Bell Media has been investing heavily in digitizing its linear inventory. Since fall 2023, it became the first Canadian media company to offer addressable TV on linear channels through a Canadian broadcast distributor, it made TSN and Crave’s premium, ad-free plan available through Prime Video, and it launched 10 free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels (including CTV @Home, CTV news and Noovo télé-réalités) on LG Channels, Samsung TV Plus, Plex and one channel on Roku with more to come soon.
It’s all part of Bell Media’s long-term plan to bring the quality and brand safety of linear television into the digital universe through connected TV (CTV), says Sabrina Segal, the company’s director of national sales and advanced advertising. Creating more inventory “gives advertisers more opportunity to be on that big screen digitally, and that means giving them access to better targeting, real-time reporting, campaign optimization and attribution metrics.”
The pandemic accelerated the growth of CTV consumption in Canada, and Bell Media is focused on helping advertisers tap into Canadians’ new viewing habits. There’s excess CTV ad inventory in Canada right now, notes Segal, as some streaming services begin to add ad-supported plans to their platforms. Bell Media’s own CTV inventory surged more than 75% over the past year alone.
As the industry shifts toward more automated advertising solutions and CTV ad inventory continues to grow, Bell Media has seen its programmatic solution thrive. Since its launch in 2017, its programmatic offering has grown to roughly 50% of its overall business, according to Segal. Advertisers can also access Bell Media’s CTV inventory through direct insertion orders (IO) and a Bell Media auction-based private marketplace.
To stand out in an increasingly competitive space, Bell Media has focused on giving advertisers access to precise targeting capabilities and real-time reporting, ensuring they can maximize reach and engagement.
One of the pillars of its CTV strategy is leveraging the wealth of data available through Bell Canada. This includes data from wireline and wireless services, as well as TV consumption data, fueled by over 22 million customer connections from more than 8 million Canadian households. This means advertisers can tap into “first-party, privacy-compliant and deterministic data points” on users that account for roughly one-third of the Canadian telco market, notes Dhruv Arora, senior manager of advanced advertising.
This gives Bell Media a leg up on competitors whose data may be single-sourced or dependent on users logging in, adds Segal. “We have a much better idea of the behaviors of our consumers, and we can use that to create data segments that are very specific to advertiser needs.”
One of the biggest challenges for advertisers today is creating cross-platform campaigns with unduplicated audiences. With Bell Media’s planning, activation and measurement tools, brands can track and manage consumer exposure across different channels, says Segal.
For instance, advertisers can execute on linear television using a campaign optimizer tool called SAM (Strategic Audience Management). Then, for their digital activations, they can run data from a SAM campaign through Bell DSP to either suppress duplicate audiences or retarget them.
This cross-platform approach is further enhanced by Bell Media’s transparency, which gives advertisers visibility into how their target segments are being defined and reached. Let’s say an “auto intender” segment includes individuals who have visited automotive websites a set number of times in the past 30 days. Segal says the advertiser could modify this definition to better align with its campaign goals. In addition, advertisers can leverage Bell Audience Manager to create custom segments that fit their needs.
Then there’s the crucial measurement piece. Through Bell Attribution Insights, brands can gain real-time insights into the performance of their campaigns and optimize their strategies, says Segal. “It’s the pretty bow that brings the full Bell marketing platform together.”
To illustrate how advertisers can work with Bell Media end-to-end, Arora gives a hypothetical example of an automotive brand. While running a linear TV campaign, the company could use Bell Media’s CTV ad capabilities to either reach new users (by suppressing the TV audience through Bell DSP) or retarget the same viewers with messaging that drives them further down the funnel – getting them to visit a website or book a test drive. Using Bell’s first-party data, the brand could target CTV screens in households in proximity to dealerships. And, of course, it could measure results and optimize the campaign every step of the way.
“Because we’ve got access to all platforms within the advertising ecosystem, we truly understand and can leverage incrementality,” Arora says.
Bell Media’s investment in digital inventory and advanced targeting tools offers advertisers control over their campaigns. With precise audience segmentation and real-time data insights, brands can effectively manage reach and frequency while ensuring that their messages reach the right consumers across platforms.
CONTACT:
Sabrina Segal
Director, National Sales and Advanced Advertising
Sabrina.Segal@bellmedia.ca
Dhruv Arora
Senior Manager, Advanced Advertising Sales
Dhruv.Arora@bellmedia.ca
