Advanced Television

Darcey: Sky+ will provide targeted ads

March 18, 2011

Speaking to advertising industry body ISBA in London Mike Darcey, COO of BSkyB, confirmed the operators commitment to targeted advertising and said Sky AdSmart – already used online with Sky Player – would be implemented via Sky +. He didn’t commit to a start date, though within 2011 has mentioned before.

Darcey emphasised that advertising was more important than it appeared to Sky – given the huge subscription revenue – and that it was committed to innovation. He said for advertisers Sky+ would move ‘from Satan to saviour’ with the implementation of AdSmart allowing much better targeting.

Using NDS addressable advertising technology the system will see a selection of ads housed on the hard disk drive, and inserted into linear ad breaks. “Where and when they are inserted will be based on the insights we have into the likely interests or circumstances of individual Sky homes.”

“[With] Sky AdSmart…we can take customers’ information– postcode, age, viewing packages and so on – and, with their consent, use that to segment our audiences better.

So rather than asking advertisers to make some general assumptions about the type of audience tuning in to House on Sky 1, we can help them have more of a forensic view of that programme’s audience.

So if you’re Ford, rather than having to take a bet that the Mondeo ad is your best option across a single nationwide Sky 1 audience, you can segment audiences so that they see the most relevant Ford ad available.

So a young woman sees an ad for a hatchback and the family of five next door sees an ad for an MPV.”

As an aside Darcey revealed that a UK broadcaster (ITV one assumes) asked when Sky+ was introduced if its ad breaks could be excluded from the FFW function. “Our answer was short and to the point!” said Darcey.

Categories: Advertising, Articles, Targetted