Michael Bologna, chief accelerator at BrightLine, delivered the closing keynote at the Advanced Advertising Summit. Under the title “What’s Working Now, and a Look into the Future,” Bologna spoke about how ad agencies, media companies and marketing brands must work closer together to ensure better advertising results. 

“When those three constituents work together, I do think advertisers are well served,” he said. “They’re not when one or more of those parties fall back.”

B+C senior content producer Jon Lafayette interviewed Bologna, who described BrightLine as “the standard for interactive advertising within connected television.”

Asked about Irwin Gotlieb’s assessment of the ad industry earlier in the day, which saw Gotlieb say, “Are these the best of times? Hell, no,” Bologna agreed with a lot of what his former boss shared, including the industry’s reluctance to work together on common issues. 

“I do think every last one of us had plenty of time to prepare for where we are today,” he added. “We brought it upon ourselves when we chose not to act.”

The ad industry is “very good about pointing out what’s wrong, what’s broken, what needs to be fixed, what we don’t like,” he added. “We’re not so good at making hard decisions about what we need to fix those.”

The Advanced Advertising Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. Advanced Ads happens September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events take place at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 5th. 

The discussion turned to streaming, and Bologna said there could, and should, be more consistency in terms of ad formats among those players. “Google, Netflix, Amazon, the user experience is fantastic,” he said. “But they all have different models when it comes to commercials, they all have different models when it comes to ad formats.”

“They’re not doing us a great service,” Bologna added. 

Bologna added that the streamers are a bit behind the curve in terms of addressable formats in advertising. If Disney and NBC can agree to use a common format, he noted, the big streamers, be it Amazon or Netflix, can too. 

As the keynote wrapped, he again urged agencies, media companies and advertising brands to work better with one other. 

“Everybody can’t win all the time,” Bologna said. “There has to be a bit of give and take.”

With more marketers moving advertising dollars to streaming, BrightLine, a pioneer in interactive commercials, has produced a study to show that the new more immersive formats enabled by streaming produce positive results.

In a report outlining the study, BrightLine seeks to answer the question: “As platforms push remaining viewers toward streaming and advertisers follow, how can advertisers utilize streaming to stand out and break through?”

Spoiler alert: the answer at the end of the study is, “If you’re only going to choose one streaming ad format: choose interactive. A single impression of interactive media drives more impact than a single impression of a standard video spot.”

Brightline’s interactive ad formats have been adopted and adapted by media companies including The Walt Disney Co., NBCUniversal, Paramount Plus, Roku and Vizio.

BrightLine worked with MediaScience on the study, which was designed to compare single exposures to standard video ads with interactive video ads. The study also looked at what happens when standard ads are paired with interactive ads and how much multiple exposures to an interactive ad can move the needle.

A single exposure to an interactive ad led to brand recall scores that were 36% higher than a single exposure to a standard video ad, the study found. Aided recall got a smaller boost and message recall was about the same.

When viewers see both a standard commercial and an interactive video ad, unaided recall jumps 58%, aided recall increases 22% and message recall gains 47%.

A second exposure to the interactive video increases recall by double digits, the study found.

“When combined with standard video, the pairing adds an incremental impact and lifts memory recall even higher than either format individually,” the study concluded. “Similarly, two exposures to interactive media have an incremental impact, suggesting that the more you utilize interactive ads, the more that your brand will stay top of mind.”

BrightLine, which provides interactive and shoppable advertising formats, said it launched StreamLine, a self-service system for creating dynamic commercials that can appear on all top streaming platforms.

StreamLine lets users design and build their own interactive experience and allow creative messages to scale–eliminating the need to develop specific assets for different platforms.

“We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel with StreamLine and thus set out to architect something that fits within existing creative workflows. Our approach, developing a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, allows creatives to work within a well-known design software, versus having to learn a new web-based system,” said Brian Baldwin, BrightLine’s head of product.  “The accompanying portal for uploading and seeing ads function in real-time will dramatically improve the design and process, thus cutting down lead times as well.”

StreamLine will allow media partners to be self-sufficient in the deployment of an array of formats, including in-stream interactive, expandable, dynamic, and transaction-enabled units that can be run in both on-demand and live streaming environments, BrightLine said.

