The television advertising marketplace has grown more complex amid the emergence of digital video channels whose technology in many ways is more advanced than the legacy systems of traditional broadcasters. Buyers and sellers of advertising also are adopting systems to automate ad transactions in programmatic auctions, adding to the complexity.
“I would look at it as an issue that’s been going on for a long time, which is: how do we help planners and buyers buy across the entirety of their stack?” Amit Nigam, vice president of product at sell-side ad server company Beachfront, said in this Beet.tv interview with Sr. Editor Rob Williams. “What we’re trying to do with Beachfront is lean into the concept that a lot of those traditional challenges are not going away, and they’re still just as relevant as they were 10 years ago.”
As much as connected television (CTV) publishers want to maximize their advertising inventories and generate revenue, they also don’t want to alienate fickle viewers by showing too many ads or ones that aren’t relevant to much of the audience. CTV publishers meet the needs of advertisers and viewers while keeping everyone satisfied with the experience, Nigam said.
“We find that we’re able to drive the best yield for our publisher partners when we are creating the best user experience,” Nigam said. “We look at things like fill rate and our ability to fill inventory, but that’s all predicated on the fact that somebody stays and continues through that ad pod.”
Release of OpenRTB 2.6
The IAB Tech Lab this year updated the standard communication protocol with the release of OpenRTB 2.6 to focus on CTV auctions. With the new standard, a CTV publisher can indicate the pod duration — or the total length of the commercial break — to buyers, letting them fill it in a way that makes the most sense to them. Advertisers also can gain more information about the programming content that provides the context for their commercials.
“The more informed the DSPs that buy from us can be on what they’re buying and those users…it’s a rising tide that floats all boats, so to speak,” Nigam said. “We’re really excited about both of those things.”
You are watching “Transforming CTV: Delivering a Better Ad Experience for Viewers,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Beachfront. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
