Finecast debuts header bidding capabilities
August 3, 2022
GroupM’s addressable TV business, Finecast has partnered with technology platforms and broadcasters aiming to make connected TV advertising better, and help advertisers reach bigger audiences through BVoD campaigns. Header Bidding technology enables advertisers to access more BVoD inventory and invest bigger budgets in CTV campaigns to reach bigger audiences.
First launched in Australia and Thailand, Finecast partnered with True Digital, SBS and Xandr to utilise the strength of header bidding technology on Connected TV campaigns. Launching this technology, which is synonymous with digital advertising, to connected TV highlights Finecast’s focus on ensuring advertisers have the best data-driven tools and access to inventory at their disposal when planning and executing campaigns on TV.
Header bidding has long been part of the digital media ecosystem, creating a fairer and more competitive programmatic marketplace for publishers. It provides buyers with better inventory access and marketers with greater transparency and visibility of available inventory. Header bidding reduces the inefficiencies of the sequential waterfall approach by allowing simultaneous pre-bidding of inventory from multiple exchanges.
Through successful trials, Finecast and SBS have delivered 33 per cent more reach to SBS audiences in Australia, and a 30 per cent increase in bid rate for available impressions, when comparing Header Bidding with tag-based campaigns.
“This is an exciting development in the Connected TV/OTT video space where we can harness the agility and addressability of programmatic and have access to the best inventory,” commented John Miskelly, GroupM APAC Investment Director. “The broadcasters are doing a great job as TV transforms, and SBS and Finecast are demonstrating true best practice for access and innovation in the CTV ecosystem.”
Additionally, in Thailand, Finecast partnered with True Digital to test an innovative programmatic bidding technique in CTV/OTT. Header bidding delivered significant improvements to both True Digital and Finecast over the tag-based integration across all the key tracked metrics (despite both integrations having high bid priority):
- Greater first-look inventory access for Finecast, with 19 per cent uplift in bid opportunities.
- Improved bid rate for True Digital, with Finecast bidding on 9x more impressions vs tag-based integration.
- More wins – this resulted in a 10 per cent uplift in winning bids for Finecast, translating into more scale for Finecast and improved fill rates for True Digital.
“This is a great win for both Finecast and True Digital as we’ve seen a solid uplift in all activation metrics,” declared. “Following this test, we’ll be looking to roll out header bidding with more partners and in more markets.”