Digital Media: Dynamic Ads Coming to Broadcast

July 2, 2018

Are you ready for targeted commercials?

Dynamic ads are nothing new. We are constantly followed by these ads on social media and our favorite websites. When that pair of shoes you just looked at on Amazon suddenly appears all over your Instagram feed and along the sidebar of your go-to news website, that’s them.

Well, it looks like you can expect this to spill over into TV as well. Instead of being shown ads built for mass audiences, your commercials may soon be engineered specifically for you. According to The Drum, CBS and Neilsen are “working on a collaboration that will deliver ‘dynamic ad insertion’ during live, linear national broadcast television.”

With the success of dynamic ads on other digital channels, it was only a matter of time before television caught up to speed. “CBS will be able to offer impressions segmented by behavioral attributes, beyond age and gender” through Neilsen’s automatic content recognition software.” At IMW, we do not run any digital campaigns without detailed targeting, so it’s exciting to hear that this tactic will be available to broadcast soon.

This should allow both the creative and strategy teams to narrow their focus and deliver more engaging content. The strategists will filter the audience pool to find the best possible audience and pass that information to the creative team. Knowing exactly who the target is, they can confidently produce an ad with messaging that resonates with the recipient. As a result, brands can expect better ad recall and overall effectiveness.

Dynamically targeted ads provide an opportunity to overcome the “tune out” tendencies among audiences with already shrinking attention spans. Here’s hoping that these improve the experience of both the viewer and advertiser, as the ads are more relevant and provide a better ROI.