US media giant Comcast has announced the launch of Universal Ads, a new buy-side offering which it says will give advertisers of all sizes access to TV inventory across many of America’s largest providers, including NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Fox Corporation, and Roku. Universal Ads will include a free self-serve ad buying tool, Universal Ads Manager, as well as a marketing API which will enable developers to build reporting and measurement applications. Comcast also plans to add free AI creative production tools further down the line.
Universal Ads, set to launch later this quarter, is built on top of technology from Comcast-owned ad tech business FreeWheel. Comcast executive James Grant is heading up the initiative, while former Snap executive James Borow will lead the product and engineering teams. A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, TelevisaUnivision, and Xumo are all also signed up as launch partners.
Universal Ads includes a self-serve ad buying tool, Universal Ads Manager
The new product looks primarily designed to draw more small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) into the US TV ecosystem. Comcast says the aim is to enable businesses to buy TV ads across major providers as easily as they can buy from social media platforms. The company seems to be particularly targeting small businesses who have hit a ceiling with social media buying. In the product announcement, Comcast said its own research has found that many performance advertisers believe their return on investment from social media buying has peaked.
But Universal Ads will be available to all sizes of advertisers, and Comcast Advertising’s president James Rooke emphasised that even large advertisers will benefit from simplified access and increased flexibility in TV buying.
“Universal Ads has been purpose-built in response to what advertisers have been asking from Comcast,” said Rooke. “That is, make TV simpler to buy, scale and measure in a way that is compatible with the needs of performance marketers, and really, all marketers. Comcast has tremendous assets across tech, media and data. Universal Ads brings those assets together in a way that has never been done before.”
Growing the TV pot
Universal Ads is the latest launch in a series of products and initiatives looking to bring ad spend from SMBs into TV. At a time when TV ad revenues are under pressure, SMBs represent a significant opportunity to grow the total TV pot.
High minimum spends and inaccessible buying processes have historically kept many small businesses off TV. Universal Ads, through its free self-serve platform, will lower these barriers. And while many smaller advertisers still struggle to produce TV-quality creative, Comcast’s promised generative AI tools could quickly solve that problem when they’re released.
Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of media business VaynerMedia, said Universal Ads is a positive step for the industry. “The biggest mistake TV has made is acting like it’s still 1995,” he said. “SMBs want in, and they deserve to be in. The same way social democratised advertising, TV needs to drop the barriers and let brands of all sizes play at scale.”
Comcast will also hope that its scale will help drive adoption. Several TV businesses, including NBCU itself and Disney, already run self-serve platforms for the CTV inventory. But while these individual services have significant reach, Universal Ads will enable businesses to buy across a wide range of America’s largest TV providers. “Coming together as publishers allows us to present a singular platform for brands of any size in any category to advertise in premium video — all with the ease and familiarity of buying on social.” said Jeff Collins, president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships at Fox Corporation.
Nonetheless, the big test for Universal Ads may be whether it can demonstrate performance and outcomes in a manner comparable with social platforms. Social advertising platforms are very adept at showing (or at least claiming) credit for real world results, and buyers familiar with those platforms may hold similar expectations when trialling self-serve TV offerings.
