Smaller advertisers are increasingly buying connected TV programmatically, according to a new report from FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad-tech unit.

Impressions from independent agencies are up by 24% so far this year, according to FreeWheel’s The State of Programmatic Independent Demand report.

Independent media agencies tend to represent smaller marketers than the big agency holding companies. Most media companies have been making ad inventory available to smaller advertisers through self-serve and programmatic technology.

“The independent market is in an era of turbo-charged growth,” FreeWheel chief revenue officer Katy Loria said. “This growth is fueled by the increasing adoption of programmatic advertising by marketers, coupled with the expansion of premium CTV supply. Advertisers of all sizes now have powerful tools for measuring and attributing their premium video campaigns’ success, driving higher demand and better outcomes.” 

FreeWheel found that the adoption of multi-publisher programmatic bundles is up 119% as advertisers endeavor to reach their target audience across CTV platforms. 

It also found that some ad categories are strong in the independent market, with pharmaceutical, gaming, telecom and retail marketers turning to programmatic as a way to produce better return on investment.

“With niche first-party audiences, scale can often be an issue,” said Garrett Dale, chief partnership officer and co-founder, Kepler Group. “Curated group deals have been integral in complementing publisher direct programmatic activations to expand reach of high-value audiences for brands, enabling Kepler to achieve and exceed client business goals from both brand awareness to performance objectives.” 

With major sports events coming in the second half of the year, the appeal of programmatic could be tested. Historically, sports have not been significantly bought programmatically.  That could change this year and test the programmatic technical infrastructure.

“The biggest events — NFL playoffs, Olympics, March Madness — are all available for streaming, which offers a huge opportunity for programmatic advertising,” said Moe Chughtai, global head of advanced TV, MiQ. “If executed effectively, not only does this reduce the investment barriers to entry for marketers to gain access to this programming, it also brings a new level of addressability and accountability to live sports. By partnering with programmers and tech partners, we can make live sports the fastest-growing sector for biddable advertising.” 

With more ad sales being done programmatically, FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad-tech company has introduced a new product designed to enable media companies manage inventory across sales channels.

FreeWheel’s Allocation Module will be available before the 2024 upfront. It is designed to give publishers a holistic view of spending against upfront commitments regardless of transaction type, enabling them to optimize the monetization of their inventory. That includes biddable programmatic deals..

It also lets users of demand side platforms know whether or not they are bidding enough in real time to meet the ad spending commitments their clients’ made during the upfront.

Media companies AMC Networks, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed on as initial development partners and will test the Allocation Module ahead of the upfront.

“Existing systems have been holding back the modern day upfront. There has been an inherent conflict between the concept of upfront commitments and programmatic bidding, which happens in real time,” said David Dworin, chief product officer at FreeWheel. “This new solution bridges that gap and has the potential to turbocharge the shift to programmatic as part of the next upfront.”

FreeWheel is using its Beeswax buy-side programmatic platform to get the Allocation Module up and running in time for the upfronts.

“Programmatic trading plays an important role in our advertising partners’ TV strategies, particularly as viewers are spending more time with streaming content and platforms,” said Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. ad sales officer at Warner Bros. Discovery.

“We need to make sure that no matter how our inventory is purchased, it is managed in a holistic manner that extracts the most value for the advertiser and provides the best experience for viewers. We look forward to working with FreeWheel to take holistic inventory management to the next level in time for this year’s TV upfronts rollout,” Steinlauf said.

“As a content company that shifted years ago to a programmatic-first approach to buying across our digital inventory, and now our linear networks as well, a solution like this will allow us to better manage upfront deals and offer more flexibility and cross-platform reach to our clients,” added Evan Adlman, executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations, AMC Networks.

“Since so much viewership is now on connected devices within streaming platforms, programmatic buying has never been more important,” Adlman said. “FreeWheel has been a great partner in driving technological advances in our industry, and Allocation Module will now make it easier for advertisers to reach audiences programmatically across all environments, at scale.”

Ad tech company PubMatic said it made a deal with Dish Media that lets Sling TV tap into Pubmatic’s programmatic demand via private marketplace deals.

Dish will provide PubMatic’s supply path optimization clients, who make up over 45% of the activity on PubMatic’s platform, with content signals in the programmatic bid steam, including genre and network, enabling advertisers to improve targeting and return on investment.

"We are strategically expanding our partnerships with SSPs to amplify scale and flexibility for our buyers,” said Andrew Tint, head of programmatic partnerships, Dish Media. “Transparency remains a core focus, and in this pursuit, we are excited to announce PubMatic as our newest partner. With an extended SSP footprint, we are providing buyers with unparalleled flexibility, empowering them to make purchasing decisions that align seamlessly with their strategic goals.”

Dish said PubMatic’s buyers will now have access to premium programming on Sling, including a range of live sports content on channels including ESPN, NFL Network, FS1, TBS and TNT.

“Dish Media and PubMatic’s partnership will create more opportunities for advertisers to be in front of the right audiences during major seasonal advertising periods while accessing valuable targeting signals to improve ROI,” said Brad Stockton, senior VP of video innovation at media agency dentsu. “We are excited to be partnering with them to bring more innovative solutions to clients and build on our advertising supply chain.”

With more advertisers cutting the cord, advertisers are expected to increase spending on programmatic CTV, which  combines the precision targeting of digital with the user engagement of traditional TV.

“This year is shaping up to be a monumental year for CTV advertising as targeting signals disappear from other digital channels and the political season drives increased live TV viewership,” said Nicole Scaglione,  VP, CTV/OTT and Online Video at PubMatic. “We are excited to partner with Dish Media to offer our advertisers access to the valuable inventory on Sling and enable them to tap into rich targeting signals to drive their campaign objectives.”

FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company, said it launched the Beeswax Inventory Desk to make programmatic buying and selling of connected TV and other premium streaming video simpler and more efficient.

More than 40 customers are already using the Beeswax Inventory Desk and nearly 250 deals have been done with publishers on FreeWheel, including A+E Networks, AMC Networks and NBCUniversal, the company said.

