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Viacom Execs: ‘Data Democratization’ is Important for Better Decision-Making

NEW YORK — The “democratization” of data is important today for better decision-making in the entertainment industry, according to Viacom data strategy executives.

To help accomplish that, Viacom’s Audience Science group developed an on-demand advanced analytics platform, Chris McGrath, its SVP of data strategy and consumer intelligence, told attendees at the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) Smart Content Summit East at the Microsoft Technology Center in New York Feb. 23.

The Audience Science group was started about seven years ago and supports all Viacom brands, including its TV networks and Paramount Pictures, he said, adding that its goal is to “try and get people to consume more content” and watch more TV.

“Data democratization” means “liberating data” and “getting data in the hands of decision makers; it means putting data science tools in the hands of people who are not data scientists,” he said.

Data science tends to only be in the hands of a select few number of people now, Fabio Luzzi, VP of data science strategy at Viacom, told the Summit. But members of the entertainment industry need such information, he said, adding: “At the end of the day, they need to be more proactive because the market changes all the time. The industry is complex. You have many ways to consume the content. You have a lot of competitors and you have a lot of good content to watch.”

In response, his data team had a vision a couple of years ago and created an “on-demand, self-service platform for advanced analytics” to deliver smarter content. Like a smartphone, there are various apps on the platform it created. Each app on the platform is “tailored to a specific use case,” including an app to optimize a media plan, for example, he said.

IMG_1933 The platform’s apps were developed with input from Viacom’s brand marketing teams, content creators and research teams, McGrath said at the Summit. These tools are now available to everybody within Viacom, he said, adding that the data provided in one example he demonstrated was based on all commercially-available set-top box data.

While providing a demonstration of the platform, Amy Sinensky, director of data science, insights and strategy at Viacom, said the platform serves as a “one-stop shop” for Viacom employees, who can access all the apps quickly to find the data they need. It “really is just another tool in their toolbox,” she said, adding that it also provides users with a “nice sense of your total TV universe.”

The platform has been live within Viacom for about a year, McGrath told MESA after the presentation. Asked what the main challenge was, he said: “Believe it or not, the cost was very light, which is usually the issue for people and the technology was actually easy. I think [the main challenge] was internal acceptance: trying to get enough users to see the value of on-demand data across the organization. Evangelizing new technology is always time-consuming.”

There was little hesitancy among Viacom employees about using the platform so far, he told us, explaining: “Even in a beta state, we had more users than we knew what to do with. And the request for additional apps and information became very heavy in the early stages. It was an interesting pickup. We thought it was going to take some time, which is why we did it as a beta [first]. But, after a while, we had more users than we knew what to do with and we actually had to invest in more technology to cover that.” The extra investment was to be able to “handle the load of concurrent users at any given time,” he said.

The platform has about 300 users within Viacom today, he said, adding: “I would call 200 of those heavy users.”

The focus on data’s importance throughout the M&E supply chain continues at Smart Content Summit West, being held Thursday, March 9 at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles.

For additional information and to register for the event, visit smartcontentsummit.com.