Last year, programmatic media solutions partner MiQ could boast that it had successfully launched an advanced offering that bridged the gap between linear and connected TV. Achieved with data partners Environics Analytics and nLogic, this capability provided clients with intelligent targeting, down to the level of postal codes and specific demographic profiles.
Now, it’s kicked that capability up a notch by partnering with automated content recognition (ACR) provider, Samba TV. On top of being able to target at a granular level this new partnership gives MiQ the ability to see if an ad has been exposed to a particular viewer or set of viewers on linear TV and, on that basis, decide whether or not to serve that ad in a connected TV environment.
As Jason Furlano, MiQ’s SVP of commercial, explains, “Let’s say General Motors buys a media campaign targeting males 25-54 who don’t consume a lot of linear content outside of TSN and the news. We can identify a viewer who hasn’t seen the ad on linear TV and serve it up in a connected environment, enabling us to provide incremental reach back to General Motors.”
Jason Furlano, SVP commercial of programmatic media solutions provider MiQ
That works both ways. MiQ can also see who has been overexposed and optimize in real time to assure it’s not serving ads to an audience that has already seen them 10 or 20 times. “Our incremental reach and ability to build optimal frequency across linear and connected TV are the biggest value propositions we bring to the market,” Furlano asserts.
As a result of the pandemic, nearly 20% of Canadians now subscribe to at least three OTT services, while 75% subscribe to at least one. The shift away from linear is starkly illustrated by ratings for recent broadcasts of the Grammy Awards, The Oscars and Golden Globe Awards, each of which lost about half its viewership year over year. Until 2020, ads for these event programs were sold out and hugely expensive. This year advertisers would have paid 2020 rates and gotten half the reach.
Samba TV’s ACR technology has allowed MiQ to reach a much wider and more cost-conscious group of consumers. ACR is hardware built right into the TV and until recently was available in only a handful of higher-end TV sets. But as Furlano points out, “Samba TV is installed in a variety of manufacturers that are extraordinarily representative of the Canadian population.”, That can’t hurt when it comes to younger cohorts that still want a big-screen experience but lack the budget for a premium TV.
MiQ tends to work directly with brand advertisers as well as media agencies. The Canadian Cancer Society approached MiQ this year looking to drive awareness as well as calls to its toll-free health helpline during the pandemic.
MiQ executed an advanced television campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society and then retargeted households that had been served a connected TV ad.
“We looked at ways that could measure the impact of the campaign, tracking outcomes like website visits and donations,” Furlano says. “We executed an advanced television campaign and then retargeted households that had been served a connected TV ad. We saw a 36% positive correlation between the volume of calls and the ads we delivered, and a 6% lift of people who came to the Canadian Cancer Society site after seeing an ad, driving an average donation of $316 during the flight of the campaign.”
MiQ’s partnerships have enabled the relatively rapid build-out of these targeting solutions and allowed MiQ to ride the shift from linear to connected while capturing value from both through increased incremental reach. As more and more marketers see the opportunities beyond traditional linear TV, the ability to keep pace in the evolved world of TV has never been more essential.
Headquartered in New York City, MiQ has 18 offices across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and works with the world’s leading brands and media agencies. Contact – Jason Furlano, SVP commercial at MiQ jason@miqdigital.com
