Viacom VIA 3.57 % has hired a digital agency veteran to help the media company accelerate its efforts to sell advertising through a more data-driven approach.  Julian Zilberbrand has been named executive vice president of Viacom’s newly formed Audience Science group. The unit pulls together several existing divisions, all of which broadly focus on helping marketers use their own proprietary customer data and data from other sources to target precise audiences across Viacom’s digital properties and TV networks including MTV, Nickelodeon and BET.  Mr. Zilberbrand brings an extensive background in the digital advertising business, most recently serving as executive vice president of activation standards, insights and technology at the media buying firm ZenithOptimedia. He will report to Kern Schireson, Viacom’s executive vice president of data strategy and consumer intelligence.  Viacom has been actively building out its capabilities and talent as the media conglomerate strives to have its TV ads sales work more like digital ad sales in terms of precision targeting and measurement, according to Mr. Schireson. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman last year set a goal for half of the company’s ad revenue to come from selling new products that aren’t tied to old-fashioned Nielsen ratings.  The media giant is shifting its pitch to marketers at a time when domestic ad sales fell 9% in the second quarter and its major cable networks like Comedy Central and MTV have been hit with double-digit ratings declines.  Viacom has been working with a handful of advertisers over the past two years testing various ad-targeting tactics that go beyond trying to reach broad audiences in shows, such as women aged 18-34. Now, according to Mr. Schireson, the company is working with 11 marketers who are using both proprietary data and advanced software to buy ads that reach specific segments, such as people who are currently in the market for a particular truck.  Beyond this form of advanced TV ad targeting, brands are looking to measure the performance of these campaigns in ways that are more advanced than the typical monitoring of ratings, Mr. Schireson said.  “There is a lot of momentum behind this platform,” he said. “And getting Julian is a real leadership hire. He’ll help us connect and accelerate these groups within the company.”  In addition to helping Viacom craft better ad-targeting offerings for marketers, Mr. Zilberbrand also will work with the Viacom teams that focus on marketing its own shows and movies through TV and digital advertising, said Mr. Schireson.  One of Mr. Zilberbrand’s advantages should be that he understands how ad buyers and their clients think.  “The reality is, [this data-oriented buying] is where the market has to go and it’s where advertisers want it to go, I can assure you of that,” Mr. Zilberbrand said. “I’m basically focused on hitting those goals.”  Mr. Schireson noted that if Viacom does indeed reach Mr. Dauman’s three-year plan, that could represent roughly $2 billion of media being transacted via these nontraditional tactics.  Of course, the question is whether would be pursuing these types of ad buys if Viacom’s young-skewing networks like MTV and Nickelodeon were having the same ratings success of the past.  “Probably yes, but we’d probably be moving more slowly,” said Mr. Schireson. “But if you think about it, Philippe has been far more active than other CEO on this because of the shifts we’ve seen in our audiences. Now, we believe there is real value in tweaking the way we value targets and segments. And he keeps asking, ‘how do we go faster?’”
Viacom hired ZenithOptimedia executive Julian Zilberbrand to oversee its new Audience Science division, which is focused on bolstering advanced TV ad targeting for the owner of MTV and Comedy Central.