Having crafted more than 10,000 of its interactive, consumer-engagement ads, true[X] is going all in on the \u201cconnected living room\u201d to offer advertisers the best options to leverage things like co-viewing, 4K screens and surround sound. \u201cWe\u2019re standing up an entire CT innovation lab around that concept,\u201d says Pooja Midha, who recently became President of true[X].<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we are on most of the connected TV platforms and in the next month or two we will be pretty much virtually everywhere,\u201d Midha adds in this interview with Beet.TV, dubbing the connected living room \u201ca super rich environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to taking over daily operations and long-term strategy at true[X], Midha<\/a> spent five years at Disney ABC Television Group, where she rose to SVP, Digital Ad Sales & Operations, as ADWEEK reports<\/a>. She also spent a decade at various Viacom properties.<\/p>\n

Midha will be a keynote speaker\u00a0at Beet Retreat<\/a> in the City, scheduled for June 6 in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s core product, its engagement ad format, is now used \u201cacross pretty much every broadcast and major cable network.\u201d In addition, \u201cWe also work with some of the MVPD\u2019s on their digital inventory and we work with some select gaming partners,\u201d says Midha.<\/p>\n

Since its founding in 2007, light years before anyone thought of living rooms as being \u201cconnected,\u201d true[X] had a simple proposition: give consumers some say in which television ads they\u2019d prefer to endure and, potentially, interact with. In its most basic form, the true[X] offering in full-episode video content gives viewers a \u201cchoice card\u201d with the options of interacting with a 30-second ad or just viewing a “regular” ad experience<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we see time and time again is that most people would choose to interact than have the regular ad experience,\u201d says Pooja. \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is that the first time they take it, they adopt it, the rate is nearly sixty percent. The second time they see it, it goes up and it keeps going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full-screen interactivity provides for a broad pallet of advertiser and publisher storytelling and e-commerce. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of potential to really drive very different advertiser KPI\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisers are not charged if viewers leave the interactive format before its full 30-second run and default to the regular ad experience. \u201cThe idea is that at any time, we are guaranteeing that you will have someone\u2019s full attention for thirty seconds, that they will interact at least once, and that you will be in a high-quality, full-screen environment,\u201d says Pooja.<\/p>\n

While the true[X]<\/a> studio team last year eclipsed the 10,000 interactive ad mark, the company typically works with advertisers\u2019 existing creative assets. Pooja says there\u2019s lots of potential beyond simple engagement\u2014particularly in the living room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually trying to see what else we can do in that environment and we\u2019re standing up an entire CT innovation lab around that concept,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

This video is part of The Road to Cannes, a preview of topics to be addressed at Cannes Lions. The series is presented by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video<\/a>. For more videos from the series, please visit this page<\/a>. FreeWheel is a Comcast company.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having crafted more than 10,000 of its interactive, consumer-engagement ads, true[X] is going all in on the \u201cconnected living room\u201d to offer advertisers the best options to leverage things like co-viewing, 4K screens and surround sound. \u201cWe\u2019re standing up an entire CT innovation lab around that concept,\u201d says Pooja Midha, who recently became President of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":53138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[7262],"tags":[5267,4342,5143,5909,7263,7264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}