Two Ad Tech Firms Partner on CTV/OTT Audience Targeting
By Tobi Elkin
With more people shifting TV viewing to over-the-top TV (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) devices like Roku and Apple TV, segmenting consumers across CTV devices is becoming more necessary. Two companies are looking to address the issue.
Audience measurement and data platform Tru Optik on Wednesday said it's partnering with Videology. The aim is to enable Videology clients to access Tru Optik's OTT marketing cloud to identify specific OTT audiences by combining first-party data sources with third-party demographic, lifestyle, and purchase data from more than a dozen data providers in Tru Optik's OTT Data Marketplace.
The companies also said they'll work together to address privacy issues in the OTT ad space by making it easier for consumers to opt out of interest-based and behavior-based OTT targeting.
Tru Optik CEO and Co-Founder Andre Swanston told Real-Time Daily via email: "The biggest difference about this partnership is that legacy DMPs [data management platforms] have fallen behind the audience shift to CTV. They still rely on cookies for desktop and mobile device IDs for smart phones. Across CTV, neither cookies or device IDs are present... This partnership is a huge deal because it opens up people-based targeting abilities across CTV for Videology."
Swanston said the partnership is a "shot across the bow to DSPs [demand-side platforms] and agencies" that may go into the upfronts and newfronts with a less compelling data and targeting story for CTV and OTT.
Further, he said "ask another DSP or DMP how many third-party data sources they can leverage across CTV (without a registered user login, which is 85% of the ad avails)? How easy is it for their clients to leverage their first-party data assets across CTV?"
Scott Ferber, Founder and CEO, Videology stated: "As more and more people watch content on a variety of devices, it's important for advertisers to have a single view of their audience for holistic campaign delivery. Through this partnership with Tru Optik, our clients will benefit from more granular understanding and execution of advertising on OTT and connected TV, a quickly-growing piece of the video content ecosystem."
In addition to OTT/CTV targeting, Videology clients can also use Tru Optik's Cross-Screen Audience Validation (CAV) and attribution capabilities. Tru Optik said tying OTT/CTV exposures to offline sales channels will allow brand marketers to understand the impact OTT/CTV advertising can have on their bottom lines.
"Campaign validation has been a source of frustration for OTT advertisers," stated David Wiesenfeld, Chief Strategist at Tru Optik. "We've addressed those concerns by enabling validation against advanced audience characteristics like purchase behavior and lifestyle so advertisers can now verify their actual OTT buys vs. using a rough proxy like demos."
Source
"Two Ad Tech Firms Partner on CTV/OTT Audience Targeting." MediaPost, 3/1/17.