TV advertising is at a crossroads. This billion dollar industry is looking over its shoulder and sees the need for change. Why? In the past few decades while the TV landscape has changed dramatically, TV advertising hasn’t kept up. Features like multiple channels, time shifting and audience fragmentation have created new challenges for advertisers.
“The fact is, when deciding how to invest their budgets TV advertisers are faced with a wide variety of choices,” says Gideon Gilboa, NDS Product Marketing Manager for Advertising Solutions. They have to decide how to get the best return on their investment. “If TV wants to continue growing and maintain its leading position as an advertising medium, the industry will have to provide TV advertisers with the solutions they are looking for,” he says.
“In the long run, TV advertising is going to have to reinvent itself in order to be able to maintain its leading position in the industry,” Gilboa says.
“It seems clear,” he continues, “that at this juncture, the TV operators who are NDS’ traditional customers will play a growing role in driving change in TV advertising. Their digital broadcasting systems that reach millions of subscribers can potentially provide the accountability, addressability and interactivity that their advertisers are looking for in order to make the right impact on their target audiences.”
Solutions for TV advertising
“The digital TV world is in the process of evolving and technology is now coming to the aid of TV advertisers,” Gilboa explains. “Because of NDS’ unparalleled experience in integrating millions of digital set-top boxes over the years we are in an ideal position to offer solutions that meet their needs.”
NDS has developed NDS Dynamic™ an end-to-end suite of advanced TV advertising solutions designed to offer measurable, targeted and engaging TV advertising.
It includes three elements:
- NDS Dynamic Audience Measurement Solution — Second-by-second measurement of viewer interaction with TV content, advertising and advanced services such as DVRs.
- NDS Dynamic Addressable TV Advertising Solution — Makes addressable TV ads an integral part of the broadcast experience.
- NDS Dynamic Interactive TV Advertising Solution — Enhances broadcast ads with different types of interactivity including access to additional product information and content.
“Measurement is the key to all of these solutions because if you can’t measure advertising you can’t sell it,” Gilboa says.
NDS is already helping the TV advertising industry understand how ads are viewed and consumed. “This is the baseline for any type of advanced advertising functionality,” he says.
NDS, TNS partnership
At IBC in September, NDS announced a global partnership with TNS Media Research. Headquartered in the UK, TNS provides Internet, TV and radio audience measurement in more than 30 countries. “The goal of this partnership is to create and market an end-to-end return path data (RPD) solution for digital TV operators,” Gilboa says. “RPD services, like those already deployed by NDS and TNS, measure TV viewing at the set-top box level. They enable second-by-second analysis of live, time-shifted and interactive viewing. In other words, they offer the information needed to make the most informed decisions possible.”
“Together with TNS we help operators and advertisers better understand audience behaviour. This is the basis of planning new addressability and interactivity advertising formats.”
How will this work?
By using NDS Dynamic advertisers can reach their target audiences more efficiently. Media sellers such as TV operators and channels can increase their revenues significantly in the process.
Gilboa explains: “We start with a simple approach based on our vast experience and world leadership in DVRs [see “Targeted Advertising is Around the Corner,” in World Vision No. 41]. Because NDS already has a deployed base of 14.5 million DVRs around the world, we are actually working with an existing population.” Addressable ads will be downloaded to viewers’ hard drives and presented in the right time and context based on viewer profiles.
“NDS Dynamic aims to offer a seamless TV-centric experience,” Gilboa says. “Initially we do not want to change the current advertising models on TV. We just want to improve them. This is one of the reasons that NDS is also conscious of privacy issues.” Addressability models are based on the existing personal data collection agreements already in place between TV operators and their subscribers as part of the digital TV service contract.
Building on interactive experience
NDS has been involved in interactive advertising for almost a decade and has helped launch hundreds of interactive TV advertising campaigns in different markets. “NDS Dynamic now builds on this experience,” Gilboa says, “by introducing the technology that delivers the best of what everyone wants: an intuitive, TV-centric experience for viewers, longer brand and product exposure for advertisers and more revenues for media sellers.”
What does all this mean for the future character of TV advertising? “The 30-second advertising spot isn’t dead,” Gilboa says. “It’s adapting to the latest reality. In the process NDS Dynamic is helping shape the future of TV advertising so that it can become more measurable, addressable and effective.”
For more information:
NDS Dynamic
TNS |
