced analytics, and how advertisers of all sizes can navigate this increasingly dynamic market. Zamuner predicts the future of connected TV (CTV) advertising and discusses how technology is driving marketing democratization in 2025. He highlights the impact of digital transformation on the video ecosystem, resulting in more biddable inventory and refined targeting opportunities due to increased data integration.
Zamuner points out that brands with geo-constrained products or services can now effectively target audiences within premium content like sports. This represents a significant win for marketing democratization, enabling mid-market and specialist companies to grow. However, challenges remain, including understanding entry points into live sports content, managing frequency across various deal structures, and addressing potential pricing pressure.
Zamuner's key predictions include a diversification of channel investments from social media to CTV, and a wide variation in advertising experiences due to generative AI. For larger advertisers, he suggests leveraging customer data platforms to re-engage lapsed customers. He notes the challenges faced by smaller companies in a competitive open market, emphasizing the importance of key metrics like investment effects, addressable audience size, and reach/frequency drivers. The year 2025 is predicted to see market consolidation, with increased inventory potentially benefiting all advertisers.
“With the culmination of digital transformation in the video ecosystem, more inventory is available to be transacted in a biddable fashion," Zamuner notes. "The rise of streaming (as distribution digitizes) and increased viewership across devices have opened up data integrations that allow for refined targeting and addressability.”
“First, I fundamentally believe the ability to narrow-cast advertising helps the mid- and SME market. Companies’ ability to find and reach their target audiences has never been better. I’d expect to see a diversification of channel investments away from social walled gardens into CTV as a follow-on to the above. Second, advertising experiences are going to vary wildly as generative AI is used for creative production and publishers open up more fulsome ad experiences.”