IRIS.TV, the leading video data platform, has announced a new partnership with Publica, the connected TV (CTV) advertising platform owned by Integral Ad Science, to integrate video-level contextual data into Publica’s CTV Ad Server. The new partnership will allow publishers to use their IRIS-enabled data partner segments for forecasting and targeting in the Publica user interface, improving the outcomes for CTV advertisers when running ads within their ad breaks.

CTV continues to grow in importance in a highly fragmented media ecosystem. In 2021, eMarketer projected that U.S. advertisers spent USD$14.4bn (£11.52bn) on CTV, an increase of 60% compared to 2020, with ad spending projected to surpass USD$30bn (£24bn) by 2025.

With marketers challenged to oversee advertising campaigns across dozens of platforms, an intuitive, data-driven strategy is essential for success. Until recently, data targeting has been focused around app, channel, and self-declared genre data, but the increasing availability of video-level contextual data offers value for both publishers and marketers as it provides content-level transparency that improves ad efficacy and brand safety.

The new partnership between IRIS.TV and Publica also represents the first time publishers can use their IRIS-enabled video-level data for targeting direct deals from an ad server, dramatically streamlining the process of introducing contextual data for planning and targeting advertising campaigns. With these new capabilities, publishers will be able to shift larger TV budgets into CTV by providing linear buyers with the level of targeting they have come to expect.

“The future of entertainment will take place on CTV, which means advertising and data leaders must work together to make CTV campaigns as efficient and effective as possible,” said Field Garthwaite, co-founder and CEO of IRIS.TV. “Our partnership with Publica breaks new ground in CTV advertising, making it possible for marketers to target direct deals from an ad server. We look forward to developing further innovations with Publica as we develop and expand our partnership.”

“Strong data assets are essential for marketers planning CTV campaigns,” said Ben Antier, CEO of Publica. “The combination of IRIS.TV’s video data platform and Publica’s industry-leading solutions for CTV publishers will allow brands and marketers to achieve new levels of success with highly targeted, data-backed advertising campaigns, across global streaming publishers.”

"Cinedigm is pleased to be working with Publica and IRIS.TV on this product launch. Data has always unpinned our advertising strategy at Cinedigm and we believe that providing deep level contextual insights derived from our premium video channels will better position us to meet our advertiser's needs for greater control, accurate targeting granularity over our content and full transparency into how their CTV advertising is working" said Ian Donnelly, Manager, Ad Operations at Cinedigm

"We are excited to introduce contextual targeting at the video level to XUMO advertisers, across more than 200 of our free premium channels. We have seen first hand how important data is to advertisers looking to increase their CTV ad buys, and we are now in the process of working with these global partners to help them build the audience segments they are looking to target on CTV at scale," said Jerrold Son, executive director advertising operations at XUMO