CANNES — TV advertising is no longer a playground only for the big brands. MNTN, a leading digital media company, says it is seeing smaller brands harness AI tools to enter a market once only available to the giants.
“We work with brands that never advertised on TV before. Our goal is to lower the cost of creative, so there’s just more of it,” explains Mark Douglas, President & CEO of MNTN.
In this video interview with Tameka Kee for Beet.TV, Douglas brands are now asking for outcomes-based, AI-driven ad creative.
The AI-Powered Creative Revolution
Although the idea of AI churning out perfect, ready-to-air commercials after a single command may sound like a pipe dream, Douglas believes that AI can revolutionize the ad-making process. “You can get storyboards faster, more versions of a voiceover, more versions of the ad faster,” he says.
“We’re trying to allow you to mix generative creative with stock video, with your own video and produce it a lot faster, and a lot more versions of it.”
By lowering the cost of creative production, MNTN’s platform aims to foster an “explosion of more creative”, which could delight consumers who are tired of seeing the same ads repeatedly.
Douglas points out that running the same ad creative on TV for extended periods, a practice that would be unthinkable on social media platforms, is common.
Push for Outcomes and Performance
First founded in 2009 in Culver City, California, MNTN (pronounced “mountain”) provides self-serve advertising software for direct marketers, agencies and brands.
Specifically, it offers:
- Audience prospecting for connected TV campaigns.
- Retargeting to connected TV.
- Attribution for CTV campaigns.
- Use of third-party audience categories.
- Ad creative management.
- Measurement for CTV ads.
The company has been leaning into the creative side. In 2021, MNTN acquired Maximum Effort Marketing, the creative advertising shop of Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey, leading to Reynolds becoming MNTN’s chief creative officer.
MNTN’s vision for TV advertising mirrors the direct response strategy employed by direct-to-consumer brands on paid social and paid search.
CEO Douglas is pleased to see that the discourse on outcomes is being driven by the brands themselves, making it easier for MNTN to collaborate with them.
You are watching ‘The Transformation Of Television: Connected, Addressable & Outcome-Based,’ presented by Go Addressable & Teads at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. For more videos from Beet.TV’s Cannes Lions 2023 coverage, please visit this page.
