Approaches

BT_Insight

Addressable TV Ads Moving Forward; Verification Concerns Remain

October 13, 2009

Posted by: Kelly Kilpatrick in Consumer

The cable industry has been promising addressable TV ads for years. Visible World recently announced a partnership with Acxiom, Experian and Nielsen that is helping to make it a reality. The four companies would merge their respective set-top-box data into one database to propel addressable ads forward.

Television is a high-reach medium which generally lacks the niche targeting capability of other media types such as online. Addressable TV ads have long been thought of as the answer. Having the ability to target based on a variety of factors including income, age, propensity to consume a given product, and even zip code would significantly reduce wasted exposure. While most targeting is currently at the cable system zone level, it’s well on the way to being available at a more granular level.

An important factor in the success of addressable TV ads will be the ability to verify audience delivery. Traditional TV buyers utilize independent third party data from Nielsen to compare projected ratings against actuals and obtain makegood weight as necessary. Vision World can provide their set-top-box data estimates, which reflect actual tune-ins rather than estimates. However, this set top data is not verified by a third party; meaning that the data could be inflated, altered or weighted by the vendor. The situation is unlike online advertising, where third party ad serving is used to verify online publisher data.