Also Read: Allen Media Group Adopting BrightLine Interactive Ad Formats

StreamLine is already in use via streamers in Latin America, India, and Australia.

“Brands are increasingly feeling the pressure to capitalize on the burgeoning streaming TV landscape while maximizing the value of every impression. This trend is fueling the demand for our data-driven, interactive, and dynamic advertising formats, which deliver a more impactful advertising experience," said Jason McGowan, VP Engineering at BrightLine. “These new automated design tools come at the perfect time to support surging demand and scale, both here and abroad.” 

Allen Media Group said is working with BrightLine to provide interactive ad experiences to sponsors on Allen’s Weather Channel, Local Now and HBCU Go connected TV apps.

AMG will be using BrightLine’s Frame ad, which delivers a marketing message without disrupting programming. The Frame ads will be featured as part of AMG’s upfront deals. 

“Frame ads not only reinforce brand messaging but also provide opportunities for interactivity and highlight shoppable moments within programming,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “Our AMG streaming apps are now well-positioned to lead the way in creating a premium, next generation viewing environment, representing a major expansion of possibilities for brands to creatively and non-disruptively integrate their messaging into programming moments that matter most to targeted streaming audiences.”

AMG said it was looking forward to other kinds of interactive and shoppable ad experiences tailored to viewer passions and programming content.

“We’re excited to partner with Allen Media Group in bringing the next generation of advertising experiences to viewers,” said Robert Aksman, president of BrightLine. “Our cutting-edge streaming ad technology, combined with Allen Media Group's commitment to innovation, allows advertisers to engage with audiences in new and impactful ways, seamlessly integrated into their viewing experience.”

Dish Media said it is working with BrightLine to enable interactive advertising units in Dish’s Sling TV streaming service.

BrightLine is bringing new advanced advertising products to the party, with In-Stream Interactive and Dynamic Addressable units.

The interactive ads can run in live and on-demand inventory.

Also Read: BrightLine Puts Pedal to the Metal With New CTV Ad Formats

"As a leading streaming platform, our goal is to provide our Slingadvertisers with the most effective, full-funnel ad solutions that allow for optimal targeting," Dish Media VP, sales Dave Antonelli said. “Our first-party subscriber data coupled with Brightline's suite of personalized ad experiences is another opportunity for our brand partners to achieve better attribution and guide consumers further down the marketing funnel.”

According to a recent study by BrightLine, dynamic CTV ad inventory delivered a 126% purchase attribution rate and a 3.5% lift in purchase intent.

“There’s a growing appetite for dynamic ad units that allow advertisers to engage directly with their audience and deliver more than a traditional TV commercial,” said Michael Bologna, chief accelerator at BrightLine. “We’ve partnered with Dish Media to expand the possibilities for CTV advertisers and provide viewers with the most dynamic, effective and measurable ad experience available.”

Leaning into connected TV and stomping on the gas when it comes to interactive advertising, BrightLine said it is launching an Accelerator PTM (pedal to the metal) collection of ad formats.

One of BrightLine’s Accelerator PTM formats is called “Beat the Clock.” Instead of watching passively during a 30-second spot, viewers are asked to answer trivia questions or challenged to a product-related contest like “dunk the fries.”

Another format, Retail Connect, encourages viewers to use their remote to connect with goods being promoted on screen.

The new formats are designed to take advantage of the capabilities enabled by the digital nature of CTV.

“This is an advanced new platform,  and it doesn’t make sense to simply run a standard, 30-second commercial when you're running on these super-high-bandwidth channels and machines with high processing power,” Rob Aksman, BrightLine president and co-founder, told Broadcasting+Cable.

The new formats “are more robust and certainly more engaging and immersive for the viewers,” Aksman said. “PTM represents a major new upgrade” from Brightline’s previous OTT Accelerator units.

BrightLine’s technology and formats are used by Peacock, Hulu, Max and most of the other major streaming services.

“Pretty much all the major streamers have our Tech integrated and have all of our ad formats available to them,” he said.

Also Read: Samsung Ads Working With BrightLine on Interactive CTV Ads

BrightLine will preview the new formats for the next few weeks before showing them off at CES in Las Vegas in January. They will be available to streamers as part of BrightLine’s next software update.

