With iPads and iPhones increasingly part of the TV viewing experience, MediaCom Canada and Bell Media have introduced a mobile technology that binds the media platforms together in a new way for clients.
The multi-screen experience is powered by Passive Audio Fingerprinting (PAF) technology, which is always running unobtrusively in the background (unlike an audio recognition app such as Shazam, which must be engaged by the user).
When a person using the CTV app on an iOS device is within range of the traditional CTV broadcast, the app detects an audio signal embedded in participating broadcast ads.
When that happens (it needs to detect between 7-10 seconds of a broadcast spot to launch the ad unit) a drop-down menu inviting the user to learn or experience more about the product being featured in the commercial unit will appear. The user will subsequently be able to launch a rich-media unit (essentially an advertiser microsite) within the app.
Billed by the companies as the first “truly synced multi-screen ad experience” to the Canadian market, the advertising technology is the result of ongoing discussions between Bell and MediaCom through MediaCom’s “Innovation Lab,” and is exclusive – for now – to MediaCom clients.
Jeff Thibodeau, senior vice-president of digital and investment for MediaCom in Toronto, said the microsites are driven by the touch functionality native to the iOS device. An image of an advertiser’s product, for instance, could include “hot spots” that deliver additional information about a product when touched. The product’s charter advertiser is in the consumer-packaged goods space, said Thibodeau.
MediaCom plans to monitor the product in its first year to determine how consumers react to the experience. Research will focus on whether the multi-screen experience increases consumer awareness of a product and if it is a high-engagement opportunity for advertisers.
Thibodeau expects the multi-screen delivery to far eclipse standard click-through rates on banner ads, which he said range from .01 to .02%. The agency will also be looking for insight into how many “hot spots” consumers touched and how deep into the advertising environment they progressed.
The key to the program’s success is the judicious application of multi-screen ads, said Thibodeau. “The broadcasters and the app developers have to be conscious of user experience,” he said. “If they fill it with ads, [consumers will] simply not use their app anymore. You need to be very aware of what your advertising to content ratio is.
“At this point I think Bell is going to take a very measured approach of how many advertisers they put online.”
The Innovation Lab is a made-in-Canada entity that works with media companies on “non-traditional” advertising solutions. In addition to supplying vendors with the requisite advertising partners, it can also provide insight into how to optimize a product for the marketing community, said Thibodeau.
“Media owners may know there’s a consumer or product need, but wonder how they’re going to sell it to advertisers,” he said. “If we get in early enough, we can help them understand how advertisers would want to approach it. Before it’s actually built and they try to fit an advertiser into something that’s pre-formed, we get the opportunity to help shape it.”
