Furious's Blog

At Furious, we eat, sleep and breathe arming TV sellers with the tools they need to incorporate the lessons of digital and ultimately to keep TV ascendant in this next era of media. We see it as a matter of adaptation, of retooling the organization, the business, the stakeholders, and the sellers in the trenches with a new set of tools with which to fight what is essentially a new battle.

Throughout the next month, we’ll be releasing content to give TV sellers tools they need to stay on top. Look for learnings on addressable TV (i.e., thinking beyond CPP), our thoughts on the unduplicated reach curve (spoiler alert: it’s a myth!), and our take on the rate card of the future.

One of my favorite hip hop artists, LL Cool J, describes TV advertising today the way that I see it at a moment in time, better than anyone:

“Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years.”

I have considered framing my argument in a variety of ways. I could trash digital and discuss fraud, fake news, a lack of trust, etc. Or, I could simply use the size and inertia of TV and the stellar Q3 2018 Political revenue (which not only threw TV a bone but changed the power dynamic of our country). I could speak about upper funnel versus lower funnel, the power of reach for a brand marketer only attainable in TV, etc.

All of these would make for a potentially interesting blog post but would ultimately not be the whole story.

News of Nielsen being on the the block has been swirling as of late. Couple that with the threat from major broadcasters to walk away from the measurement giant, and the growth of Addressable TV offerings leads us all to the very real potential of a completely reimagined measurement paradigm for TV; but what would that look like?

Let’s face it folks, linear TV is not getting any easier. More screens, more measurement, more rate types all spell more work for your sales organizations. So with all that MORE, you know what there is less and less of…TIME.

Programming is often a team effort for introverts. When working as a developer, you will run into decisions other developers have made that you consider mistakes.

It could be a data structure designed with three tightly bound tables. It could be a massive REST API managing all the company's requests with obsolete technology you need to extend or replace. It could include delicate, untested code that when modified, is likely to cause both personal and technical explosion.

I have built systems that contained all of these flaws, or worked with the (sometimes catastrophic) results. Working with and learning from other programmers is simply easier when you can critique their code effectively without offending them.

The growth [which is always impressive from base of 0] of digital media created a temporary [and artificial] bubble and offered investors and entrepreneurs a shiny object to chase. It was long believed there was more upside to be had in innovation that ‘blew stuff up’ or disrupted traditional TV businesses by shifting time and attention to new, digital platforms.

We all know the famous Benjamin Franklin quote: “There are only two certainties in life – death and taxes;” but I think we can certainly say there are 3 certainties in life and things we can’t avoid: death, taxes AND change. And is it me or does it seem like the changes in our industry are dizzying?

Just when you feel like you’ve got one new thing figured out, the next bright, shiny, confusing object of our industry's affection comes along to rock your world. It seems like we’ve been in a constant state of ‘digital transformation’ and transition for over 10 years.