When demand-side ad platform The TradeDesk branched out its business offering last year, it was described as “betting its future on the future of TV“.
Fast-forward a year, and The Trade Desk is also helping Sling sell its OTT digital TV inventory through its DSP.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, The TradeDesk TV strategy and partnerships director Bennett Crumbling explains why the company followed the path – and why it’s a good one.
“When we entered television, we really looked to try to figure out where we could add the most value … the fastest growing segment was OTT,” he says.
Crumbling explains how ads in addressable TV platforms, which allow brands to target individual households using data, are unleashing new powers for new kinds of ad buyers.
“When I think about some of our other clients that are maybe smaller, like the independent shops … this is the first time to actually buy television inventory,” Crumbling says. “They can buy the big screen, now. They can serve impressions inside of the living room, and they may have not had the capacity in the past to be able to do that, because they didn’t have a relationship with an NBC or a Fox or someone like that. They were too small to really be able to do that or to participate in an up-front.”
This summer, The TradeDesk released three new products:
- Koa, an AI-powered targeting engine.
- The Trade Desk Planner, a planning tool with cross-platform insights.
- Megagon, a new UI.
On addressable TV, Crumbling continues: “It’s super-desirable, because it’s addressable, it can be purchased programmatic, you can maintain all of the buy=side decisioning.
“So, we see a lot of our clients leaning in and doing kind of what they did a few years ago with mobile and even further back with programmatic, where they’re trying to really design their own way of saying, ‘Well, how do I plan this sort of media, and how do I measure the success?'”
This video is part of the Beet.TV series titled Targeting Today’s TV Viewer sponsored by DISH Media Sales. It is published along with this DISH Media Sales Straightforward Guide in ADWEEK. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
