IRIS.TV and Equativ have partnered to give streaming TV ad buyers the ability to target based on context, and at the same time increase demand that publishers can expect for their inventory. Contextual CTV ad targeting is viewed as a counter-weight to the loss of cookies.
As the two companies explain: “This collaboration comes as standard approaches to digital media monetisation and buying are being disrupted by ongoing changes in data access and usage. Coupled with rising data privacy regulations, the deprecation of third-party cookies in 2024 is creating a greater need for more contextual-based solutions.
“With brands, agencies and advertisers recognising the need to explore alternative data sources, there is increasing interest in contextual approaches that can deliver both privacy-compliant and more engaging ads to consumers, especially in the fast-growing CTV space.”
IRIS.TV provides a platform built for structuring, connecting and activating video-level data. Equativ is a leading independent ad platform. This marks IRIS.TV’s first full-stack partnership, enabling the use of granular video-level data across Equativ’s advanced ad server, supply, and demand-side platforms (SSP and DSP).
IRIS.TV helps publishers securely share video-level insights with advertisers. Its solution ingests and normalises all metadata for each video, and it assigns an ‘IRIS_ID’, which is a universal content identifier that can be shared with data partners such as Oracle Advertising, Pixability and GumGum’s Verity.
These partners use AI for frame-by-frame analysis of the video to provide an understanding of what is being shown in the content – and this in turn can be used to segment inventory and match advertising to it.
Equativ is creating a new marketplace where publishers can easily integrate the IRIS_ID to offer brand-suitable, contextual ad targeting for online video and connected TV inventory. Advertisers benefit from the detailed insights about on-screen digital content when looking to deliver relevant advertising.
Using Equativ’s platform, the IRIS_ID can be passed into the bid-stream by publishers, enabling flexible programmatic transactions via direct, private marketplace (PMP) and pre-bid deals.
This combined tech stack equips publishers with a common data signal (the IRIS_ID) and means multi-publisher deals can be organised and optimised in the way buyers want to transact. Unique deal IDs are generated effortlessly, the companies report, and these can be accessed by any DSP of their choice.
Sean Holzman, EVP, Ad Platforms and Agencies at IRIS.TV, comments, “Accessing content data at the video level has been a major challenge for many contextual intelligence solutions looking to enter the video and CTV arena. The IRIS_ID is engineered to solve this issue and support an open ecosystem where video owners, distributors and advertisers can tap detailed video-level data to deliver the right ads in the moments that matter.
“By integrating the IRIS_ID with Equativ, we look forward to providing advanced ad decisioning capabilities that are unique in the marketplace. This integration will also help industry players to achieve deeper audience understanding and, ultimately, provide a better user experience.”
James Grant, SVP and Head of Agency & Enterprise CTV Partnerships at Equativ, declares: “Maintaining addressability is essential to not only accelerate growth in the CTV space, but also help protect its future viability. We are committed to developing contextual and curation tools that fuel greater yield without relying on cookies, and moving to become an ID-agnostic platform.”
Grant continues: “Working with IRIS.TV to access content signals via the IRIS_ID is the next phase of that progression, which will bring a rich new avenue of data to make ads even more impactful.”
Data management practices adhere to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). The process of creating brand suitability segments is aligned with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework.
