With the emergence of mobile devices such as smartphone and tablets disrupting the traditional viewing experience in a way that was rarely foreseen by advertisers and technologists alike, Volker Ballueder, Civolution, sales director, explains how ad tech vendors are attempting to offer brands a method of capturing the divided attention of ’second screeners’.

With the emergence and rapid development of the connected world, there were strong beliefs that, by 2020, connected devices such as smart TVs and the digital web would be synchronously linked wirelessly. It’s not as far away as we originally thought—with the arrival of TV-synchronised advertising over the past few months, we see rapidly syncing digital and TV together in real time to create this ‘future’ viewing experience right here in the present! 

If we look into our own living rooms, it’s clear that the way we watch TV is radically evolving. The fast-growing adoption of the ‘second screen’ by viewers has triggered new types of content consumption behaviour, meaning the accepted norms of advertising practice are fast becoming outdated. 

For instance, as soon as the TV ad break is aired (and oftentimes even before that) consumers are glued to their ‘second screen’ devices — be those smartphones, tablets or laptops. For the most part, these viewers are multi-tasking on social media, but are also frequently switching attention between the TV screen, searching for their information on their search engines, as well as carrying out some form of in-app gaming. 

One of the big questions facing the advertising industry is that with viewer attention divided in such a way, how is it possible to shift viewers’ attention back to what is happening on the television screen when traditional ads are appearing? 

The answer is to synchronise the experience across screens. Technology now allows us to set unique identifiers (video fingerprints) within TV ads that enable their identification within seconds of airing on any broadcasters’ channel. 

Once identified, a trigger can be sent to a Demand Side Platform (DSP) in real-time to execute an amplified line item. This line item can take the form of an advertisement or call-to-action on the companion screen, delivering an increase in unique users, conversion rates and click-through-rates (CTRs). 

Over the past few months we have seen integrations with two major DSPs and more are coming. By leveraging Civolution’s network of over 2,300 channels and global TV-sync technology, the aforementioned uplift works more effectively than just increasing delivery without the ‘second screen’ in control groups.

When the pre-determined event occurs, the signal triggers the line item to increase the bid, and ad delivery is spiked for a set amount of time, amplifying the brand message that is on TV across various digital platforms. Whether this is done on mobile, social, omni-channel, video, or even search, bidder choice and media buy is a question of agency strategy, client, and vertical. 

For instance, there has been recent experimentation during the recent FIFA World Cup tournament that delivered specific ads around specific live events, such as whenever a goal was scored. 

Of course, the next question is: What happens if the person is not watching the TV screen? 

The answer is that the impressions double as further reach extension. If triggered against competitive or category ads, this can be leveraged as ‘conquesting’. In whatever scenario, markeretrs are looking towards this new style of on-demand advertising in the wake of shifting media consumption habits, looking to shore-up user and brand engagement, as well as uplifts in recognition and conversions. 

Like most ad-tech solutions, adoption will take some time. Before we see this technique standardised on every media plan, we will need to further educate both TV buyers and real-time bidding (RTB) buyers. Once the market has matured and the concept of synchronising marketing campaigns across a number of screens becomes even more pervasive, we’ll see the adoption spreading wider to agency trading desks (ATDs), agencies of record (AOR), as well as TV lead agencies.  

The message we hope resonates with these groups; despite television advertising being bought in the same way it has been for over 30 years, this industry is rapidly evolving into a programmatically traded platform, just as the web did with RTB in 2009. Watch this space!