ITV to create customer data strategy for online
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ITV is increasing its focus on data insight in a bid to enhance its online and on-demand offerings.
The broadcaster is looking to develop a customer data strategy to analyse information such as the 3 million e-mail addresses it has collected from people who view ITV’s content online. It will use it to inform ITV Player and ITV.com’s future development.
ITV says it believes the “ownership and utilisation” of customer data will be a source of “competitive advantage” in the future.
Fru Hazlitt, managing director of commercial and online, admitted last month that ITV Player had been “behind the curve” in comparison with the BBC’s iPlayer but that the broadcaster now has a renewed focus on multi-platform.
ITV’s managing director of online and on demand Robin Pembrooke is set to build out his business planning team in order to develop the new strategy.
It will include the introduction of a “data champion” across online and the wider organisation, to help drive what the broadcaster dubs a “significant cultural change” within the business to focus more on research and analytics.
ITV Player attracted 1 billion impressions in 2010, up 60% year on year, according to Hazlitt.
The on-demand player recently launched a new ad format that allows users to skip ads if they correctly answer questions on the brand or product in the spot.
Readers' comments (2)
Dan Baker | Fri, 4 Nov 2011 4:56 pm
Well I've received countless emails from ITV since they started requiring email submission to watch online. It was absolutely ridiculous overload during the World Cup. I however didn't mark them as Spam as I was intrigued (as I work in email marketing) and as I thought, two weeks or so later they disappeared - into my Spam folder by default. They've got a few issues to sort out before they can utilise these emails for anything!
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David Gurney, Alchemetrics | Thu, 10 Nov 2011 1:47 pm
There are always going to be teething issues refining a system using as much data as ITV has likely accumulated, but it’s pleasing to see it finally putting its data to use in a constructive way. In terms of the online TV streaming market, the potential of this new direction puts ITV in very good stead. The network is often criticized for the avalanche of advertising it inflict on its viewers (the recent fury over the Downton ad slots being the obvious example). So perhaps this new data focus will allow it to target individuals on a more personal level with marketing that is actually relevant to them. Look forward to watching how this plays out.
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