Sky have been making waves recently with announcements of very prominent partnerships and investments in the ad tech space. ExchangeWire talks exclusively with Jamie West (pictured below), deputy MD, Sky Media, about what these announcements mean for the direction of the company and what 2016 holds.

ExchangeWire: Sky have recently made the news with the announcement of a USD$10m (£6.8m) investment in DataXu. How will this investment help to develop the existing Sky offering for advertisers and viewers?

Jamie West: DataXu’s expertise in programmatic marketing – the automated, data-driven planning and trading of advertising across multiple media devices and formats – is exceptional.

We will be working closely with DataXu in a number of ways. First, to extend the reach of our new product, Sky AdVance, which allows us to sequentially ad serve on the back of linear TV viewing data. DataXu is, therefore, our demand-side platform (DSP), enabling us to go beyond Sky’s owned and operated platforms.

Secondly, DataXu is already very active in the US programmatic TV market, and we can learn a lot from its experiences. In particular, its partnership with DISH, a similar company to ours, already allows them to be a DSP for addressable TV. This means they are working with advertisers to fully integrate advertising campaigns into the DISH platform and offer programmatic addressable TV.

Thirdly, DataXu’s digital analytics capabilities will complement the suite of tools that Sky Media is developing. This will mean Sky Media will be able to serve all media platforms’ performances.

Ultimately, combining Sky’s knowledge, experience, and innovation in advertising with DataXu’s programmatic marketing expertise will provide exciting opportunities for our advertising partners.

It was also announced last year that Sky are partnering with Videology to develop a programmatic, cross-screen video advertising solution for Sky advertising customers. How is this developing?

The project with Videology is progressing well and we look forward to making further announcements in due course. For us, this partnership answers a different business challenge to that of DataXu’s. It enables us to manage and serve our video inventory in compliance with regulations, and lets us trade programmatically with all agencies and advertisers, whilst protecting our first-party data.

Given the growth of addressable TV, which Sky are at the forefront of in the UK, with Sky AdSmart and more recently, Sky AdVance, how far away do you think we are from a standardised TV buying method? 

Sky’s strategy is to build technologies that enable advertisers to integrate with Sky, in whichever way they see fit. From our perspective, we see many existing advertisers wanting to trade with us in the future in the exact way they do today; so, we’ll maintain their ability to buy broad audiences on linear TV. At the other end of the scale, we have advertisers who want to use Sky AdSmart and Sky AdVance for precision targeting, using customer segments. Of course, there are hundreds of advertisers seeking to operate somewhere between these two extremes.

Our goal is to be the partner of choice for brands and agencies, and to achieve this we need to be constantly listening to what our clients want. They have individual requirements; we want to be providing bespoke solutions accordingly.

Have you seen challenges in building agency and advertiser demand for automated TV ad buying?

While most appreciate the benefits of greater sophistication, adding complexity into targeting and buying models understandably makes it more challenging for agencies. Our role at Sky Media is to make it as easy as possible for agencies and advertisers to join our platform. As with any new technology, it is incumbent upon the innovator to make the process as smooth as possible. We are producing more case studies, how-to guides, and learnings from previous campaigns to improve the platform and campaign targeting.

Sky have made some bold investment and partnership moves in the ad tech space recently, notably with US companies. Will this help build Sky's profile globally?

Sky Media’s and Sky’s ad tech strategy has evolved quite significantly over the past few years. We are now able to service the full campaign lifecycle, and not just the execution/ad-serving phase. For us, it is important to justify and generate ROI and prove we can deliver effective advertising outcomes. By doing so, we believe we’re developing a game-changing proposition.

More broadly, Sky’s corporate ambition is to have a consistent customer experience in all territories we are active in, from both an advertiser and consumer point of view.

What are Sky's ambitions for 2016?

2016 is set to be a big year for Sky. From the UK launch of our new set-top box Sky Q, to the launch of a mobile service, with more to come from Sky AdSmart and Sky’s best ever content line-up, there will be lots going on.

Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive, commented about the year ahead following Sky’s first half results published in January: “We’re excited about 2016, and we start the year with good momentum. With an outstanding set of new initiatives and products for our customers, we are well positioned to deliver further strong growth.”

Sky’s advertising division Sky Media is in a unique position in the ad market, and our ambition this year is to ensure our clients are making the most of our tech and data capabilities across our content portfolio. There have never been so many great partnership opportunities available.