The search behaviour habits now being leveraged can be combined with any of 1,000+ existing AdSmart attributes – from postcodes to life stage, or mosaic groups – to refine campaigns. Ruth Cartwright, Investment Director at Sky Media, believes that, “Being able to embrace the best capabilities of digital but in the brand safe, big-screen world of TV, makes campaigns more relevant and impactful.”

Sky says its latest advertising innovation is driven by industry demand to bring digital and TV campaigns closer together. “Search Behaviour attributes allows brands, for the first time, to target audiences based on specific online search behaviours, including frequency and intent,” the company explains.

Seven search behaviour categories are available at launch: Home & Garden, Travel, News, Job & Education, Arts and Entertainment, Games, and Pets & Animals. As well as mixing this knowledge with existing AdSmart attributes, it can also be matched to advertiser first-party data. “As an example, a custom campaign could see a holiday or insurance company target those who are actively searching for holidays or flights. This could be further refined or creatively adapted to those looking at beach, sightseeing or ski holidays in a specific area of the country,” Sky Media explains.

The Search Behaviour targeting capability has been developed in conjunction with Captify, which boasts of having the largest onsite search dataset outside walled gardens, harnessing 1+ billion searches a day on 2+ billion devices covering 6+ million websites from over 1,500 publishers (and all in five languages!). Captify emphasises how up to date its data is (real-time), demonstrating interests and needs right now. Captify talks of having “the first intent-powered audience platform for the open web”.

The paper, entitled: ‘Addressable TV: Digitalisation of an offline media’, is available to download now. It is the result of interviews with key players in the French addressable ecosystem including executives from Mindshare, Altice Media Ads & Connect, Gamned, Novembre, Canal+ Brand Solutions, M6 Publicité, SNPTV, Values, Jellyfish, Bouygues and France Televisions Publicité. This is the first time the annual white paper has been published in English and it is a good read for anyone that wants to understand the French addressable market since the law was changed in 2020 to permit household targeting.

The paper declares that, “Addressable TV has brought television into the digital age, sparking a renewed debate about its position in advertisers’ media mixes. This development allows the all-digital world to incorporate TV into its strategies, bridging the gap between a traditionally offline medium and the digital world.”

According to the SNPTV, the French TV advertising advocacy group, there were more than 1,300 addressable TV campaigns in France during 2022 – a three-fold increase over the previous year (the 2021 figure was 376 campaigns). Developments impacting reach include permission for prime-time ad substitution and the introduction of multiple targeted ads per ad break (in a market that opened with a rule allowing only one per break), while work is underway on a unified addressable TV solution that will get smaller TV sales houses into the game. Measurement is one of the big priorities ahead, and there is significant interest in what CRM onboarding (so use of advertiser data matching) can achieve and how that is implemented.

The paper, which is authored by Realytics and extensively quotes the interviewees, believes France now serves as a model for the rest of Europe when it comes to collaboration as the basis for addressable TV market growth. It points out that France is the only European country where all television channels and ISPs (telcos/service providers with Pay TV) have collaborated and agreed upon common specifications for addressable TV implementation. This includes clear rules and unified reporting for advertisers and agencies, and technology alignments to ensure a seamless viewer experience. SNPTV and AF2M have overseen the development of consistent standards. France has a standardised CPM buying method and uniform targeting, the paper observes.

Five of the TV sales houses (TF1 Publicité, France TV, M6 Publicité, Canal+ Brand Solutions, Altice Média Ads & Connect) have signed with Orange, SFR, and Bouygues Telecom. M6 Publicité is already in the process of signing with Free. Addressable TV can be bought direct or programmatically. Third-party players are heavily involved in this ecosystem to support data (e.g., LiveRamp), performance measurement (e.g., Realytics) and programmatic buying (e.g., Adkymia and TheTradeDesk).

The paper outlines how addressable TV is being used in France today, with targets based on geolocation, household characteristics (e.g., income, family with children) and consumption (heavy to light TV users). By 2021, half of all campaigns used geolocation (and the figure was 52% in H2, 2022, and is expected to be 50% in 2023) with one-quarter based on household characteristics or TV usage.

Rapid growth has been recorded since 2021. Olivier Roberdeau, Head of Multiscreen at Mindshare, is quoted from the previous year’s white paper as he recorded how substitutions grew from 0.5% in January 2021 to 10% in January 2022. By 2022 addressable was gaining traction among traditional TV advertisers as well as new-to-TV advertisers, as witnessed by Isabelle Vignon, General Delegate for Marketing at SNPTV. One executive says the priority is to bring more of the 2,000 existing TV advertisers into this new market. Half of addressable TV advertisers in France are still new to TV, as of 2022.