Comcast acquired Beeswax in 2020 to bolster its programmatic capabilities.

"We know that friction, complexity and fragmentation are key challenges that buyers and sellers across the TV advertising ecosystem face today,” said Matt Clark, VP, Strategic Partnerships, FreeWheel. “And so, one of the ah-ha moments behind this service was, ‘How can we make the TV ad buying process simpler, better and with fewer headaches for all so that advertisers’ dollars can work harder and viewers can enjoy a more improved ad experience?’ It is our hope that this new offering will help create a win-win across the TV ad ecosystem.” 

FreeWheel said the Beeswax Inventory Desk is designed to help buyers by providing direct access to premium video ad inventory and seamless, speedy activations. 

“This solution has made it faster and easier for our teams to pull in new premium ad inventory for customers. It removes much of the guesswork and greatly reduces the back and forth of wondering whether we’re getting the best – and most fair – price from publishers,” said Jeromyt Sonne CEO and co-founder of Decibel Ads. “In some instances, we’ve helped drive eight figures of incremental revenue for our customers, all while significantly increasing the addressability, relevance, target and reach of their ad campaigns,” he said.

Publishers will benefit by getting more diversified demand and a curation service that matches their supply with demand from buyers on the Beeswax platform.

“In an era of fragmentation and complexity, FreeWheel’s Beeswax Inventory Desk helps bring some much-needed simplicity as well as direct connections across the TV ad ecosystem,” said David Pudjunis, VP, digital revenue operations & partnerships at AMC Networks. “Specifically, this exciting offering attracts a new set of advertisers to our content by allowing us to create custom packages that fit the needs of their clients’ campaigns – driving better business results across the board.”

After a difficult year for traditional advertising, top ad-tech executives see some changes coming in 2024.

Growing in importance are connected TV as a channel for advertisers, the need for accountable data and a continuing shift to automation.

Here are some predictions as 2024 gets underway.

“In 2024, we’ll see a renewed focus on premium video — what it is and what factors buyers and sellers should consider when engaging in video transactions,” said Mark McKee, general manager of FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company. “This issue is timely as premium video continues to grow and as content proliferates across platforms and screens. In today’s complex and fast-moving media landscape, buyers want (and deserve to know) that the ad inventory they’re purchasing is high-quality and brand-safe. Holding premium video to a higher standard is a win-win for the industry, as such efforts will help drive a more enhanced viewer experience.”

At the same time, for buyers, linear and digital video are converging.

“Innovation-wise, one of 2023’s top moments was the launch of AMC Networks’ programmatic addressable capability,” said Larry Allen, VP and GM, data and addressable enablement at Comcast Advertising. “With this breakthrough, we can expect to see a major increase in addressable ad inventory being made available programmatically in 2024. This, tied with a stronger push and emphasis on authenticated identity, will help pave the way for even more accurate audience targeting and measurement innovation across the TV ad ecosystem,“

Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO, said that the quality of TV content will be more important than how it’s watched.

Fifteen years ago, ‘What is TV?’ was a straightforward question with a straightforward answer: If a piece of content appeared on your TV screen, it was ‘TV’ — whether it was a TV program or a TV ad, and no matter how you saw it. Simple. But over the past decade and a half, this answer has become far more complex, and the lines between ‘TV’ and ‘digital video’ far more blurred,” Krim said.

“2023 saw a major shift in how EDO’s clients planned and budgeted for ‘TV,’ more often than not including YouTube in their TV budgets after years of including it in social video budgets,” he said.

“In 2024, this trend will only accelerate, as advertisers, networks, agencies and streaming platforms come to define ‘TV’ as ‘high-quality video content’ — regardless of where, when, and how we access it,” said Krim.

As TV shifts towards digital, programmatic TV advertising has taken a leap forward. That will press buyers and advertisers to finally start asking hard questions about the data they are using, Krim said.

“Programmatic will continue its convergent TV invasion in 2024, as advertisers chase the allure of combining the highly engaging, premium environment of TV with the precise targeting they use to buy programmatic banner ads,” he said.

“This programmatic trend will force all of us to finally confront a gaping hole in the fundamentals of the audience-targeting ecosystem: the accuracy of the data. According to a recent study from Truthset, nearly half the data used in digital audience targeting is flat-out wrong. And plenty of so-called ‘premium’ programmatic TV ad buys wind up being trafficked on low-quality websites instead of the prestige TV app experience buyers expected. As media costs increase in an election + Olympics year, these quality issues will get a bright, hot spotlight on them,” said Krim.

The upshot? 2024 will be the year that advertisers really start investigating the data they invested in to make their programmatic TV buying strategies sing, according to Krim.

“This, in turn, will drive the DSPs [demand side platforms] and SSPs [sell side platforms] to confront another notable gap — most platforms only optimize for audience targets and cost minimization, while leaders like Google are optimizing for outcomes,“ Krim said. “Modern marketers will win by taking a more holistic view of performance, rather than simply assessing their ability to ‘reach’ smaller and smaller audiences of dubious quality.” 

In the same vein, Matt McLeggon, senior VP, advanced solutions at Magnite, said that although programmatic has started to show potential in representing what a model for a fully converged television ecosystem could look like, “unfortunately, a scarcity of audience and contextual signals in legacy environments has proven to be a significant headwind to efficient monetization.”

McLeggon said “supply-side audience activation, already a growing trend in programmatic, offers us a near-term solution. In 2024, media owners and MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors] will drive programmatic addressable forward by leaning into the practice of activating against rich subscriber and consumer data within their own supply platforms. This approach gives programmatic buyers the targeting refinement they are accustomed to in CTV while avoiding the technical and commercial headaches that would come with passing the usual identifiers into the bid stream that goes out to DSPs.”

Mike Seiman, CEO and founder of Digital Remedy, said digital would take center stage in TV advertising with linear TV becoming a role player.

