Sky Media is enhancing its Search Behaviour Targeting tool with more categories and custom audience options for advertisers.
Advertisers will now be able to target their spots through an expanded list of categories, including “holidays”, “home improvement”, “pet and animal”, “real estate” and “fantasy sport”, as well as 18 off-the-shelf audiences (more than double since launch), and also request custom audiences from Sky Media directly.
Matt Godsmark, head of production propositions at Sky Media, told The Media Leader that while there was “a really broad spectrum” of demand from advertisers for new categories, “travel” and “home improvement” had both seen “really strong demand”.
These additions allow advertisers to target and deliver TV ads based on that same search behaviour they have been used to in the digital space for some time, he explained — for example, targeting people who are passionate about a specific topic or who are in market.
Godsmark said: “We know addressable TV works, but the application, or use case, varies from brand to brand — so we’re always looking for new and improved ways to leverage data for targeting. Our evolving partnership with Captify is another example of that and, broadly speaking, this capability will help deliver better outcomes for advertisers.”
Sky Media launched the tool last year to allow brands to target TV audiences based on online search behaviours and will add to its capabilities this year through an expanded partnership with Captify.
MoJ: ‘Real-world impact’
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was one of the first advertisers to use the tool for its Prison Officer recruitment campaign.
It leveraged AdSmart to target advertising across linear and on-demand content on hundreds of Sky channels to households that had been searching for “jobs” and “education” in the last month, layered with regional targeting around key prison recruitment areas.
The MoJ saw a 170% uplift in prompted ad recall from those exposed to the ads compared with an unexposed audience — a 24.3% percentage point increase.
Dan Cohen, director of product and advertising innovation at Sky Media, said the campaign showed “the best capabilities of digital to the brand-safe, big screen world of TV”.
Ben Stack, the MoJ’s deputy director of recruitment and retention communications, added: “Targeting our advertising in this innovative and effective way delivers better value for the taxpayer and allows our campaign investment to go further — having a real-world impact on our work to protect the public.”