By 2023, half of addressable TV advertisers came back for more, according to Nathalie Dinis, Deputy Executive, Director of Trade at France Télévisions Publicité. Five sectors stood out as addressable TV users in 2022, the paper says: tourism, retail, services, culture & leisure, and automobile. Beyond geo-targeting, use-cases include reach extension beyond linear TV (including into light TV households).

The white paper notes the importance of measurement. Since March 2021, Médiamétrie has been re-evaluating the corrected Gross Rating Points of broadcasted advertisements that were impacted by addressable TV spots. This recalculation is based on the number of impressions served during these spots.

Mindshare’s Roberdeau is quoted saying: “Advertisers treat addressable TV like digital media and anticipate receiving data similar to digital campaigns to maximise their investments across campaigns. In this regard, the BEE measurement study developed by Realytics presents an excellent opportunity”.

As the paper explains, with BEE, Realytics can deterministically measure the performance of national linear TV, addressable TV, IPTV and Replay TV campaigns in households with Bouygues Telecom TVs. The purpose is to show how complementary different TV-activated devices are, in terms of both audience and online engagement. This includes measurement of audience conversion into website or mobile app activity. In 2022, BEE measured the effectiveness of addressable TV campaigns, including when combined with either a national linear TV campaign or an IPTV Replay campaign.

The white paper suggests that the effectiveness of addressable TV will come under the microscope in 2023, with most sales houses focused on demonstrating the impact via test campaigns conducted near the end of 2022. TV sales houses and ISPs (Pay TV operators) are collaborating in these tests.

Another focus for 2023, and looking ahead, is the use of advertiser CRM data to enhance targeting and personalisation. This first-party data matching comes with both technical and legal hurdles (including the need for new consents), and one executive points to the need for large customer bases to even begin this journey. Additional costs, and therefore higher CPMs, may also need to be factored in. Nevertheless, the paper reports that 2022 saw a significant increase in discussions around this subject.

As of 2022, France Televisions Publicité was offering more addressable TV inventory than BVOD, and between H1 2021 and H1 2022 the French addressable customer base grew by 54% to 6.3 million households, the paper reports. Free’s entry into addressable TV could potentially add 6.9 million more subscribers to the audience pot.

The white paper is 71 pages long, so this summary barely touches the surface. If you want to get the deep-dive, you can download the English language version here. It includes full interviews with all the contributors, in addition to analysis of all the research. The paper argues that ‘addressable TV is strengthening the convergence between TV and digital advertising. The brand-safe environment and high completion rates with digital metrics are reviving the TV medium. TV is positioning itself as a valuable complement to video strategies.”

A bespoke linear channel schedule can be created for each viewer based on recommendations intelligence, with an EPG created to accompany it – stretching maybe six hours into the future. The channel is created from a succession of VOD assets stitched seamlessly together. The two companies believe personalised linear channels solve the ‘paradox of choice’ caused by the vast volume of VOD content now available to consumers.

A spokeswoman for Viaccess-Orca (VO) says the VOD content that is assembled into a linear channel is still covered by a VOD licensing deal – so this capability is a new way to surface content within the VOD window.

Viaccess-Orca (which provides OTT and TV platforms, content protection and advanced data solutions, among other things) contributes its content discovery solution, using viewing behaviour and preferences to drive recommendations. The VOD-to-linear channels do not have to be completely personalised: they could be assembled according to mood, genre or even trending topics.

Ateme (known for its video compression and streaming technology) contributes its NEA solutions for streaming, including the origination of linear channels from VOD and catch-up archives. NEA also includes the server-side ad insertion (SSAI) that enables replacement ads to be inserted into the VOD content. NEA draws upon cloud-native and containerised technology and the VOD assets do not have to be moved ahead of processing.

NEA is integrated with the VO content discovery solution and also with Viaccess-Orca’s Targeted TV Advertising Solution. This provides the advertising decisioning – who should be served which ads (based upon the audience profile an advertiser is looking for and the audience profile VO can determine from operator first-party data – notably viewing behaviour within a household).

The new VOD-to-linear channel capability was demonstrated at IBC in September, where VO reported good traction among visitors. The solution is aimed at platform operators and, as with any addressable advertising, it requires the collaboration of the content owners (unless operators own the content themselves).

“We’re thrilled to team up with Viaccess-Orca and redefine the linear TV experience,” said Ahmed Swidan, Director of Personalized TV at Ateme. “One of the greatest challenges for viewers today is finding what to watch.

“With this new service, we’re enabling viewers to discover the most relevant content in a live watch mode, keeping them watching longer and increasing monetisation opportunities for our customers. Viewers can sit back, relax, and enjoy several ‘For You’ live channels with their favourite shows back-to-back. No doubt these personal channels will increase loyalty to the service.”

