CANNES — DIRECTV Advertising and Yahoo this month announced a strategic partnership that provides media buyers with an easier way to access addressable TV and streaming inventory. Their collaboration comes as spending on digital video advertising grows 26% to $49.2 billion this year, as estimated by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
“Yahoo is going to be the exclusive DSP [demand-side platform] for DIRECTV’s household addressable supply,” Ivan Markman, chief business officer at internet portal Yahoo, said in this Beet.TV interview at the Beet Villa during the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
“Together with FiOS and DISH that are already there, that’s 25 million households together on top of a significant pool of supply in the tens and tens of millions, close to 100 million of connected TVs,” he said.
The collaboration between DIRECTV and Yahoo is another sign of the convergence between linear TV and digital video in U.S. households, driving demand from advertisers to seamlessly engage with consumers across channels without losing measurement, data and campaign visibility.
“When you think about the advertisers, they need to continue to demand that interoperability,” Markman said. “Technology providers have a lot of work to do to connect that, to enable it, to develop new methodologies to connect the data.”
Yahoo’s omnichannel DSP lets advertisers access qualified datasets and reach consumers through different platforms including mobile, desktop, video, native, addressable TV, connected TV (CTV), digital out of home (DOOH) and audio. DIRECTV Advertising inventory will be available in the Yahoo DSP for campaigns in the fourth quarter, according to the announcement.
In providing advertisers with a way to reach consumers throughout different stages of the purchase funnel, there will be more kinds of ad formats that support interactivity and shoppability.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for format innovation beyond the traditional ad pod,” Markman said. “There’s been a lot of experimentation with native formats. We’re only beginning. You can transcend from the screen into virtual experiences. There’s a lot. It’s very exciting.”
