How does… a TV synced ad work?
Each week, we ask some of the industry's most knowledgable boffins to break down industry jargon to help you through those confusing meetings and indecipherable conferences. Here, Impulse Screen's Paul Garrity explains how TV synced ads work.
What is TV synced advertising?
Using a technology platform to automatically trigger a digital ad campaign based on what is seen and heard on TV (both adverts and programme content) in real time.
How does the tech work?
Individual vendor solutions vary, but broadly speaking TV syncing is powered by image, video, audio and metadata recognition tools – the software is then integrated with demand side platforms (DSPs). Put simply, the software acts like an always on ‘big brother’ and constantly monitors TV content. Brands determine what key words and images they’d like to automatically trigger a digital ad campaign.
In layman’s terms, please?
It is clever technology that helps digital ads (this could be video ads on your laptop or mobile, display ads, ads you see on social media or search marketing) coincide with what is currently on TV. We know that most people (a whopping 94 percent) are now multi-screening at the same time as watching traditional TV (some reports suggest mobile usage doubles when ad-breaks come on) so it’s a way to make the digital ads they see on these devices relevant to the TV content they are watching.
So it shows me an ad on my mobile, laptop or tablet at the same time as the ad is on TV?
Yes, it can do but it can also be used for a lot more – and it’s not just confined to syncing content with the ads, it can sync with the content of the programmes on TV as well. The most common things it is used for are:
Sync TV ads with digital ads: This means that TV spots and digital ads appear at the same time (e.g. a furniture brand could trigger a search campaign when sofas are mentioned within an interior design TV show)
Sync digital ads with keywords: This means that pre-defined key words can trigger digital ad campaigns
Sync digital ads with specific TV programmes: Sync up a digital campaign with a relevant high-impact TV program (e.g. activate an online dating site campaign around The Bachelor)
Sync digital ads with a competitor’s TV ad: Brands can exploit competitor’s TV spend, by syncing up paid search campaigns to drive traffic to their website.
What are the advantages?
It joins the dots between TV campaigns and digital campaigns so they complement each other and perform better. This means brands get a better bang for their TV advertising buck.
The ‘bang’ is generally a lift in performance and sales. Take e-commerce as one example. When you consider that Paypal Australia research reveals that 82 percent of mobile purchases are made at home relaxing or while watching TV, it makes sense for brands to make sure they insert themselves into the relevant conversations sparked by TV ads and TV content.
So how is it measured?
TV sync ad campaigns take place in the DSP. This means brands apply their regular measurement tools, from brand uplift, viewability, completion rates to direct response measurement like CTR (click through rate), CPC (cost per click) and CPA (cost per acquisition). They can create separate digital campaigns using TV triggers and directly track effectiveness and uplift to metrics.
Paul Garrity is co-founder and managing director of Impulse Screen.
Very useful. Much has passed me by in Media and I’m on a mission to catch up. The only problem is that new ideas, technology and application are growing faster than I can take them in. Right now, I feel I’m on Floor 1 of the Empire State Building and the lifts aren’t working.
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A whopping 94% of people are multi-screening at the same time as watching traditional TV?
And it doubles when the ads are on the TV? (Pass me the calculator we’re up to 188% so far.
Do you even read the data in the report you linked to.
It said 94% “kept a smart phone on hand while watching TV”. It didn’t say they were using the smartphone.
But it also did say that 53% of the eye gaze was on the TV (ummm … that would be more than half wouldn’t it?). So maximum would be 47% of the time on the smartphone. That’s assuming they didn’t blink, look at other people in the room, leave the room, read something, nod off, have a chat, make a cuppa etc etc.
I hope the product is better than the analysis and justification.
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forgive me if being dense (highly likely), but you’re saying someone’s device is constantly listening to them, be it TV or conversation, to serve them ads?
how does this software get on to a phone/device? do people have to opt in?
seems right up the far end of the creepy scale to me (though not hugely different from gmail reading your emails, i suppose).
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It isn’t at a device level, it is at a market level, you then add on top an audience overlay to target your audience
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How do I connect my DSP to track? Is it via linking advertiser YouTube channel?
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