The new formats are designed not to interrupt programming or force viewers to pause content while interacting with ads, Aksman noted.

“We don't want to do that,” Aksman said. “We have in-stream units today that keep you in your stream. They don't pause anything,”

The Beat the Clock format lets viewers play trivia for only the same 30 seconds a static ad would take up. Similarly, you’re done dunking french fries or blotting out stains when the 30 seconds ends.

“We're not taking them away,“ he said. ”We’re not trying to distract them completely. We just give them a reason to look at the screen while that ad is playing. It’s something quick, fun, and certainly more memorable experience than just a passive ad.”

Similarly, BrightLine’s commerce commercials don’t require a pause. Clicking the remote control sends a link to a viewer’s phone that will enable them to buy items when they’re ready.

“T-commerce is the name of the game lately,” Aksman says, but simply putting a QR code in a commercial isn’t always very effective. “The QR code is a baby step toward where true shoppable television is headed.”

Response rates for QR codes in ads are in the 0.3% range, according to Aksman. Ads that are interactive via the remote control generate 1% to 5% interaction rates.

But Aksman added that “not everything is about making an instant purchase when you're watching TV.”

Branding also gets a boost from the deeper engagement BrightLine’s formats produce.

“We see it across the board, with increases in brand favorability, brand recall and purchase intent,” Aksman said.

BrightLine develops new formats in consultation with the agencies and networks it works with to see what they want to accomplish or what consumer behavior they want to track.

BrightLine has been in the interactive advertising business for a long time, which gives it an advantage over newer competitors.

“I think one misconception out there is people don't realize how proprietary and closed the connected TV technology ecosystem is,” Aksman said. “It's kind of painful to get our Integrations into place with these partners. So, once integrated, you know, the onus is on us to make the most of those Integrations and make sure that we're constantly pumping out new products and innovations that support our partners.”

Because of BrightLine’s tenure in the business, it has a lot of data about what works and what still works. “It’s funny, coming from the pre-CTV world, how much of those old behaviors are new again,” Aksman said.

He recalled creating interactive channels that would live in cable and satellite electronic program guides, which are becoming popular again as viewers turn to free, ad-supported television (FAST) channels.

“In connected, they're now learning that it's that same thing all over again,“ he said. “People like channel-surfing, so let’s create fast channels and recreate the guide. It’s just so funny to see some of these behaviors that we saw and took advantage of over 20 years ago are new and being rolled out to the CTV universe. It’s just fascinating to watch.”

Samsung Ads said it is working with BrightLine to expand its interactive and shoppable advertising capabilities on connected TV.

The relationship is designed to make Samsung’s CTV advertising more focused on outcomes.

Samsung Ads will utilize BrightLine’s new dynamic ad units, which allow for live and personalized ads, the addition of scrollable branded carousels, on-screen polls and trivia experiences.

“CTV advertising has been about delivering the solutions brands need to achieve measurable results,“ Samsung Ads VP of ad sales & operations Michael Scott said. “Today, we’ve evolved to a point where CTV is now capable of delivering results beyond simply reach and awareness. With BrightLine’s advanced capabilities, advertisers are now able to engage consumers in a real-time dialogue and exchange for the first time on Samsung Smart TVs, opening a whole new world of possibilities for brands.”

BrightLine’s proprietary, TV-first interactive ad suite plugs seamlessly into Samsung’s user interface and smart TV operating system, the companies said.

"BrightLine is helping partners like Samsung Ads deliver on the promise and potential of truly dynamic CTV ad experiences,” Mike Bologna, BrightLine’s chief accelerator, said. “Now that Smart TVs have become so much more than just a vehicle for video consumption, these new ad units provide opportunities for audiences to engage and take action directly from their screen, complementing the rich Samsung connected ecosystem.”

Vizio is adding interactive commercial breaks to channels on its WatchFree Plus free streaming platform by working with dynamic advertising company Brightline.

Ad breaks on Vizio can include trivia questions to engage viewers, provide users with an opportunity to click to find out more about products, scroll through available colors for a car they are considering buying, or shop via an interactive catalog.