“While advertisers will continue to invest in linear TV, the expectations of the medium and what its role and purpose are in the broader ad ecosystem will largely evolve,“ Seiman said. “That’s because increasingly, digital TV is no longer ancillary for brands or consumers. The medium inherently provides advertisers better ways to hold spend accountable to ROI in ways that linear simply can’t, which will impact spending allocations in a much bigger way in 2024.”

At the same time, streaming TV will come under more careful scrutiny, according to Seiman.

“As streaming competition rises, and CTV budgets surge, the quality of streaming ad inventory will come under the microscope,” he said.

“Clearly, not all CTV inventory is equal when it comes to content quality, audience, engagement and attention,“ Seiman said. ”Thus, brands are going to start to insist on more transparency in inventory and a push toward pricing that is reflective of quality. As a result, long-tail inventory and online video, while still playing an important role for brands, will be viewed as ‘less premium’ compared to top-flight CTV.”

Dan Slivjanovski, chief marketing officer of DoubleVerify, said that better measurement is coming to tame the Wild West of connected TV.

“Since its inception, CTV advertising has faced limitations due to the unique nature of the environment,“ he said. “According to DV data, for example, one-third of CTV impressions serve in environments that play ads and fire impressions long after the TV is turned off, making viewability an important CTV metric.”

Slivjanovski said the open measurement system will be more widely adopted in 2024, ameliorating the problem.

“Open measurement unlocks full cross-screen viewability measurement using the same underlying expectations and specifications across CTV, mobile and desktop environments; tells exactly how many ads serve partially off-screen or to TVs that are turned off; and provides audio and AVOC measurement, the ability to transact on viewable impressions in CTV, which is already a common billable metric on desktop and mobile and measurement and reporting based on customized viewability standards,” Slivjanovski said.

At the same time, attention metrics are going to become more important in CTV.

“To prove that an ad campaign produced a return on investment, advertisers need to measure its performance on every platform,” Slivjanovski said. “But this has been challenging on CTV due to the lack of available KPIs [key performance indicators] to measure performance and optimize outcomes. As a proxy, most CTV advertisers currently optimize campaigns based on cost. However, this presents a challenge when most advertisers are already purchasing inventory at the lowest prices when buying directly from publishers or private marketplaces (PMPs). For this reason, advertisers have been especially overdue for a solution to better gauge impact on this channel.”

DV research shows that only 30% of CTV ads garner two or more seconds of eyes-on-screen viewing.

“With the increased demand and general advancement of CTV viewability measurement technology, the development of granular attention measurement for CTV continues to be an industry priority,” Slivjanovski said. “DV predicts CTV attention measurement will become more widely available and see increased adoption in 2024.” 

Dan Mouradian, VP, global client solutions at Innovid, is less sold on attention.

“While conversations around attention metrics continue, whether or not a consumer has ‘paid attention’ to an ad does not define campaign effectiveness — and in an environment that has seen significant investment, such metrics shouldn’t be the main focus when measuring performance in CTV. In the new year, we can expect to see advertisers not only come to the realization that there are other ways to measure campaigns, but that there are better methods like interactive ads that actually give insight to outcomes without question,” Mouradian said.

His Innovid colleague, Laura Foster, VP, product marketing, sees ad servers evolving.

“The modern ad server is like an iPhone — users depend on their smartphone in the same way that advertisers depend on their data-driven ad servers,“ she said. “But in order for an ad server to survive in today’s competitive market, it must remain independent — making the best decisions on behalf of the customer while ensuring transparency and trust as a neutral third party.

“We’ve already seen the importance of independence, with Amazon planning to shutter its ad server at the end of next year. In 2024, ad servers will be seen as more than counting clicks and impressions: they are a critical pathway to transforming everyday advertising into direct value.”

Tony Marlow, chief marketing officer at LG Ads Solutions, sees advertisers cutting the cord and moving dollars to CTV.

“In 2024, we anticipate a significant and continued shift of advertising dollars from linear TV to connected TV,” he said. “This change is part of the ‘big shift’ observed over the past few years, driven by consumers spending more time viewing CTV content “Notably, the rise in popularity of free, ad-supported streaming services offers advertisers a prime opportunity to engage with consumers in their increasingly preferred medium. Moreover, the introduction of ad-supported streaming options on major platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus expanded the available inventory. This transition is expected to accelerate in 2024.”

Marlow added that CTV will become a groundbreaking battleground for political advertising in 2024.

“With CTV's ability to target specific demographics, locations, and interests, political campaigns will leverage CTV’s addressability to tailor their messages more precisely than ever before,” Marlow said. “This strategic move not only reflects the changing landscape of media consumption but also acknowledges that younger, tech-savvy voters are more likely to be influenced through digital streaming services. Consequently, CTV advertising will play a pivotal role in shaping political narratives, offering an unprecedented level of engagement and message customization in the realm of electoral politics.”

Michael Scott, VP of sales and ad operations at Samsung Ads, sees FAST channels giving AVOD a run for its money in 2024.

“Many free ad-supported TV (FAST) platforms were originally launched to give viewers more choice in an increasingly expensive subscription-driven streaming ecosystem,” Scott said. “Now, in 2024, we can see that the choice is a clear preference as legacy subscription players rethink their strategy around premium offerings.”

Every major news network now offers FAST content and live sports is moving toward FAST.

“These platforms are now becoming serious contenders for content exclusives and debuts, further challenging AVOD’s dominance,” Scott said.

Scott added that Samsung Ads expects shoppable ads to get more attention. A recent Samsung study found that shoppable ads have great brand recall and that 50% of viewers who recalled seeing one interacted with a shoppable ad,

“When consumers see a product on TV, they want to be able to quickly learn more or purchase that product and increase the ease of access along their path to purchase,” Scott said.

Hunter Terry, head of CTV at Lotame, expects FAST channels to get stronger, helping independent streamers.

“As more giant players like Netflix and Disney gain traction with their ad-supported offerings, smaller video programmers — such as Tastemade — will look for ways to gain more share through partnerships and scale. In fact, CTV is starting to gravitate towards a concentrated group of winners who command the majority of spending. Given those circumstances, we may see many independent content players abandon standalone CTV apps, and consider handing sales over to platforms like Roku or Amazon or various FAST networks,” Terry said.

