FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned ad-tech company that works with most big TV programmers, said it has launched new products that will make it easier for advertisers to buy commercials programmatically in live events on streaming channels.
The upcoming Paris Olympics — covered in the U.S. by Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit — are among the big events with ad inventory available via programmatic ad buying technology.
Live events remain popular with advertisers because the command the attention of audiences and more live events — once the province of traditional broadcast and cable — are being streamed.
“Streaming opened the path for publishers to transact programmatically within their highly valuable live inventory,“ FreeWheel general manager Mark McKee said. “But most programmers, understandably, took a walk, jog, run approach. Now, with advanced ad technologies, proven business models and unprecedented scale of streaming audiences, we’re at a new stage in the programmatic evolution.
“There are still different approaches for different events, but publishers interested in opening their premier inventory to automated trading, can do so with confidence. As they say, it’s only live once, which is what makes these events so special for advertisers,” McKee said.
Serving ads programmatically in live events can be tricky because of concurrent viewing spikes that make pacing ads and controlling latencies more difficult.
FreeWheel's new capabilities expedite programmatic buying with preapprovals for creative, by anticipating real-time surges in viewership and by adjusting campaign pricing to account for high viewership levels.
For publishers, the capabilities mean increased reliability that ads will run as planned, better fill rates, more personalized experiences for viewers and greater demand from new advertisers.
“As our industry shifts to an always on marketplace, we have been able to bring in advertisers of all sizes to our content across our entire ecosystem through programmatic, especially to the highly coveted sports and live events programming we air,” Mark Marshall, chairman, global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said. “This allows for a greater diversity of marketers to access our premiere content, while also enhancing targeting and engagement with the right audiences. We are excited for the continued marriage of premiere programming and advanced ad technologies, as its impact will be unsurpassed.”
In a new report, It’s Only Live Once: How TV Advertisers Can Capture Audiences in the Moment … and How Streaming Is Changing the Game, FreeWheel said advertisers consider live TV important because it provides a large, simultaneous audience and high viewer engagement.
The report also lists concerns advertising have about live programming, with suggestion for how to minimize their risk.
For advertisers who worry about serving the same ad over and over, most live events include natural pauses for ad breaks and frequency-capping tools can help control repeated ads even in a live environment.
If incurring higher prices on major live events is a problems, advertisers should consider their effective costs per thousand (CPMs) and factor historical viewing, audience engagement, and co-viewing into the price tag.
And to ensure clients are reaching the right audiences, ad-selection tools are available.
“Today, as live events — as well as daily live programming such as news — begin to also make the move onto streaming platforms, the opportunity for advertisers grows,” McKee said in the report. “But challenges also present themselves, as advertisers work to have their message heard in an environment with little room for failure or mistakes.”
