Last week TubeMogul debuted PTV, its new programmatic TV offering where buyers can purchase traditional TV media using many of the data targeting and selective purchasing options available in digital media. The new marketplace aggregates linear TV inventory from several major supply platforms, collectively representing 80 different U.S. networks and reaching 90% of U.S. households.
Among the 10 brands and agencies that signed up to use the platform at launch was Montreal-based clothing manufacturer Gildan, which will use the platform to buy U.S. TV programmatically through its South Carolina-based agency Levelwing.
Levelwing co-founder and CEO Steve Parker Jr said that TubeMogul has enabled his agency to perform “the first cross-collected integrated buy across every video format – linear TV, connected TV, and then all digital formats – at the same time, through one platform.”
He said the strength of buying across channels is the ability to apply data insights gained in one channel to any other video format.
“We believe in a truly controlled data approach. With software like what TubeMogul’s providing us, this allows us to access media channels and platforms and the consumers we want, at the end of our fingertips.”
Gildan and Levelwing were already substantially invested in programmatic online, including digital video on the TubeMogul platform, so transitioning to TV was the next logical step, he said.
Rob Packard, vice-president of marketing at Gildan, said that one of the brand’s goals in programmatic TV was to reach its 25-35 audience with a level of specificity not possible in traditional TV buying.
“The beauty about working with TubeMogul and Levelwing is I can make a lot better data-driven decisions, and we can hopefully be a lot more effective and efficient,” he said.
In a release, TubeMogul said PTV can use publisher and third-party data to enable targeting by TV network, age, gender, income level, ethnicity, educational level, children in household, home ownership status, automobile preferences and pet ownership.
Using third-party analytics built-in to the platform, buyers can get reports on reach and frequency, as well as deep comparative breakdowns by network, show, daypart and region. Inventory will primarily come from the scatter market, so it will be available on a near-real time basis (unlike upfront programmatic TV offerings like FourFronts).
PTV isn’t currently available outside the U.S., and it will likely be some time before it arrives in Canada or other international markets. TV buying processes tend to be convoluted and market-specific, and each market will require its own unique programmatic infrastructure. So far only the U.S. and and Australia have made significant headway.
At the moment, PTV’s outspoken competitors are AOL’s Adap.tv and Turn, which both announced programmatic TV marketplaces earlier this year. Other providers like Brightroll have partnerships with linear TV supply aggregators that let them tap into the market.
TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson told the Wall Street Journal that so far PTV has focused on local inventory. It will be the first demand-side platform to connect to WideOrbit, whose WO Programmatic TV marketplace is said to represent 75% of local U.S. TV stations.
“What’s not available is inventory from networks yet,” Wilson told the WSJ. “We think it will be eventually. And there are definitely different levels of automation available depending upon what partners we are working with.”
