UK-based ITV uses SAS 360 Match to drive viewer engagement with customized ad experiences
ITV, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, is using an API-driven, first-party ad server powered by data and AI leader SAS to deliver personalized ads to the 40 million registered users of its content hub, ITVX .
One year after its launch, in addition to 40 million registered viewers, ITVX reached 2.7 billion streams, a new record for ITV. Recent successes include the Rugby World Cup broadcasts, which reached 60 million views – an increase of 80% compared to the 2019 tournament.
Increasingly, advertisers are directing budgets to platforms capable of guaranteeing verified audiences and automated purchasing options. Streaming and Connected TV services benefit from this change, but to do so, they need an advertising technology foundation that is robust and flexible enough to integrate and develop in-house solutions.
The SAS 360 Match intelligent advertising solution does this through extremely targeted, real-time ad decisions at immense scale across live and on-demand simulcast deliveries. It operates flexibly and transparently, but is still capable of dealing with complex business rules and criteria.
With SAS 360 Match, ITV can:
- Reliably predict digital audiences and ad catalog across planned programming and on-demand content.
- Take control of your ad monetization strategy with intelligent video-on-demand (AVOD) advertising support – even in a cookie-free world.
- Deliver contextually relevant ads based on analysis of viewer preferences.
- Establish an AdTech framework with built-in advertising intelligence to take control of monetization and the digital advertising ecosystem.
“When we face a challenge or find an opportunity, we talk to the brilliant minds at SAS,” says Alex Maison, director of digital ad platforms at ITV. “We usually come back with better ideas than the original ones. We managed to make a lot of progress and stay ahead of the market thanks to these conversations.”
One of these crucial innovations is Planet V, ITV's self-service programmatic platform, which offers advertisers a range of campaign scheduling options based on program content and audience data. Planet V, developed by ITV itself and currently the second largest programmatic platform in the UK, is a high-fidelity integration with the SAS 360 Match solution for ad delivery and campaign management.
“The flexibility of SAS 360 Match allows us to progress at our own pace,” adds Maison. “We define our own development queue – we don’t wait for others. And we managed to build most of everything we need to deliver to the market ourselves.”
A major development on the horizon for ITV is the delivery of linear addressable advertising. Ads shown on standard TV broadcasts are the same to all viewers, but addressable linear advertising allows different ads to be shown to different households, even if they are watching the same program. This is made possible through set-top boxes and smart TV technology enabled to receive and display ads based on household demographics, viewing habits or other targeting criteria.
Roderick Crawford, SAS Vice President for Northern Europe says: “SAS has been working with ITV for over ten years and it has been great to see the collaboration develop to the point where our customer intelligence software can help today , delivering personalized ads to the 40 million registered users of the ITVX content hub. We know that ITV has ambitious plans to become the leader in streaming in the UK and substantially increase its digital revenue; and it is very satisfying to help them in the process.”
