Addressable TV Hits a Turning Point: Notes From DMEXCO '18

The industry has been hearing about addressable TV for years, but it's moment has finally arrived. At this year's DMEXCO conference in Cologne, Germany, reaching living room viewers with targeted ads was a hot topic. One person doing the talking was Jon Block, vice president of product and platform for Amobee, who explained why addressable's moment has finally come.

"I believe that from an industry point of view we are at a turning point. Addressability has been a buzzword for years, but I think finally in the last year, maybe 18 months, we've started to see broadcasters really adopting addressability as part of their core strategy for the future," Block said. "This is coming about because there is pressure from competition, pressure from the duopoly of Facebook and Google, but it's also a realization that the industry is ready for it. Agencies are ready to buy addressable advertising. Slowly the technical framework and the measurement framework is starting to come into place."

With addressable TV finally here, the natural question is who benefits from this? While that question doesn't have an answer just yet, Block sees addressable having a positive effect on all parties.

"There is no doubt that there is value here, because there is value to the advertiser in improved KPIs and advertising efficacy," he said. "Now, where that value ends up, I think it's going to be shared throughout the whole ecosystem. The broadcaster will see value in terms of increased CPMs, in terms of shifting spend from other mediums to broadcasters, and also I think they'll see value in user experience. Perhaps being able to lower ad load because their advertising is high value and more targeted. The operators are going to benefit because in some cases they're the technology platform that allows for the addressability."

For more on why addressable's moment has arrived, watch the full DMEXCO interview below (shot by Beet.tv and used with permission).

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net