By Daniel Wohlfart, Principal Product Manager, Advanced Advertising at Synamedia

With recessions taking their toll and subscription income flatlining, scouting out new monetisation options to boost balance sheets has never been more critical for the media and entertainment industry.

And with an ever-increasing amount of data available to publishers, addressable advertising is in vogue. In the same way that the internet opened up advertising to even the smallest businesses, the days ‘spray and pray’ one-size-fits-all are over, meaning anyone wanting to reach specific audiences through video services can do so. Advertisers - from big brands to small local businesses – can now target specific profiles, inventory, and content regardless of what device or app viewers are using.

Video service providers in both developed and emerging markets stand to make substantial revenue gains by lighting up their inventory across their linear, on-demand, and catch-up services so advertisers can tailor-make campaigns to reach specific audience segments across all screens. For example, if you run an upmarket furniture company, you can now easily target high income households watching design programmes.

A digital make-over

As audiences continue to turn to streaming as their primary method of viewing, connected TV advertising is projected to grow significantly. FAST business models are growing in popularity, and streaming icons such as Netflix and Disney+ have launched ad-based tiers to broaden their revenue streams, with others expected to follow suit. 

At the same time, the traditional TV advertising market – which was worth £5.46 billion in 2021 according to Nielsen Ad Intel - is becoming increasingly outmoded as eyeballs and ad spend look to online platforms.

Thanks to increased broadband connectivity and with the right technology in place, there is an opportunity to revamp the existing TV ecosystem, win back old brands and attract new advertisers.

Streaming and TV providers have a brand building power and audience reach that online alternatives can only dream of. Combining that reach with the same data richness of online advertising allows TV and video advertising to not just keep pace with online, particularly with the pinpoint targeting accuracy of who is consuming content and when, but to offer something significantly better: it has the benefit of offering an eye-catching ad that can fill even the largest HD screen.

A new mode of addressability

Video service providers have had some success to date with piecemeal targeted ad solutions but these have been disjointed approaches resulting in inconsistent reporting, unpredictable execution, and unnecessary overheads.

The missing element has been a unified, single platform for an integrated campaign enabling providers to monetise addressability on every screen, even those with limited resources.

By expanding targeted inventory across all screens and services, Synamedia Iris allows customers to run a single campaign which is optimised to reduce wastage and improve campaign performance.

Providers can boost ad revenue by expanding their addressable footprint, allowing advertisers of all shapes and sizes to target ads precisely and on more than just mobile and web applications. Individual spots can be seamlessly replaced using scalable, real-time server-side ad insertion.

New industry collaborations

Maximising this opportunity requires a new model of collaboration in the industry. Every part of the value chain becomes more valuable as reach increases, targeting gets more precise, and reporting is more accurate.

With a unified targeting solution, providers can turn their greater reach and expanded addressable inventory into a compelling proposition for brands big and small. The benefit is that these targeted advertising slots will command higher CPMs (cost per 1000 impressions).

Sizing up quality vs quantity

For addressability to shape up into actual revenue, it’s essential to provide accurate measurements that allow advertisers to validate ad impressions and improve future marketing campaigns. To achieve this -and compete against online advertising - robust reporting and forecasting tools are critical to optimise campaigns.

Addressable advertising’s model depends on audience quality rather than the audience volumes associated with traditional advertising. To get the necessary insights, providers can use new analytics technologies to identify audience profiles and viewing patterns.

This is where our Synamedia Clarissa business insights solution pairs with Synamedia Iris. By casting an expert eye across all video services and stitching all the relevant data together, Synamedia Clarissa reveals insights into how viewing behaviour can help identify audience segments that advertisers are interested in. 

For example, Clarissa can help you target households that are likely to have kids, even when they aren’t watching “kids” content, and tell you not only what else they watch, but also what device and service they prefer to watch it on.

And if you have additional audience data from third-party sources or panels, Iris can incorporate this information to further enhance your targeting capabilities.

SaaS hits the mark

With a unified targeted advertising solution, the industry can finally combat the erosion of ad revenues to digital platforms and generate new income by offering established and new advertisers an alternative to the crazy furore of online advertising.

And where a targeted advertising solution would previously require years of expensive bespoke development, Synamedia Iris’s SaaS model and standard interfaces deliver onboarding in weeks with a fraction of the spend. Video service providers can add capabilities – such as creating ad inventory or managing audience segments, campaigns and measurement - as their needs evolve.

An insight-driven solution means providers can deliver a better, less disruptive experience and monetise addressability on every screen – even those with limited or outmoded resources. And advertisers can run more efficient, successful campaigns, delivering the right ad to the right viewers at the right time.  Keeping all customers happy while keeping the balance sheet in good shape: that’s the win-win business scenario that will always be in style.