“Because of that, more ad dollars are likely to be funneled toward the platforms, rather than the independent publishers,“ Terry said. ”As in the gold rush, there may be more money to make selling tools than mining for actual gold.”

Yahoo chief revenue officer Elizabeth Herbst-Brady predicted that creative would surge in its importance to advertising performance.

”In 2024, creative will play a bigger role in programmatic success,” Herbst-Brady said. “This is especially true as the industry grapples with challenges in identity resolution. While we must continue to solidify foundations around identity and quality inventory, creative will drive performance, engagement and brand awareness.

“Creative will be top of mind for all advertisers, but particularly so for CTV advertisers with the convergence of generative AI, the necessity of managing the cost of creative development and addressability of CTV,” she said.

“Advertisers will be emboldened by AI to develop an array of creative variations for their campaigns and to deliver personalization like never before,” Herbst-Brady continued. “This allows them to engage audiences across geographical areas, languages and viewing environments — without incurring sky-high production costs. But it also reduces ad fatigue, by varying the creative viewers see in their own specific households.”

Similarly, Iris TV CEO and co-founder Field Garthwaite said he believes the right mindset plus the right creative equals better campaign performance.

”Video-level data enables brands to better identify consumers, ensure they’re reaching the right audiences and better place ads within the context of the content they’re engaging with,“ Garthwaite said. ”Research shows that consumers pay 4 times more attention to ads that are relevant to the content they are watching. 

“AI and machine learning offer promising avenues for ad creative development and targeted messaging,” he added. “However, the challenge lies in ensuring ads align with audience mindsets. As the advertising landscape evolves, reaching consumers in the right mindset becomes as critical as crafting quality creative. Misalignments can result in negative brand perceptions, impacting political campaigns as well. 

“In fact, according to the AVCA [Alliance for Video-Level Contextual Advertising], more than half of consumers were less interested in the brand and products found in contextually misaligned ads,“ Garthwaite said. “For brands that are looking to better increase campaign performance in 2024, it's crucial to not only leverage video-level data but emotional and AI-driven data to deliver the right ad, in the right context and right mindset of the consumer."

Magnite said it has completed a technical integration with Comcast’s FreeWheel ad technology platform that will give FreeWheel’s television programming users a better view of both programmatic and direct demand for their inventory.

The extra information about programmatic demand from Magnite will enable inventory owners on the FreeWheel platform to maximize yield, while providing advertisers with better alignment to media goals and adherence to business rules.

“We are committed to enhancing interoperability across the premium TV ecosystem and welcome Magnite as one of our new integration partners,” said Soo Jin Oh, chief strategyofficer at FreeWheel. “By better integrating Magnite’s programmatic technology, we continue to execute on our goal of maximizing competition and demand for our clients’ inventory via unified ad decisioning within FreeWheel’s TV Platform. Ultimately, this will not only benefit inventory owners and buyers, but also will improve the viewing experience for consumers.”

FreeWheel will integrate programmatic requests from Magnite into its TV platform to provide FreeWheel’s publisher clients with enhanced unified decisioning capabilities. Publisher clients will have better insight into ad creative, frequency capping and holistic management across systems and sales execution types.

“The growth of programmatic advertising in streaming video has been transformative, enabling advertisers to reach their audiences with greater accuracy and efficiency than ever before,” said Sean Buckley, chief revenue officer at Magnite. “By enabling media owners to manage their revenue streams holistically across programmatic and traditional direct sales, this integration with FreeWheel will enable programmatic to remain an integrated part of publishers’ sales strategies and will help accelerate growth even further.”

Jill Steinhauser, senior VP, ad sales planning and operations at WarnerBros. Discovery, said the integration will help media companies in a more complex advertising environment.

“Efforts to drive interoperability and unify decisioning across demand sources are key to helping media companies manage inventory and optimize advertising solutions in an increasingly complex TV ecosystem,” said Steinhauser. “FreeWheel and Magnite are paving the way for greater interoperability and helping to solve for one of the industry’s most pressing challenges.”

DirecTV has selected Magnite to enable programmatic buying of DirecTV’s traditional advertising inventory, the companies said.

Initially, Magnite will focus on selling commercials in video-on-demand viewing. It expects to enable the programmatic sale of additional linear TV inventory within the year.

“DirecTV Advertising aims to make all our inventory, including our traditional television portfolio, easier to buy and accessible programmatically,” said Matt Jamison, group VP, digital & demand partnerships at DirecTV Advertising. “Bringing our linear VOD assets under the Magnite umbrella will give buyers the efficiency and targeting capabilities of programmatic, as well as holistic frequency and campaign controls across our full content portfolio.”

DirecTV was an earlier adopter of addressable TV in 2012, enabling marketers to reach the consumers seen as most likely to buy their products.

The satellite company was spun off from AT&T last year. DirecTV used Xandr for a lot of its advanced advertising when it was part of AT&T. Xandr was also sold off this year by AT&T.

“Introducing the advanced capabilities of programmatic buying to traditional television environments will benefit both sides of the TV industry and we’re pleased to be helping one of the largest TV providers do just that,” said Matt McLeggon, senior VP of advanced solutions at Magnite. “Magnite and DirecTV have long worked closely together on the streaming side of the business. Now, programmatic buyers will be able to reach DirecTV satellite subscribers through our platform as well.”  ■

The Association of National Advertisers named PwC, Kroll and TAG TrustNet to conduct an in-depth study of programmatic media buying.

The ANA said programmatic buying lacks transparency and is unnecessarily complete, and that the study will focus on eliminating waste throughout the programmatic marketplace and supply chain.

“As powerful a tool as programmatic advertising has been for marketers, the programmatic market has been riddled with material issues, including a lack of transparency, fractured accountability, and mind-numbing complexity,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “These issues impair critical decision-making, leading to wasteful and unproductive media-buying decisions. We have selected PwC, Kroll, and TAG TrustNet to conduct a deep dive into these issues and to find ways for advertisers to drive business and brand growth through the elimination of wasteful and unproductive spending.”