Dror Mangel, Director of Data-Driven Product Management at Viaccess-Orca, adds: “The Personal Live Channel service is an innovative step forward for video delivery. Collaborating with Ateme, we have solved viewers’ paradox of having too many content choices. And we have offered service providers and content owners many more opportunities to display ads, giving them higher revenue potential.”

Then, you hear all the reasons why this holy grail is so elusive. You hear the measurement isn’t quite there, or the technology is still far from where it needs to be… but due to viewer behaviour, there are necessary and effective applications that can enhance and complement’ business as usual’ TV campaigns.

Many brands and agencies are striving for elusive perfection in the execution of CTV advertising. They want to run campaigns through one demand side platform. They hope for some universal identification techniques or perfect data matching solution, but it’s just not realistic right now, or in any near future.

CTV is merely an Internet-enabled means by which to watch content, so the content itself doesn’t come from one all-seeing source. Broadcasters, new apps, YouTube, and more are all part of the addressable TV inventory pot that’s bubbling with opportunities for savvy marketers and modern media buyers.

Agile approach or bust

Embracing a more cross-platform approach to TV advertising is how the media industry unlocks the power of addressable TV. Media buyers must be agile to realise the full targeting and performance potential of TV – to be in front of a viewer at their convenience, around quality content and how they want to watch TV.

We need to employ a different approach to what is ultimately a new ‘TV any way consumers want it’ advertising medium. Respect the fact this is TV (ensuring the consideration of content is as above), and then, recognise it can be supercharged by the power of digital. You’ll find there are effective targeting methods that can be employed to pull this world together and make the most of the new capabilities right now.

I’m not advocating for marketers to cut off traditional TV or saying that the medium is the place where every single viewer can receive a perfectly customised and targeted ad every time they flip on the TV. However, brands and agencies striving for the aforementioned perfection must consider every TV endpoint. Before they fully utilise the burgeoning digital side of this medium, they must acknowledge that they are sometimes missing out on opportunities to talk to harder-to-target traditional TV unreachables, which actually still use the TV screen, but through streaming and Internet-based means.

There are highly scientific, strategic ways to employ addressable TV at scale that can make a major difference in a brands’ business today. We just need to get past this idea of what we think CTV should be able to do and examine where it already excels.

CTV may be complicated, but it is also unique

Alas, as many of us are experiencing, even as CTV is growing exponentially, it’s already become quite fragmented and complex. Media companies, TV manufacturers, streaming device makers, as well as legacy programmatic firms are all staking a claim – and many of these contenders have their own ad technology and unique data assets.

CTV is also fundamentally unique when compared to classic TV and digital media. Co-viewing is common, and accelerated through the pandemic. While some viewers are ‘logged in’ or identifiable when streaming their favourite shows, many are not, and others share accounts. Thus, one-to-one targeting is inherently challenging.

Which is why today, we have a range of third-party research firms and technology start-ups scrambling to find new ways of tracking these cross-platform viewing behaviours. Unsurprisingly, no one firm has got it completely figured out, but there are a number that are close and shedding all-important light on the opportunities that exist.

The audiences are there – and so are the tools

While measurement is often cited as a reason to delay moving forward with CTV, here’s one thing that all companies and researchers agree on – audiences are shifting. The numbers are undeniable. Ofcom data shows that only 32% of time spent with video content by 16–34-year-olds in 2021 came from broadcast TV. What’s more, this is down from 50% in 2017, so the momentum of travel has been quite dramatic.

The good news is there is scale in CTV that can help offset this decline in traditional content viewing, as long as marketers appreciate that viewers don’t actually care about the platforms by which they view. Addressable TV only realises its potential when we as an industry buy agnostically. Buyers must monitor the viewing behaviour everywhere, with all the tools at their disposal, and be willing to place ads on the TV screen in front of quality content at the viewers convenience.

Fragmented viewership should dictate buying strategies, not complex buying mechanisms, or a preferred choice of DSP. In almost all instances, being beholden to limited point solutions can become a limiting factor, severely constraining both audience and quality. This means finding ways to pull together broadcasters, new CTV suppliers and other tech platforms, like YouTube, as long as there is due diligence about content standards.

The marketers that move forward with a cross-platform strategy, utilising all the advanced tools at their disposal, will be far ahead of the curve as more targeting options emerge, and even more sophisticated creativity arrives. Developing these muscles and this expertise today will have a huge payoff.

Synamedia is the television software specialist that was spun out of Cisco and contains intellectual property and staff stretching back to when the company was NDS, which was a key partner for Sky when it originally built AdSmart. Iris represents an important ad-tech launch, with Synamedia having made advanced advertising one of its strategic priorities alongside content protection, cybersecurity and its Infinite platform for an all-streaming future.

