Michael Zimbalist from Simulmedia: TV advertising is becoming more like digital and that’s a good thing

Michael Zimbalist, CMO of Simulmedia, thinks the digital world has had an important impact on television advertising. “With each passing day, TV advertising becomes more and more like digital. The reason is data. By matching massive, representative panels of high-quality datasets, it’s possible to measure the behaviors of people exposed to TV advertising and use these measures to optimize future campaigns. I know because this is what we do every day at Simulmedia—we use data, software and science to make TV accountable, like digital.”Wall Street experts like Anthony DiClemente, Managing Director of Nomura Securities, say that both digital and TV are expected to grow in 2016.According to Zimbalist, the main advice to restore advertiser´s confidence in TV advertising is to bear in mind that the generic capability is the ability to manipulate consumer data. A study conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation revealed that TV advertising is the most effective vehicle for driving ROI.The CMO feels there is still a lot of work to do in order to implement the infrastructure to make big data analytics operations on TV. “Change is hard, it tends to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. But as an industry we are all working together to make TV smarter. As a result, TV advertising is becoming more like digital, and that’s a good thing.”