Phase One of the probe will look at programmatic spending across the open web. 

Phase Two will look at programmatic spending in Walled Gardens.

Phase one is expected to start this month and run through the end of third quarter 2022. Results are expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2022, the ANA said.

“We see a real opportunity for brands to drive greater value from their media investments,” said Derek Baker, principal, marketing transformation, PwC and project lead. “However, to do so, we must have a transparent supply chain. We are excited to lead this groundbreaking study, which will bring insights to market that can help advertisers get a better look into how their media dollars are spent, reduce waste, and drive greater return from their media investment.”

The ANA said the goals of the study include driving business and brand growth through the elimination of wasteful and unproductive spending, making the digital media supply chain understandable, highly transparent, and analytically rich and instituting corrective solutions and industry standards that have long-term sustainability.

"In its current state, the digital programmatic marketplace is incredibly opaque and confusing — it is in desperate need of transparency for the benefit of all participants. Working closely with our partners, that’s exactly what we intend to provide,” Richard Plansky, the North American regional managing director for Kroll’s Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice, said. ■

Ad tech company StackAdapt is launching an ad campaign touting how quickly its programmatic platform can get campaigns up and running.

StackAdapt’s ads will run starting Tuesday on connected TV, online video and social media. Appropriately, the company is using its own StackAdapt DSP to execute the company programmatically, except for social media, which is being bought directly.

The commercial shows how “insanely fast” things move in the advertising world--with the exception of the media department, where staffers move in slow motion waiting for data and programmatic campaigns to render. Even the coffee is “only slow brew.”

StackAdapt offers “quick setup, no waiting. Just load and go,” the spot says. It concludes with the company’s new logo and the slogan “Speed that makes the difference.”

The campaign comes two months after Brian Burch joined the company as the new VP of marketing.

“We wanted to find a way to tell the story of StackAdapt, and the benefit of the platform for our users. It isn’t enough to say we can help you improve your workday, we wanted to show it. We used research and strategy to create a lighthearted video that highlights what is so great about our platform,” said StackAdapt co-founder and COO Vitaly Pererskiy in a blog post.

“Not only does StackAdapt offer speed when it comes to our product and our pace of innovation, but we are swift to support the growth of our clients. Enabling them to work efficiently and stay ahead of the curve is a story we are excited to tell,” Pecherskiy said.

Interactive ads on connected TV are being made available programmatically to clients of The Trade Desk and Magnite.

CTV has been growing as viewers shift to streaming from traditional TV. Advertisers are also finding new ways to take advantage of streaming technology to put capabilities available in digital advertising available on TV screens.

Also read: Magnite to Buy SpotX For $1.17 Billion

“Advertisers and networks have realized the evolution that is happening in CTV advertising – in scaling first party data as well as the next generation of TV ad formats and creative potential,” said Jon Tabak, GM, TV Partnerships, The Trade Desk. “What’s more, CTV has the capability to customize ad experiences, which is something our clients crave in order to execute more precise digital advertising campaigns.”

Also read: Trade Desk Sees Advertisers Shifting Dollars to CTV 

The new capability is made available via technology from Innovid.

Innovid’s software development kit (SDK) powers personalized and interactive experiences in CTV through direct integrations across over 50 publisher apps. 

“The ability to leverage first and third-party data across CTV is critical, however, it’s only one piece of the puzzle," said Todd Randak, senior VP of strategy and partnerships at Magnite. “We are working directly with Innovid to take CTV to the next level, enabling publishers to provide enriching ad experiences to complement their premium inventory.”

Magnite and Dish Media said that Sling TV generated an increase in programmatic spending via the Magnite platform in 2020.

Magnite said marketers used more addressable campaigns and took advantage of live viewership on over-the-top and connected TV platforms.

“In what has been a challenging year for most, we’re fortunate to have been able to identify opportunities in the market and deliver results for one of our most valuable partners," commented Chris Signore, VP of publisher partnerships at Magnite. "With Magnite’s built-for-video tech stack, which is capable of supporting addressable and live CTV, we were able to help Sling TV earn the full value of their premium inventory and audience data.” 

Magnite and Dish Media have worked together for five years to make buying live TV inventory via programmatic technology simpler and more accessible.

“Magnite has made significant strides to streamline the programmatic buying experience for CTV platforms like Sling TV, unlocking new opportunities for both publishers and buyers,” said Dave Antonelli, director of Sling TV sales at Dish Media. “We look forward to continuing to innovate with Magnite to make a meaningful impact on the growing CTV marketplace.”

Disney Ad Sales showed off the technology it has developed to help marketers and media buyers take better advantage of its sprawling assets, including Disney Select, a new data offering, DRAX providing a real-time programmatic bidding and GatewayGo, a transactional ad format.

At its Ad Tech Showcase last week, Disney Ad Sales president Rita Ferro said the company has been investing millions to “drive innovation, precision and impact.”

Ferro said Disney is “pushing innovation velocity with first-party data, automation to drive performance and precision, and the ability to measure campaigns and optimize them across screens,” she said.

Because of competition with digital giants Google and Facebook, TV companies have had to up their game beyond traditional 30-second commercials aimed at mass audiences. They have been ramping up their technology to offer advertising that is more targetable using data, more measurable and more accountable in terms of effectiveness. 

Disney’s tech showcase will be mirrored when NBCUniversal holds its One21 event on March 22.

One new element being offered by Disney Ads Sales is GatewayGo, which pair Hulu’s traditional ads with action-oriented interactive prompts and personalized offers. Using second-screen technologies including QR code viewers can get information or or make orders in a way that is less disruptive to the entertainment experience.

Disney said it’s seen high levels of engagement in beta tests of Gateway go and found that GatewayGo campaigns drive site visits two time higher for QR-code enabled campaigns and two to four times higher rates of opt-ins for more information compared to other third-party solutions.