For Brightline, the deal marks the first time its OTT Accelerator offering has been integrated into a smart TV platform. The technology powers interactive advertising on streaming platforms including Hulu, Peacock and Discovery Plus.

“FAST viewing is going to play an integral role in the future of the TV ecosystem, and this integration is going to optimize the experience for brands and millions of consumers that start their journey with Vizio,” said Travis Hockersmith, group VP, Platform Plus at Vizio. “This partnership brings engagement and interactivity to the biggest screen in the house on WatchFree Plus.”

So far this year, BrightLine has run more than 350 campaigns for 80 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers, including BMW and American Express.

More than $100 million in media will be spent running BrightLine’s Accelerator ad formats in 2022, as brands look beyond the standard, 30-second spot. Over 20% of homes exposed to Accelerator ads in a given month respond and engage, while time and again driving greater lifts in brand metrics than a spot alone. 

“Partnering with Vizio represents the next phase of expansion for BrightLine’s Accelerator Ads, as FAST Channel viewing from smart TV manufacturers has burst onto the scene and seen unprecedented adoption,” said Mike Bologna, chief accelerator at BrightLine. “Vizio  has been a pioneer from day one with their unique targeting capabilities, which make a powerful combination now with engaging ad formats that deliver and measure attention.” ■

With connected TV undergoing explosive growth, advanced advertising company BrightLine said it launched its new suite of products and capabilities under an OTT Accelerator banner. 

The suite has four pillars and includes re-engineered interactive ad units, programmatic buying,  measurement capabilities to help plan campaigns and verification to prevent fraud and assure clients that their ads are being shown to the right people. 

“We’re going full throttle with the CTV business,” Michael Bologna, the advanced advertising veteran who joined BrightLine as chief accelerator earlier this year, told Broadcasting+Cable. “We’ve not only seen an uptick in CTV ad dollars but the quality of brands and the amount that they’re spending with us now has increased, which has forced us to up our game.”

Bologna said Brightline works with 72 of the top 100 advertisers, including American Express, BMW, Coca-Cola, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Home Depot and Molson Coors. It also works with most of the top media companies.

Also: Warner Bros. Discovery Working With BrightLine on Advanced Ad Products

The new OTT Accelerator starts with ad units that have been re-engineered. The units can be addressable, interactive, personalized and shoppable.

As part of the new OTT Accelerator, the ad units can be bought programmatically. “It’s all about adapting interactive and advanced ad units in the CTV space to the way the agencies and the industry might want to execute and increasingly that’s programmatic,” Bologna said.

The third pillar is an intelligence engine that gets measurement data from software development kits (SDKs) that Brightline embeds in all of the apps and many of the devices on which its ads run. The intelligence engine ensures that advertisers can calculate their CTV campaign’s reach and frequency, some that’s crucial but has been elusive till now.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a first for the industry in terms of a holistic CTV advertising planning tool,” Bologna said.

Finally, the SDKs also enable Brightline to assure clients that their ads are being seen by real people and the right people.

This is crucial after GroupM and iSpot.TV released a study that found that advertisers are wasting $1 billion a year because some ads are being counted despite being delivered when the television is turned off.

“The truth is when you advertise with one of our accelerator ad units, there is no fraud. IT’s 100% verified," Bologna said. ■

Warner Bros. Discovery said it is working with BrightLine to provide two advanced advertising products — Click-to-Contact and Viewer’s Choice.

The products are being sold in the upfront and will be available on Discovery Plus in the fourth quarter.

“By offering more advanced advertising options to our partners, including these two new products with BrightLine, we are able to drive brand awareness by offering choices to ad-receptive, engaged consumers,” Warner Bros. Discovery executive VP of digital ad sales and advanced advertising Jim Keller said. “Click-to-Contact and Viewer’s Choice are excellent additions to our bold suite of solutions on Discovery Plus that drive results for clients.”

Click-to-Contact enables a consumer to click on an ad and instantly receive an email from Discovery Plus on behalf of the advertiser. The email includes product details and instructions on how to make purchases.

Viewer’s Choice is a choose-your-own-adventure type of ad. At the beginning of the commercial, the consumer can pick from a set of ads they want to see or products they want to know more about. The goal is to drive brand awareness and relevance.

