How adverts on ITV shows will soon be targeted just for you
TELEVISION viewers will be bombarded with personalised adverts based on their favourite programmes under a system developed by ITV.
The 21m viewers who use ITV’s online player to catch up with TV shows can be targeted by advertisers based on their age, viewing habits and where they live.
It is believed to be the first step in households having dedicated adverts directed at them on all TV shows.
ITV boss Carolyn McCall trumpeted the service as her business’s answer to internet behemoths such as Google, which have absorbed huge chunks of revenue by pledging to help firms zero in on their ideal customers.
It has damaged the more scattergun approach of television, where shows typically have a fairly broad range of viewers and it is harder to focus tightly on specific markets.
But by combining internet and TV, ITV hopes to offer highly targeted adverts which are much more likely to be watched than those elsewhere online.
Customers signed up reveal their location, age, what they like to watch and the device they’re watching it on.
This data is gold dust for ITV and its advertisers.
Speaking at the annual conference of advertising trade group Isba, McCall said the service is on 90pc of internet- enabled televisions as well as mobile phones, and available through Apple and Amazon. It is used by more than three-quarters of 16 to 24-year-olds – despite claims they do not watch television.
She said: ‘We can give you highly targeted advertising. Using first-party data from our 21m registered users, we can tailor your advertising by target audience, by postcode, by device and by behaviour.
‘Uber was one of our first advertisers to use this targeting capability, reaching 25 to 40-yearolds, only in major UK cities and only on mobile. East Coast Trains shared their customer data with us and used us to target non-East Coast users.’
McCall also took a swipe at tech firms’ claims to be the future of advertising.
She said that one major advantage of television is that companies know their products are appearing in a ‘brand safe’ environment – a disguised reference to scandals at YouTube and elsewhere, where companies’ logos appeared next to videos attempting to recruit terrorists.
McCall attacked internet firms for over-inflating their numbers. She said: ‘I believe advertisers are beginning to see beyond the Emperor’s New Clothes.’