“We deliver targeted forms of advertising and content promotion in a way that’s attractive and welcoming to the viewer.”
What is AdScribe and what do you do?
We like to position AdScribe as an enabler of revenue for pay TV operators. At our heart we are an ad technology company but we also offer a range of services backed up with extensive domain knowledge and experience to bring incremental ARPU to pay TV operators.
For many pay TV operators their STB acts as a conduit for advertising supported broadcast content, producing revenue that they don’t have a share in. What we do at AdScribe is to offer a platform that allows operators to take part in this revenue generation by creating and controlling a new layer of advertising and STB data monetization that does not cannibalize the existing ad market or impact content owners negatively.
With advertising it’s about carving out some real estate within the TV UI into which we deliver targeted forms of advertising and content promotion in a way that’s attractive and welcoming to the viewer. This might take the form of display advertising within the guide or interactive applications, video advertising around VOD content or fully immersive interactive advertising sites. With STB data it’s about giving an operator the means to capture, manage and monetize the vast amounts of viewer data flowing through their platform. Beyond the immediate benefit of full census audience measurement which gives insight into exactly what viewers are watching, this data can be used to optimize content acquisition and carriage negotiations, market to and upsell customers and as the basis for advanced targeted advertising. We deliver this package of technology and services based on a long-term collaborative partnership with operators, guiding them from pre-launch concepts through the product deployment to a fully operationalized business.
What is your USP compared to others trying to do this?
There really are not that many companies that do exactly what we do but our key USP is the extensive experience we have gained from implementing advertising platforms from concept to revenue generating businesses in markets across the globe. Every market is subtly different and we have taken learnings from all of them which we pass on to each new customer.
From a technology point of view, some of our product features are genuinely unique in the industry and our ability to take an operator from the drawing board to market is second to none. Once deployed, the ease of use of the platform drastically reduces opex and allows operators to function at the pace required in the fast moving advertising world. Over the past number of years we have seen many companies from the online and digital advertising world make an entry into the ‘Connected TV’ industry. What they have learned and we have always known is that there are a lot of nuances to the TV advertising world that don’t translate from the digital space. Coming from a standpoint where TV comes first gives us a distinct advantage over these companies.
What does it mean that Google now have entered the TV business with its Android OS?
Google are an interesting player in the TV business. They have been at it for some time now and depending on how you look at it this is their third or fourth attempt at cracking the world of TV. While they still have a direct to consumer product with Android TV, offering the Android OS to pay TV platforms could have a big impact for the industry in general but for smaller operators in particular. For these operators the cost and risk of building a custom STB platform is typically too great so having a stable open source OS to work from is a good start.
While it will help them to get market faster, Android OS is still far from a complete solution and operators will need to leverage a number of partners to create the full ecosystem, particularly in the area of content delivery and security. It is important to draw a distinction between the Android OS and Android TV which comes bundled with Google Managed Services (GMS) and in particular the Google Play Store. By mandating the use of the Play Store, Google maintains a hold over the consumer data, which is not something that operators will want to give away easily as they see themselves as the rightful owner of this data. “The one controlling this data is also the only one that can offer targeted campaigns and true measurability when it comes to advertising initiatives.”
Why is this important to operators?
Viewer data in its broadest sense is sacrosanct for Operators. On one hand, operators have a duty of care to their subscribers and are in a unique position of trust with their subscribers in respect of the security and usage of subscriber data. On the other hand, this data is extremely valuable to the operator in giving them the intelligence to make informed tactical and strategic business decisions around how continue to offer these subscribers compelling content. In both scenarios, it is wholly unacceptable for any third party to have any real or perceived access to any part of subscriber originated (and operator owned) data. The one controlling this data is also the only one that can offer targeted campaigns and true measurability when it comes to advertising initiatives.
So this is something that will be mutually beneficial? We think the combination of the Zenterio OS and the AdScribe data products mitigate this issue around subscriber data completely. We have always made it clear our end customer is the operator and our job is to give them security and control of this data within their ecosystem without safe harbour concerns. We ensure that unless the operator decides otherwise, nobody has access to or sight of subscriber data even in anonymised form. The idea is to help the operators to be able to utilize and monetize this data for themselves without having to hand it over to third party service providers that will then take the lion share for themselves although all of the data is provided by the operators.
And what does that mean for the end consumer? Stepping away from data, for the end consumer experience it’s all about access to the content they want when they want it. Advancements in search and recommendation will have a big impact here as will advancements in video quality like 4K and HDR. Zenterio and AdScribe are focussed on the providing the flexibility to upgrade the viewing experience that we spoke about earlier which will also bring benefit to the end consumer while reducing churn for the operator.
How do you benefit from being a part of Zenterio?
On an operational level, we have spent the past six months working to integrate both the AdScribe advertising and STB data products to the Zenterio OS. Now that we have completed this integration, every installed licence for the Zenterio OS ships pre-integrated with our products, which gives us significantly increased reach. During this integration process, we were extremely impressed with the technical skill and pragmatism of the Zenterio team we worked with. In addition we have had the opportunity to visit existing and target Zenterio customers in tandem with the Zenterio commercial teams and this undoubtedly has given us exposure to operators we would not ordinarily be able to cover. We would like to think the addition of AdScribe product to the Zenterio portfolio has also helped Zenterio so overall this has felt like a win-win relationship!
So what will advertising look like tomorrow?
The key trends in TV advertising are addressability and accountability. There is a big drive to close the gap between the highly targeted nature of digital advertising and the more scatter gun approach of traditional TV. The ad industry is asking for it and the technology is quickly getting there. While there are some hurdles to be crossed on the delivery of these ads, the main cornerstone will be the underlying data required to make the targeting decisions and deliver an efficient product. This is where we see the natural evolution of our STB data platform. Combining full census viewing data with viewer data from the operator and other third party sources will finally give advertisers the reach they are looking for and the ability to put their ad spend in front of the right viewers.
And what will it look like five years down the line? The TV technology industry moves pretty slow and five years is not that long a time but we think it will keep following the trend of more targeted and refined ad spend on linear TV. Programmatic is obviously a big buzz word in the video advertising space and the next five years will tell a lot about how much impact it will have in the linear TV world. For sure there will be a lot of consolidation and clarity around the different places where video advertising is served. Advertisers want to reach their target market regardless of the delivery mechanism or device and will continue to seek an easier way to achieve this. Finally, we feel that in a fully connected environment, interactivity will become the norm enabling brands to have a meaningful two-way conversation with consumers when and where it counts.
About AdScribe:
AdScribe is an agency that specializes in working with brands and
content owners to exploit new revenue opportunities in an increasingly
digital world. AdScribe leverages consumer data provided by
a partner ecosystem to develop more effective ways for brands and
content owners to accountably reach specific audiences segments.
AdScribe is a privately held company.
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