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With all the focus on first-party data — for advertisers, and media platforms (TV networks and streamers) — now comes a new spin, with agentic artificial intelligence (AI) trends.
“I have a feeling first-party data may not matter very much,” said longtime media futurist/media agency executive Rishad Tobaccowala during an OpenAP event at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week.
Tobaccowala, who was most recently global strategist and chief growth officer of Publicis Groupe, reasons that this is because of the accelerating trajectory of getting information — which is now moving quickly from old-school digital search — to new AI services, like ChatCPT, Grok, Gemini.
“The answers are coming up so fast [for consumers]; why is it they are spending so much more time with ChatCPT than they did with search?,” he asks. “They spend much more time because this has become their friend.”
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He adds: “They are talking in real-time. So their forward knowledge is deeper than any first-party data that anyone has. They go back and forth in deep conversations.”
Tobaccowala cautions that first-party data still has major value — perhaps just less so. Real-time information and sentiment and shifting consumer engagement via AI search is more relevant than slightly older first-party data. In effect, there is somewhat of a latency issue to the quality of that first-party data.
So if you are a Walt Disney, NBCUniversal or Paramount Skydance and you want to put your first-party data in a clean room with your biggest advertising clients’ brands’ data, the results may not be as effective — more so now than previously.
Consumers may be increasingly changing their media preferences — TV shows, streaming or network, or broader digital media platforms — more rapidly.
Perhaps this is why the likes of Netflix and others start and end TV series more quickly in one, two, or three seasons with modest seasonal episodes of sometimes just nine or so.
What has been known for some time is that first-party data has limited scale and reach: First-party data is confined to one’s existing audience. It does not provide insights into the wider market. In other words: helping advertisers acquire new customers.
Right now, first-party audiences on NBCUniversal platforms cannot seamlessly be matched with the same user in Disney’s or Amazon’s environment.
Perhaps this goes beyond asking ChatCPT to suggest a new crime procedural TV drama like “FBI” (CBS) or “Law & Order” (NBC).
For example, AI could suggest new, one-minute “micro-drama” episodes that are growing on social media.
Wayne, isn’t it a pity that Shakespeare didn’t have the skill to “micro-drama” his 39 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 plays and save us all that time. Hmmmm … I wonder whether ChatCPT will still be around in 400+ years.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
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