“Partnering with Hulu on the new Gateway Go interactive ad product was paramount as SmileDirectClub continues to look at innovation across the advertising ecosystem. The product drove two times the click through rates versus the industry benchmarks for second-screen executions, said John Sheldon, CMO at SmileDirectClub “We look forward to continuing to partner with Disney and Hulu on new opportunities in the measurement and technology space.”

At the meeting Disney also unveiled Disney Select, which offers the company’s first party data to clients at a time when cookies will no longer be available to target ad campaigns.

That’s also important because “over the next five years, the majority of our supply will be addressable. All of our screens will be unified. And over half of our business will be automated,” said Lisa Valentino, executive VP of client solutions and addressable enablement at Disney.

“As a result, your media on the Disney platform will be optimizable in real time through our programmatic offerings, full data enabled with precision targeting built on the Disney audience graph and unrivaled in business impact across marketing objectives,” Valentino said.

Disney said its Audience Graph enables marketers from audience segments based on buyer behavior, household characteristics and psychographics and target consumers across available Disney ad inventory, including Hulu.

Last year Disney executed hundreds of campaigns using data. The number of campaigns was up 56%, representing a 110% increase in revenue growth.

One campaign for a consumer packaged goods brand uses segments related to purchase intent and those who view family as a priority. The company produced a 9.3% lift in message association--twice the category norm, said Dana McGraw, VP of audience modeling and data science at Disney.

Another campaign for a tech brand targeted in-market customers and saw a double digit lift in product understanding, McGraw said.

Disney is working on a “clean room” solution that will allow advertisers to combine Disney data with client data in a privacy-safe manner.

Measurement has been a key issue slowing the growth of cross-platform advertising and Disney said it was offering several options to clients.

Working with Nielsen, Disney is offering Digital Ad Ratings for Connected TV, which integrates the Disney linear and digital portfolio into Nielsen Media Impact to allow clients to plan holistically. Disney is also testing Nielsen’s Total Ad Ratings to measure reach across the platforms in its portfolio.

Disney collaborates with Samba TV on cross-portfolio attribution measurement to determine the full-funnel impact of ad campaigns. It also has an in-house measurement system that enables advertisers to connect ad exposure on Hulu to the outcomes that are important to their businesses.

Disney’s measurement efforts have increased revenue from data-savvy direct-to-consumer brands by 50%.

On the product roadmap is a proprietary Disney pixel to capture metrics such as website visits and page views resulting from ad campaigns.

Disney Ad Sales is also gearing up its programmatic and addressable game with several new products allowing automated planning and buying. The company said it expects its automated ad revenue to increase 80% this year and account for up to 50% of its addressable and linear revenue by 2024.

Last year, 1,000 marketers worked with Disney programmatically, expanding its client roster said Matt Barnes, senior director of programmatic sales at Disney. “We’re breaking record each month,” he added.

“While we continue to work with our clients directly, they tell use they want and need flexibility. We know the future of our business is rooted in automation,” Barnes said. “That’s why we are building out programmatic offering that provides automated decision-learning solutions for clients to gain access to our inventory seamlessly and effectively.”

In January the company launched Disney Hulu XP and it introduced the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange--DRAX, named after the Guardians of the Galaxy characters--which provide header building. DRAX was built in-house, and creates parity among deal types--direct sold, programmatic guaranteed and real-time bidding--letting all advertisers scale campaigns.

Disney said DRAX will give advertisers using DSPs to see more premium inventory and make it easier to predict impressions and capitalize on traffic spikes, while giving buyers more time to bid and respond.

At the meeting, Tim Sims, chief revenue officer of the Trade Desk talked about Commitment Manager, which lets Trade Desk clients manage the cross-platform inventory they purchase in upfront deals.

“We are thrilled to partner with Disney as we work together to build out the technology backbone to support the accelerated shift to Connected TV,” Sims said.

DRAX follows up on both Disney Hulu XP, which unified Disney’s video inventory in a single storefront, and Hulu Ad Manager, a self-service product that lets small and mid-sized business access available commercials.

Hulu Ad Manager attracted 700 small businesses that executed 1,600 campaigns.

“We are seeing campaign renewal rates of over 50%, which is fantastic,” said Jeremy Helfand, senior VP of advertising platforms at Disney. “Our vision ultimately is an enterprise-wide, fully-automated and combined programmatic self service platform.”

The Technology Showcase is one of three presentations Disney plans to make during this upfront season. It will have a content development event on March 23 to show off programming in its pipeline and an upfront presentation in May featuring its portfolio of broadcast and cable networks, streaming services and digital assets.

SpotX said it made a deal to become the primary supply-side platform for Crackle Plus ad inventory across its existing and new distribution channels.

Crackle Plus, part of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, has been expanding the distribution of free, ad supported channels and enhancing the video-on-demand experiences for its Crackle and Popcornflix products. Crackle Plus expects its content to be available to 60 million new viewers in 2021.

“SpotX’s programmatic infrastructure, data enablement capabilities, and expert service have positioned them as a highly-valued monetization partner,” said Darren Olive, executive VP of national advertising sales & strategy at Crackle Plus. “Together, SpotX and SpringServe also offer state-of-the-art ad serving and inventory management, and we are excited to deploy SpotX’s sophisticated header bidding solution, Total Connect+, to maximize yield and campaign performance for all our ad partners.” 

Also Read: SpotX Named SSP for Redbox Ad-Supported Streaming Content

SpotX is in the process of being sold by RTL Group to Magnite.

SpotX’s Total Connect Plus routes inventory across distribution channels and enables programmatic server-to-server connections with SSPs, advanced podding features, synced campaigns, united audience data and forecasting.

Crackle Plus is also using SpotX’s Audience Management Engine to package premium content and overlay third-party data and enable programmatic guaranteed campaigns with specific market segments.

“Crackle Plus continues to lead the AVOD streaming service providers in delivering unique reach across its top original and exclusive programming. Their content has exceptionally high engagement and time spent on the platform by audiences is growing rapidly,” said Mike Laband, senior VP of platform at SpotX. “Their premium, brand-safe inventory is particularly appealing to advertisers because it offers little overlap with traditional broadcasters, thus providing incremental reach against the increasing audience of cord-cutters. We are also very excited to add Crackle’s new live streaming supply that will further increase the scale of its private marketplaces.”

