TV is moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to a world where commercials are tailored to the taste of each viewer. As reported by the Wall Street Journal in Targeted TV Ads Set for Takeoff, DirectTV in cooperation with Starcom MediaVest is finally realizing the dream of delivering customized ads.
DirectTV takes an interesting decentralized approach to serving customized ads. Backed by data from Experian and Acxiom and technology from Invidi, DirectTV uses the set top box to choose the most relevant advertisement from a collection of ads stored on the box. Both the viewer data and the commercials are stored on the box. The algorithm to choose the best ad runs on the box.
Delivering tailored messages to relevant audience segments has long been the strategy used in direct mail, email, telephone, and other addressable media channels. With the emerging addressability of television, these same strategies can be applied.
Direct Marketers take note: According to the article,
Drew Panayiotou, Best Buy‘s senior vice president of marketing, said if the technology works, his company’s ad investment could be “significant.” He envisions ad dollars for targeted TV spots coming from the company’s direct-mail budget or even its Internet budget because “it’s still difficult to emotionally engage consumers” with online banner and search ads.