“Discovery’s launch signifies another leap forward for ad personalization and shopability on TV. Audiences expect and want personalized experiences and instant gratification, which applies as much to ads as it does content, so this represents another win for the viewer experience,” BrightLine president Rob Aksman said. ■

Advanced advertising pioneer Michael Bologna has joined Brightline as chief accelerator.

Bologna will be helping Brightline introduce its new product OTT Accelerator, which enables TV networks and distributors to create targeted, personalized interactive and shoppable experiences during commercials on connected TV.

“Going to work for what used to be my biggest competitor sounded like the craziest thing in the world when I first thought about it,” Bologna told Broadcasting+Cable. 

While he was heading advanced advertising for GroupM, Brightline would pitch Bologna’s clients its own advanced advertising products. “That’s how I got to know Jacqui [Brightline co-founder Jacqueline Corbelli]. But this is my passion: data, technology, television, interactive. That’s what I love to do and I couldn't turn it down.”

Bologna said that Brightline pivoted to CTV, working with networks as clients, rather than advertisers. Those clients now include media companies like Disney, NBCUniversal, Discovery, Fox, A+E Networks, AMC Networks and platforms like Roku, Samsung, Apple and Amazon.

With the growth of CTV, Brightline's business has taken off as well. 

“As a TV-first company, we tackled the CTV ecosystem early, and that’s why we have this colossal footprint in place now,” said Rob Aksman, Brightline co-founder. “The world has entered our wheelhouse at just the right time. There is only one way you can run interactive, personalized shoppable ads across every one of the major streamers, and that’s through BrightLine’s technology.”

The new OTT Accelerator is intended to make Brightline grow even faster.

“Our technology gets installed into [clients] apps,” Bologna said. ”Think of Accelerator more as an ad experience, not an interactive ad. You don’t click through to something else on television. It’s a new experience that happens during the 30 second ad.”

Most recently Bologna was president and chief revenue officer of start-up measurement company HyphaMetrics. He continues as an investor and chairman of its advisory board.

Before that he was president of One2One Media, which became part of Cadent.

That’s 24 years in the business, most of them involved with advanced advertising.

“So much has changed. Everything that we’ve always been talking about is now happening,” he said. 

“The way people watch television has changed and the technology being the way people watch ads has caught up with it, with targeting and interactivity,” he said. “These ads are personalized, interactive, they’re shoppable and they are accountable.”

Bologna said new people coming into the industry find it hard to understand how TV used to work in the olden days, particularly the economics of advertising.

“The terminology has changed and perspectives have changed, but the people that have always been passionate about this stuff, they’re still around, at least most of them,” he said. “It’s a good time to be in the business. If I were a young kid coming out of college right now, all of the new mechanisms of advertising  would excite me about being in the media business.” ■

Extreme Reach said it is working with BrightLine to create personalized, interactive advertising and advanced ad formats in connected TV and over-the-top environments.

At a time when marketers’ spending on CTV is jumping, the companies are relying on Brightline expertise in CTV ad technology and distribution with Extreme Reach’s brand creative management and workflow.

Also Read: Connected TV Holds 35% Share of Video Impressions: Extreme Reach

“BrightLine is the originator and leader in interactive CTV ads and, like ER, built their solution in partnership with the sell-side in order to best serve the buy-side,” said Extreme Reach CEO and co-founder Tim Conley. “Extreme Reach is well known for being the leading steward of creative assets for global brands and the most trusted source of assets for the sell-side, both linear and digital. Under the radar, we’ve become the fastest growing independent video ad server, with 10x growth in volume over the last three years. Rather than build yet another proprietary interactive creative solution, we believe providing scalable and seamless advanced creative solutions through this BrightLine partnership is the fastest way to bring more value to the world’s best brands.”

Extreme Reach works with 93 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers. BrightLine’s customers include Hulu, Peacock and Discovery Plus.

Also Read: Verizon, Innovid, BrightLine Join for Interactive CTV Ads

“Extreme Reach’s central position as the largest portal for sourcing and managing brand creative assets was a very compelling reason to enter into this partnership,” said Robert Aksman, president and co-founder of BrightLine. “Their deep expertise in creative logistics, activation workflow and rights management for global brands is extremely complementary to our offering for premium publishers, making it even easier and streamlined for brands to execute at scale.”