Iris will manage and execute addressable campaigns across set-top boxes (one-way and two-way) and streaming services (to connected TV, tablets, mobiles, etc.), covering all inventory types like live, non-live linear, catch-up, catalogue VOD and DVR (whether assets are stored on the device or in the cloud). All of these sources can be treated as a single inventory pot where targeted audiences can be found.

Iris enables Pay TV operators to introduce addressable TV advertising across a population of connected and non-connected set-top boxes, with non-IP devices able to use a push-VOD mechanism to deliver ads ready for insertion. These one-way devices may have a hard drive but they do not need one to work with Iris.

For IP-connected STBs, the options include IP delivery of ads for device insertion into broadcast signals, and server-side ad insertion into content that is then streamed, complete with targeted ads, to the boxes – with streamed VOD being an obvious use-case.

On-device insertion can be used for hard-disk based DVR ad spots, or server-side insertion for cloud DVR. The solution works with pure-IP set-top boxes, just as it can be used on multiscreen devices and connected TV in streaming-only BVOD and OTT scenarios. Legacy STBs can be addressable-enabled using Iris, ensuring a large footprint for operators, Synamedia says.

“This solution addresses the complexities as platform operators transition from traditional broadcasting to IP,” says Scott Kewley, VP Advanced Advertising and Data, at Synamedia. “Some operators will have different set-top box types within their footprint. The idea is to open up as much inventory as possible.”

Dynamic ad insertion is only part of this comprehensive solution. The next major component is a TV-DMP, which is a scaled down version of a typical data management platform, with a focus on viewing data and the audience insights that can be derived from it. The TV-DMP can help profile households (in a GDPR compliant manner), showing that they almost certainly have school-age children based on viewing peaks in after-school hours, or that it contains a professional couple based on later evening viewing start times, for example.

This insights solution can support simple but valuable targeting goals, like if an advertiser (which might include content companies) wants to reach heavy television viewers, or sports fans. It can also cross-reference known or highly probable household profiles, like the presence of children, against viewing patterns to determine where most of the viewing happens in these types of households (e.g. which channels, which times of day, etc.).

This knowledge can be applied to planning/forecasting to understand when insertion opportunities will appear and how often for any given household profile. As Kewley points out: “Viewing measurement is a good guide to how much consumption takes place and when we might expect those kinds of audiences to tune-in. Forecasting data is one of the elements that is fed into the campaign manager.”

He explains that while the TV-DMP within Iris can be integrated with any other DMP, many of the companies Synamedia is talking to have use-cases that could be fulfilled using the TV-DMP alone, with targeting based primarily on what people watch. (Typical third-party inputs that do not relate to viewing behaviour could be demographics, in-store purchase behaviour or website activity, which provide guides towards propensity to buy certain goods or categories, for example.)

“A TV-DMP provides extra value for advertisers,” says Kewley. “Anyone on the buy-side will really value this data. Third-parties cannot provide consumption data and the extra understanding of household make-up that this can provide. We think this knowledge [from the TV-DMP] is critical.”

Iris also has a fully unified campaign management and decisioning system that works across all inventory and devices, serving the right ad to the right home according to the campaign objectives. Advertisers can choose to target their audience across all, some or specific devices. All advertising exposures are reported to the campaign management system, which has a holistic multiscreen view, in real-time.

The campaign manager maps pacing (the rate at which the campaign budget should be spent), frequency and total delivery to demonstrate campaign progress and uses the viewing knowledge from the TV-DMP to forecast further insertion opportunities and so predict likely campaign fulfilment.

Iris seeks to unify ad-tech as well as campaign management, with as much of the advertising workflow as possible converged, whether the ads are finally delivered via broadcast or IP, or to televisions or multiscreen devices. The system creates ad profiles for each screen type (including transcoding). Iris integrates with programmatic demand sources, if required.

Kewley comments: “Many operators and broadcasters are looking for data-driven advertising as an answer to digital [advertising competitors]. This is a way to combat the erosion of ad revenues and also generate new income. Iris makes it easy to monetize inventory, even over the more challenging one-way and hybrid networks.”

He emphasises that this solution is not just for Pay TV or other broadcast platform operators: Iris is designed for streaming services including BVOD and non-broadcaster OTT. “As demand for more targeted TV advertising grows, they can create compelling advertising propositions.”

Synamedia says this end-to-end solution simplifies execution and minimises costs. “It delivers faster time to value by removing the friction points that characterize piecemeal addressable advertising products.” Kewley adds: “It is difficult for media companies to assemble all these components together, in parallel. We have the expertise to deliver a broad value-chain offering.”