Page 54 - Adnews magazine Sep-Oct 2022

Meet The Team
LUKE CARMICHAEL•HEAD OF ADVERTISER PARTNERSHIPS
What is your one key goal for 2022?
Growth! For our advertising partners, our business, and also personally. Despite the challenges of the past couple of years it feels like now is the time to redress the balance and spread our wings.
This is as true for Samsung Ads, as it’s true for our partners. My main focus will be on how we can deepen relationships, build out more robust insights and evolve our offering with our key partners in mind.
Have brands in Australia been quick enough to embrace Samsung Ads?
We have seen excellent up-take from content partners, which makes perfect sense in terms of driving viewership when consumers are in that perfect
moment of discovery before deciding what to watch. However, there is a big job to be done
more broadly around educating the industry and raising CTV awareness across other categories, which will be crucial for driving adoption.
Is there anything about Samsung Ads you’ve learnt since joining that surprised you?
For me it is almost a double ‘ah-ha’ moment in meetings, the first is when the client looks under the hood and can see just how deep we can go, and secondly when we can get a better understanding of their core business KPIs and how we can connect the two. That is when you know you have a win, win partnership.
DANIEL PALMISANO•HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, SAMSUNG TV PLUS
What does a typical day look like for you?
I’d like to say it is reviewing and selecting content for Samsung
TV Plus every day. But a lot of the groundwork is negotiating, drafting and reviewing licensing and commercial agreements. We’re also meeting with content providers and distributors both locally and internationally to see what’s new.
A big component of this is looking at channel and genre performance, viewing time share and monthly active users on the platform.
What goals do you have for the next 12 months?
It is a quality not a quantity game. We want to expand premium content to drive viewership and awareness . A big focus is on well known, bingeable content and channels that engage viewers. We’re also in the process
of a global re-brand of Samsung TV
Plus to help establish its position
as a free lean back TV service that Samsung TV owners can switch
on. The next 12 months is about increasing our offering and giving channel distributors another avenue for eyeballs and revenue.
What’s the most challenging part of your role?
Launching the first FAST service
in Australia was a great first mover advantage but it doesn’t come without complications. The biggest one being the perception and value of ad-funded TV services in comparison to other traditional content distribution models. But the growth and adoption has been strong here and if you just look to the US; they now have over 1,000+ FAST services and counting! We are seeing the
tide change, as both consumers and distributors hit their tipping point for distribution and share of wallet.
www.adnews.com.au | September - October 2022 54