TelcoTV: Industry Aims for Targeted Advertising

While targeted advertising on targeted content may not become mainstream for many years, telcos and content owners at the TelcoTV show are planning ahead, spurred by news today that Microsoft Corp. had acquired a stake in social networking mega-site Facebook, believed to be for access to the site’s detailed customer information.

Some believe this valuable data would greatly assist anyone looking to solve the painful problem of finding ways to monetize content distributed through wire line TV, Internet and wireless networks to a growing array of devices.

However, before this targeted advertising can happen, experts agree, all members of the content food chain need to get behind a quality-over-quantity approach to marketing. Once accomplished, ads will be bought and sold less by the mass audience approach and more toward the audience-of-one personalization nirvana. (LINK to Wallacetelcotvblog)

“We have lots of businesses in lots of small towns,” began Shane Broyles, central office/R&R supervisor for Rural Telephone Service Co., in Victoria, Kan. “Since we already know from our middleware where our customers are, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to target advertising by IP address or zip code. I’d think and hope that ad buyers would find this approach much more useful.”

In his opening presentation this morning, Motorola Connected Home Solutions Executive Marty Stein referenced the Microsoft investment in Facebook, claiming companies are making big moves toward personalization, with part of the goal being adding value to any video viewing.

“Socialization makes viewing TV more of a social experience than today,” Stein said. “And one clear driver is moving from prime time to my time, with us moving from time shifting to place shifting to time and place shifting with device shifting.” When this comes to fruition, advertisers will want to keep pace, he added.

SES Americom IP Prime President Bill Squadron noted that adverting can be targeted to some extent today, though detailed customer knowledge coupled with personalized content will greatly advance the trend.

“Our IPTV service for telcos already deals with targeted ad insertion by geography and by demographic,” said Squadron, a former News Corp. executive. In reference to the Microsoft-Facebook deal, he added: “Social nets are accelerating what happens with linear TV.”

Facebook www.facebook.com
Microsoft Corp. www.microsoft.com
Motorola Inc. www.motorola.com
Rural Telephone Service Co. Inc. www.ruraltelephone.com
SES Americom www.ses-americom.com

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