Magnite said it agreed to acquire SpotX from RTL Group for $1.17 billion in cash and stock.

The combined companies will be a big player in the fast-growing  programmatic connected TV marketplace. Combined, CTV net revenue would have been $42 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 34% from the third quarter, and represents 67% of their combined fourth quarter net revenue.

Also Read: Magnite Aims to Unify Direct, Programmatic OTT Demand

“Sellers have been looking for a scaled independent alternative to the giant companies who dominate the CTV marketplace,” said Michael Barrett, president & CEO, Magnite. “The combination of Magnite and SpotX will make this a reality by bringing together the best CTV technologies and teams at a critical time. Ad-supported CTV is just beginning to draw budgets from linear TV and we will be well-positioned to participate in the strongest segment of industry growth for the foreseeable future.

In a blog post, Barrett said he expects the deal to close in the second quarter.

Magnite was formed last year when Rubicon Project merged with Telaria.

Together, Magnite and SpotX will serve some of the world’s leading programmers, broadcasters, platforms and device manufacturers, including A+E Networks, Crackle Plus, The CW Network, Discovery, Disney/Hulu, Electronic Arts, Fox Corporation, fuboTV, Microsoft, Newsy, Philo TV, Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung, Sling TV, Tubi, ViacomCBS, Vizio, Vudu, WarnerMedia and Xumo.

Also Read: Discovery Picks Magnite Programmatic Ad Platform

Magnite expects to be able to cut $35 million in run-rate operating costs through synergies, with half the reductions happening in the first year of combined operation.

“As CTV flourishes and the media industry continues to turn to programmatic, there is a huge opportunity for an independent scaled company to offer the single most comprehensive technology in the market,” said Mike Shehan, co-founder and CEO, SpotX. “We built SpotX with the mission of becoming the leading global video advertising platform, and our goal is now coming to fruition with Magnite. I am thrilled about what we will achieve together.”

“We are excited about the combination of SpotX and Magnite, two leading CTV advertising providers," said  Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group. "This transaction allows for significant value creation and upside potential for the parties, sellers and advertisers in the growing CTV market. We look forward to participating in the future success of SpotX and Magnite as shareholders in the combined entity."

The deal calls for Magnite to pay $560 million in cash and $14 million shares of Magnite stock.

Magnite will discuss additional details about the transaction when it reports fourt-quarter results on Feb. 24.

Prelimiary results have Magnite’s net income of $5.8 million on a 69% increase in revenue to $82 million. Proforma CTV revenue was up 53% to $15.3 million. 

Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech company agreed to acquire Beeswax, which offers programmatic advertising capabilities through a customizable bidding stack.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Also Read: AMC Networks Moves Ad Tech to FreeWheel

By incorporating Beeswax's bidder-as-a-service technology, FreeWheel said it will be better able to serve the growing programmatic market by helping its publisher clients sell in more flexible and customizable ways.

Also Read: Mark McKee Named Chief Revenue Officer at FreeWheel

“Together, FreeWheel and Beeswax can further enhance how television operates. As the ecosystem becomes increasingly complex, sellers and buyers of media want similar capabilities: great automation, simplicity, and the ability to manage data-driven campaigns across hundreds of endpoints,” said FreeWheel general manager Dave Clark. “By incorporating Beeswax’s technology into FreeWheel’s offering, we can deliver even more value to clients of both companies, helping them better navigate and succeed in this new landscape.”

Also Read: FreeWheel Helps Automate NBCU Linear Ad Scheduling

Beeswax’s bidding technology will allow for FreeWheel users to access broader pools of inventory to fulfill complex campaign requirements. At the same time  Beeswax's customers will benefit from the scale and expertise of FreeWheel within the video and CTV advertising sectors, and gaining the support, product investment, and technology Freewheel provides.

“We’re looking forward to integrating our BaaS platform into FreeWheel’s global infrastructure to accelerate our vision of giving our customers greater flexibility, transparency, and control over their media buying,” said Beeswax CEO Ari Paparo.  “Now, together with Freewheel, we can deliver scale across all programmatic channels, including advanced TV advertising.” 

Paparo told Broadcasting & Cable that he was “looking forward to being a member of the senior team” at FreeWheel, but couldn’t provide details of his role until the acquisition cleared regulatory scrutiny.

Clark praised the Beeswax engineering and product teams, indicating they're likely to  join FreeWheel as well.

FreeWheel and Beeswax were able to negotiate the agreement amid a pandemic because the two companies already knew each other and have worked together. Several FreeWheel customers already use Beeswax’s software. Plus, Beeswax’s New York offices are in space FreeWheel moved out of and subletted to Beaswax. 

Pararo said Beeswax allows sophisticated customers to really control exactly how theyre using programmatic tools 

In addition to providing flexibility, the Beeswax technology allows publishers to package their own inventory with inventory from other publishers in order to fulfill the requirements of an advertiser’s campaign,” Paparo said. 

That capability is important as TV transforms into a platform where marketers can execute campaigns across all different sources of content and inventory in a unified way, Clark said.  It’s possible in some forms of digital media, but it is much harder to find in the premium video market.

“We are seeing a lot of the players on the publisher side who have been formidable competitors working together, trading between each other, to solve some of the operational complexity that has long existed in TV,” Clark said.

The capabilities enabled by Beeswax’s technology “fit neatly with FreeWheel’s core philosophy, which has always been to leave control in the hads of our clients,” Cark said.  “No matter what role you play in the ecosystem, I think you’re going to look at this deal as a good thing because it’s going to help advance the ball for everyone.”

Addressable linear is ready for scale as TV enters a post cable era, according to SpotX, which put out its 2021 Global Video Advertising Trend report.

"With the incredible growth of digital TV and streaming in the past year, it’s evident that we are in the midst of the ‘connected decade,’ especially as viewership and adoption of connected TV and OTT continue to skyrocket,” said Mike Shehan, co-founder and CEO at SpotX. “Record numbers are tuning in, and at this rate, cord-cutting households are on track to eclipse traditional pay TV by 2024.”  

