Google has joined the pool of TV providers developing addressable linear TV with a new one-to-one ad delivery system being tested on its Fiber TV internet TV service.
As one of a number of companies working on addressable TV, Google’s sizable ad tech offering across mobile, desktop and now TV presents a lot of interesting opportunities for marketers looking to manage and measure their campaigns holistically.
The new technology, which Google is testing in Kansas City, provides dynamic ad insertion and tracking capabilities, allowing advertisers to insert ads into Google’s TV-over-the-Internet (IPTV) service the same way cable and satellite providers do when screening out-of-region content in local markets.
But unlike the vast majority of cable providers, Google can insert different ads on different TV sets tuned to the same channel, via its Fiber set-top box.
American companies like DirecTV, Cablevision and Dish Network offer similar capabilities for addressable ads over a small range of their TV inventory. In those cases, set-top boxes are typically used to dynamically insert ads, the same way the Fiber box does.
Ads using the experimental Google product can be targeted at individual consumers based on their viewing history, the program they’re currently watching and their geographic location. Google can insert fresh ads into live cable feeds or recorded programs, and control how many times each person sees an ad.
But perhaps the most exciting opportunity is that advertisers can measure and pay for the exact number of ad impressions that have been delivered by Fiber set-top boxes, rather than using sample panels put together by the big ratings companies to estimate total viewership. Furthermore, every single Google Fiber TV box sends feedback to the server, gathering much more accurate data than the traditional Nielson boxes, which are only placed in a limited number of households.
Ryan Ladisa is vice-president of Canadian sales for Videology, a company that buys digital video ad space from publishers, including Google. “Live server-to-server, or person-to-person data integrations is a game changer,” he said. “To get such a concentrated, immediate response from your userbase where you can test and pivot and launch targeted products and services is incredible.”
Google’s entrance into a space dominated by specialized TV companies could shake things up, Ladisa explained, as it could force competitors to keep up with Google’s innovations. Using Google’s breadth of media buying services, advertisers could automate video advertising across live TV, connected devices and YouTube pre-roll — all on one platform — with the potential to pay for and target ads programmatically.
Google’s massive trove of data could also make a big difference, if it can be paired with Fiber TV users via their IP addresses. Most of the data that companies like DirecTV use to target viewers is acquired through their own set-top boxes or third-party partnerships — DirectTV and Dish both have 11 partnerships with major data providers for identifying addressable TV audiences. But in a market full of data princes, Google is king, especially with its dominance of the search market.
It’s still far too soon for Google to be testing targeting capabilities anywhere near that precise. According to Adweek, the Kansas City experiment is being very careful about subscribers’ privacy, and is only collecting limited data about viewers for ad targeting purposes. That means no targeting people online based on their TV viewing habits, and no matching TV viewers with their online activity. Rather, Google’s focus for now seems to be the ability to measure reach based on delivered ads, rather than GRPs.
Although the scope of Google’s Fiber TV experiment is small, and it’s unlikely Fiber will ever be one of the top TV providers in the U.S. (or even the markets where it operates), the tech giant’s take on addressable TV could further the adoption of the technology across providers.
“When you talk television, we’ve been fat cats in this industry, monopolizing and resisting change forever. And I think that it’s time we saw change,” said Ladisa. “What other market gets that ride for 50 years?”
