Addressable advertising that lets marketers reach different households with different ads on linear TV is set to grow as technical hurdles are overcome. Video ad management platform Beachfront is at the forefront of enabling addressability as part of Project OAR, the industry consortium led by smart-TV maker Vizio.
Beachfront recently completed a pilot program to deliver addressable TV ads among local and national media in a collaboration with Vizio. The test included single advertiser slot optimization (SASO) that lets an advertiser target a specific demographic group or designated market area (DMA) with different versions of ads, also known as “creative versioning.”
“We place an OAR watermark on the programming feed, which is distributed to stations in 125 broadcast DMAs across the country,” Frank Sinton, president and founder of video ad management platform Beachfront, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “The program ran across 3 million Vizio TVs equipped with the OAR spec.”
Beachfront now has the opportunity to work more closely with OAR steering committee members including Disney’s Media Networks, Warner Media, Comcast NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Discovery, Hearst Television, AMC Networks, Fox Corporation, Scripps, Vizio and Univision — along with agency advisory committee members including Publicis Media, Omnicom Media Group, GroupM, IPG/Magna, Dentsu Aegis Network, Havas, Horizon Media and RPA.
‘MASO Is a Reality Today’
The goal of Project OAR is to transform non-addressable TV into an addressable platform, applying consumer data to target more specific audience segments. That evolution includes the development of multiple advertisers slot optimization (MASO) that replaces a national spot with a commercial from a different advertiser.
“MASO is a reality today. It’s just a matter of getting the programmers to now use the platform, and start experimenting,” Sinton said. “We’ve already proven out the SASO model, and it’s going toward more of a MASO model.”
Beachfront’s unified decisioning engine handles different kinds of media buys including direct-sold, programmatic-sold or private marketplaces (PMPs), with real-time ad insertion for video on demand (VOD) and connected TV (CTV).
“Beachfront is one of the last pure-play, CTV- and TV-focused sell-side platforms,” Sinton said. “We’re the only player that covers all TV screens, whether it be linear, set-top box VOD or CTV.”
Looking ahead, Sinton sees greater convergence among linear TV and digital video platforms, giving advertisers more flexibility with their audience-based media buys. Advertisers also can implement rules for frequency capping and separating their commercials from those of competitors.
“Converting legacy TV to programmatic is going to be really key. There’s been a big transition to connected television over the last couple of years. This year is really the year for addressable TV, and we’re seeing that today,” he said. “Making CTV more like TV, and TV more like CTV is really the future of where things are going, and where Beachfront is focused.”
