Google are making traditional TV inventory available to buy in DoubleClick Bid Manager in the US. The search giant is integrating with WideOrbit, clypd and Google Fiber to provide access to national, local and addressable TV inventory in DoubleClick Bid Manager. Writing on the DoubleClick blog, Rany Ng, Director of Product Management at Google, said “Historically, TV and digital advertising have been bought and measured through different systems and currencies. By adding traditional TV buying into DoubleClick Bid Manager, we are taking the first step towards allowing advertisers and agencies to manage their video campaigns across digital and linear TV, in a more efficient and effective way.”
Ng also said that Google will be providing impact-based metrics in DoubleClick to help advertisers understand the effectiveness of their advertising by using Google’s other proprties. For example, an advertiser will be able to measure the lift when someone searches for their brand on Google or YouTube after seeing their TV ad.
“With their inventory now available through DoubleClick Bid Manager, television networks and station owners get access to new types of buyers, such as advanced TV buying groups in agencies, digital-first advertisers, and even global advertisers. Many of these buyers already use DoubleClick, but until now, have had limited access to US TV audiences. As viewership patterns change, advertisers and publishers have new opportunities to provide audiences with great ad experiences across screens and content types. By bringing TV and digital video advertising together, we hope to help advertisers and publishers grow with video in a more impactful way,” added Ng.
Commenting on the announcement, Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia said, ‘It is fundamentally an automation play, giving marketers automated access to TV programs, stations, geographies and audiences. It is not about making TV advertising more predictable, provable and performant. It is not Performance TV. We applaud this move, in that it is yet one more attack by a large digital disruptor on the core of legacy TV ad buying and selling, and we will see many more of these kinds of announcements. The more disruption to the TV ad business, the more marketers will rethink and reevaluate their current practices and the more opportunities for companies like Simulmedia to show them the potential of Performance TV.”
No mention was made of YouTube TV, the pay TV service launched by Google in February of this year, but it’s going to be interesting to see whether Google will be able to leverage it to become more deeply involved in TV media trading.