Aksman said BrightLine is seeing programmatic demand for interactive CTV ads surge four times so far in 2021 due to agency demand combined with a growing supply.

Verizon Media said it is teaming up with Innovid and BrightLine to offer marketers interactive ads on connected TV. 

Amid the pandemic, CTV has been hot, with impression volume growing 66% in August, compared to a year ago.

“There’s no question that audiences have altered their consumption behavior, perhaps for good, as a result of the pandemic. Innovation is now at a premium as brands adapt to new ways of reaching audiences, with interactive ads leading the way in meeting consumer expectations,” Verizon Media said in a blog post.

Verizon said that interactive ads are already six times more engaging than standard pre-roll ads. Interactive ads layer on additional targeting capabilities to reach viewers that are most likely to lean in.

According to the company 71% of CTV viewers use their mobile devices to look up related content while watching TV, creating an opportunity for advertisers to make connections with target audiences.

The two companies Verizon is working with have long backgrounds in interactive TV.

Innovid in 2008 filed the world's first patent to insert interactive objects into video. It delivered an interactive ad for Pringles during the 2019 Super Bowl.

BrightLine’s technology inserts enhanced ad format for CTV across a large footprint of TV partners and OTT technologies. During the 2018 Olympics BrightLine delivered a unique ad experience. It also worked with Hulu to allow shoppable video for Hulu.

The classic future sell is an age-old marketing trick. When your compelling solution is not quite ready, sell the future.

Remember the early days of mobile phones, when companies would run ads of happy people working with laptops and phones on tropical beaches with the tagline, “In the future you will be able to work from anywhere?” Ironically, in the ’90s, this was a utopian vision. But the message was a classic future sell at the time.

Back then, mobile signals and internet access were just not fast enough to truly and efficiently work outside of an office. So, to make mobile phones seem sexy, companies talked about what was to come.

Fast-forward to the burgeoning world of over-the-top video, where convergence through streaming has very much arrived. We are seeing an interesting future-selling phenomenon here, too, where several leading players, such as Amazon, Netflix, Google and the telcos, are now moving aggressively inside the OTT space. AT&T has announced the rollout of a promising new platform, Xandr, and Disney has expressed ambitious OTT plans of its own. But the reality is that the comprehensive solutions across the OTT and connected-TV ecosystem they describe, while exciting, aren’t quite here yet.

Disruption Takes Time

Simply put, it takes time to implement market-changing strategies. But because the AT&Ts, Disneys and Amazons of the world tend to garner outsized media attention — understandably so — the notion of OTT/CTV as a future sell has taken hold in many people’s minds.

It’s a great example of a perception that is not reality. It ignores the powerful, impactful things that advertisers are doing right now at national scale within the OTT space.

Today, on platforms like Hulu, Roku and TV network apps including CBS All Access, NBC, ABC, Fox Now and many others, marketers are running personalized, engageable and targeted TV ads at full scale; these enhanced ad experiences have reached 70 million homes.

There will always be future-selling, but the ramp-up in OTT ad inventory and continued growth in TV streaming means the present is also totally compelling. All major broadcast and cable networks are now on board with streaming as the primary new delivery vehicle for TV. And the new TV experience means superior viewing opportunities for consumers involving personalized ads, voice navigation and a truly seamless “everywhere” experience at scale. It also means nationally scalable household addressable targeting for marketers in TV, beyond the local ad buys available up until now. And finally, it means nationally scalable enhanced brand experiences that match the personalization and interactivity of the TV experience itself.

Most exciting in all that has changed about TV is the industry’s embrace of connected TV and the universal commitment to providing more of the amazing things we can do now. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Roku are showing us the magic of the new ways streaming TV content can be consumed. And it has unleashed a torrent of change in media, tech and advertising to reflect viewers’ woke habits.

So, really, future sell or no future sell, the future has arrived. It’s here, it’s real and it’s exciting. The bold strategies being rolled out by the biggest players will only accentuate the transformation that has already occurred.

Jacqueline Corbelli is founder, chair and CEO of BrightLine. She can be followed on Twitter at @JCITV.