Even as video content providers endeavor to keep up with viewing choices, commercials need to catch up with viewing technology. To do so, they need to get smarter, says BrightLine\u2019s Rob Aksman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impetus is on us now to make sure advertising does not fall behind and keeps pace with all the personalization and seamlessness of the viewing experience,\u201d says Aksman, who is Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of the company best known for dynamic ad solutions.<\/p>\n
In this interview with Beet.TV, Aksman discusses the options available to brands for \u201cmaking commercials smarter\u201d and explains the significance of BrightLine\u2019s new partnership with Cuebiq to attribute commercial exposure and engagement to footfall at stores and restaurants.<\/p>\n
In its simplest form, personalization can transform a traditional, static commercial for Benjamin Moore paint that\u2019s delivered to a mass audience. \u201cNow there\u2019s a dynamic overlay on top of that commercial that everybody\u2019s seeing but it\u2019s tailored to me, showing me the location and address and phone number of my local Benjamin Moore store,\u201d says Aksman<\/a>. \u201cAll we\u2019ve done there is just make a TV commercial a little bit smarter so that a viewer can take that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n Further personalization based on viewing location can turn weather into an asset for, say, apparel companies to make product recommendations in an ad overlay relevant to viewer-based conditions or forecasts. Aksman cites the continued growth of third-party consumer data regarding brand preferences, purchases, familial makeup, income and more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve built a pretty hefty connected-TV household graph at the home level so we\u2019ve mapped all those segments to the home,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Within the past week, BrightLine announced a linkup between location intelligence firm Cuebiq and BrightLine\u2019s OTT video ad platform. The companies say that an initial analysis of BrightLine advertisers using Cuebiq\u2019s platform showed an increase in footfall traffic by as much as 24% when exposed to the ads, and by 56% when looking at customers that engaged with the ads in question, as MediaPost reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re able to use their footfall attribution technology to measure the impact of an enhanced TV ad,\u201d says Aksman. \u201cWhen a viewer is exposed to a personalized ad or if they engage with a commercial, our partnership with Cubic allows us to report on what was the actual lift in foot traffic to that retailer that QSR or that restaurant by being exposed and or interacting with that commercial. And I think that is the tip of the iceberg in bringing the power of digital attribution to television.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the tradeoff between creative versioning and the expense of producing multiple creative iterations, Aksman says it\u2019s \u201cnot all that scalable today until there are better methods of creating versioned video.\u201d There\u2019s more emphasis being placed on versioning the overlays. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty simple and turnkey. That\u2019s how you keep it scalable and also efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n