Jamie West, deputy managing director of Sky Media, speaking at Connected Consumer 2015.
As Sky AdSmart enters its eighteenth month in the market, Sky has revealed the technology, currently only available for linear broadcast, is to roll out onto the broadcaster’s on-demand services within the next few weeks – and on Sky Go linear by the end of 2015.
“Since launch we’ve gone through a major expansion in both the level of targeting and capability…and our ambition has been to make sure we have consistent targeting capabilities across all platforms,” said Sky Media’s deputy managing director, Jamie West, during Mediatel’s Connected Consumer Conference on Wednesday (10 June).
“In a week or so’s time we will be enabling AdSmart targeting on on-demand via the set-top box…and ultimately towards the end of this year on Sky Go linear.”
The next iteration, West said, will be to join up Sky’s TV viewing data.
With a five million-strong viewing panel, the broadcaster has access to a wealth of untapped consumer data which West says will enable “true, cross-platform sequential targeting.”
“Being able to buy a single campaign across multiple platforms, frequency capped, and using that to tell a story is a real innovation in the market,” he said. “So there’s a real sense of momentum and a real sense of growth in terms of advertiser take-up.”
Available in a fifth of UK households, Sky AdSmart currently tailors what’s shown in linear TV ad breaks according to a household’s profile and location.
Originally launched across Sky’s wholly-owned entertainment, movies and sports channels, it has since been extended across a range of Sky’s partner channels, including Nat Geo, Fox and History.
West revealed that a total of 485 advertisers have run 2,300 individual campaigns using AdSmart since launch in 2014, creating more than two billion impressions.
“[AdSmart is] changing the dynamic of the conversation that Sky is able to have – both with agencies as data and technology partners, and also with advertisers,” West added. “It’s opening up new markets for us, whether local or niche targeted.”
West also confirmed that Sky is ready to open up the technology to others and has been in conversation with a number of public service broadcasters. AdSmart will also be opening up to Viacom channels – and ultimately Channel 5 – in the coming months.