To compile its report, SpotX interviewed top execs from companies including Acxiom, AMC Networks, CCI, Discovery, Dish, GroupM, Samsung Ads, The Trade Desk and TransUnion, who make predictions about how technology will affect how ad dollars are spent in the new year. 

“As more linear TV inventory becomes available programmatically on both a local and national basis, the addressable opportunity for 2021 is one of precision at scale,” said Trade Desk GM strategic partnerships Jon Tabak, one of the executives who contributed to the report. “With programmatic advertising, brands can move beyond broad demographics and fuzzy indexing by leveraging first-party data in real time to  make their linear TV investment smarter and more effective. It also enables a more accurate link across media channels, ultimately informing brands of their TV investment’s role in driving real business outcomes.”

Five key trends were identified in the report. 

The accelerated shift in consumer viewing habits will expedite the development of a post-cable ecosystem. New subscription offerings from legacy giants are pulling more traditional TV households into the digital future.

Ad spend is following these new consumer habits and will flow into OTT and CTV faster than expected. Now that advertisers understand how to activate data for efficient audience targeting while still achieving scale in OTT, more advertisers will re-calibrate their media plans toward digital. CTV advertising in particular will grow rapidly in the U.S.

Device manufacturers have new opportunities to build their ad businesses, increase market share, and influence the viewer experience. The connected capabilities of smart TVs enable manufacturers to collect glass-level measurements and package that data for advertisers. Within the coming years, OEM players may generate more profit from data and advertising offerings than from device sales. 

With programmatic, addressable linear TV is ready for scale. There is a massive opportunity to apply digital technologies and audience data to make broadcast ads targetable and more relevant. With more inventory available programmatic TV spend is expected to reach $6.69 billion by 2021 in the U.S., up from $2.77 billion in 2019.

Data-layered campaigns will continue to become more prevalent with an increased focus on accuracy and measurable opportunities. In 2021, great progress will be made in standardizing measurement across CTV devices. Expect a surge in programmatic guaranteed campaigns.

Both the sell and buy sides will more thoroughly evaluate partners as supply and demand path optimization requirements increase in priority. This past year illuminated the need for brands and media owners to build more resilient value chains. Strategic leaders on both the sell and buy sides are looking to cull their vendor list and focus on fewer, trusted partnerships. 

“We have been working to implement an intelligent, scalable solution to help fuel the growth of addressable TV and it feels like we are finally at a tipping point as an industry, said AMC Networks senior VP advanced advertising and digital products Evan Adlman, another of the executives SpotX spoke with. “In 2021 and beyond, as advertisers are looking for the most return for their marketing dollars, the demand for targeted, customized opportunities, such as the ones that addressable presents, will increase exponentially. At AMC Networks, we are ready to step up and meet that demand, thanks to partners like SpotX."

Media agency GroupM and SpotX said they will be working more closely on programmatic ad buying.

GroupM is expanding its global Premium Supply offering--in which publishers reserve high-quality inventory for the media buyers clients--to the U.S. 

SpotX will provide technology for GroupM Premium Supply in the U.S. and SpotX will be the agency’s preferred programmatic video exchange partner.

“As the largest media advertising company in the world, GroupM is continually looking for the most efficient ways to reach high-quality inventory while providing full transparency to our clients,” said Esra Bacher, managing partner - programmatic investment lead at GroupM. “As viewership dramatically increases in streaming video, we have chosen to partner with SpotX due to their strong relationships with the supply-side of the video ecosystem. We’re excited to continue our great work with them moving forward.”

GroupM started Premium Supply in 2017 and now operates it in more than 10 markets world wide. In addition to premium content, participants in GroupM Premium supply promise transparency about fees and auction mechanics, as well as reduced fees. The money saved is used to buy more inventory from participating publishers.

The SpotX-GroupM agreement is part of a trend to optimize supply chains that has led to buyers and sellers working with a smaller number of intermediaries. In addition to SpotX, GroupM works with Index Exchange focusing on display media.

As part of the agreement, SpotX will also develop unique programmatic solutions for GroupM clients, which will streamline the ad planning, buying, decisioning, and optimization processes.

“In today’s climate, we understand that media agencies have many different choices in SSPs, and we are thrilled to be recognized by GroupM for our programmatic expertise and substantial ties to publishers,” said Sean Buckley, COO at SpotX. “We’re excited to enhance the partnership GroupM and their clients have with our platform customers and continue to scale the digital video ecosystem.”

Canada-based media and broadcast company Corus Entertainment has formed an exclusive deal with Visible  World, the ad-tech company acquired by Comcast last year, that will enable programmatic advertising capabilities for linear TV services.

Corus, they said, is the first Canadian broadcaster to commit to bringing a more automated, data-driven programmatic-style to linear television, claiming it will enable advertisers to get higher returns on their TV ad buys.

For the rollout in Canada, the solution will use traditional Numeris ratings, as well as aggregate, anonymized data, and audience segmentation information.  

They said advertisers and media planners can use existing in-house demand-side platforms or connect into the Visible World system to plan, buy, and report on their campaigns.

Corus’s portfolio includes 45 specialty television services as well as 15 conventional TV stations.

“Through our Next Generation Advertising offering, we are delivering superior results to our advertisers by leveraging advancements in data and technology,” Greg McLelland, EVP and chief revenue officer at Corus, said in a statement “Bringing programmatic capabilities to television will not only streamline the buying process across platforms, it will also enable advertisers to gain new insights into audiences to optimize their media buy.”

³We are looking forward to the partnership with industry-leading broadcaster, Corus,² said Seth Haberman, Founder & CEO, Visible World.

“We believe the collaboration will help enhance ad sales efforts with data-driven insights and automation across the Canadian marketplace and further Comcast Platform Service¹s partnership with Corus,” added Visible World CEO Seth Haberman.

Comcast acquired New York-based Visible World and its programmatic TV subsidiary, AudienceXpress, last year.