Household Targeting Can Teach Digital New Tricks: MadHive’s Berlingo

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico  — The last couple of decades of digital ad targeting have tended to focus on individual users.

After all, targetable devices tended to have solitary users.

But the new internet-enabling of television changes that, and Craig Berlingo thinks that can make digital targeting better.

Best of both

In this video interview with Forrester VP and principal analyst Joanna O’Connell at Beet Retreat San Juan, MadHive’s Craig Berlingo says household targeting is not as imprecise as some digital folk may think. Rather, it holds the key to unlocking purchase.

“Household is that next level that’s starting to get more baked into some of the newer platforms,” Berlingo says.

“There are places where a linear television is a better buy than digital. But there’s overlap.

“There’s a different context. It also helps us to speak the same language as linear (reach and frequency). To be able to have something that is comparable in digital, I think is really important.”

Leverage the overlap

MadHive is a video-focused DSP. It works with broadcast groups to enable their salespeople to visit, plan, buy and measure across linear and IP-delivered TV, amongst other channels.

It offers a programmatic platform for all parts of the ecosystem – buyerssellers and data partners – including supporting planning, buying, measurement and AI-based optimization.

Berlingo says appreciating that overlap, being able to target either individuals or households, is the key.

Family context

“The really interesting stuff I don’t think in ad-tech we’ve captured until we start looking at households is that there are decisions that are made at that level,” Berlingo adds, offering a couple of examples:

  • Family car: “If there’s a couple who is going to buy a car, it doesn’t really matter which person bought the car. It was a home decision.
  • Kid’s toy: “In a family where there is a kid who was really excited about a toy and wants it for their birthday, the parent buys the toy.

“If you understand that concept of household, if you can understand that as a new identity layer, then you can capture that.”

You are watching coverage from Beet Retreat San Juan 2022, presented by AppScience, Infillion, MadHive, SpringServe, Univision & VideoAmp. For more videos, please visit this page.