ZTV ADVERTISING SOLUTION

Ann Kraus: Simpli.fi just released ZTV, zip code based targeted CTV. This is a turnkey solution that combines the worlds of linear TV and digital. Here to tell us more about it is Simpli.fi's Chief Revenue Officer, James Moore. James Moore: Thanks, Anne. I really appreciate you having me. We are super excited to be introducing ZTV to advertisers and agencies and partners. It's something we've been working on for a long time, and it's actually a great advancement on our already kind of pre-existing suite of connected TV solutions that we have in market. So ZTV really began with us examining what has been normalized in the way of TV advertising, planning, and buying by linear advertisers, linear buyers. And that's typically non guaranteed audience buys, where you're serving commercials across content that indexes highly to a particular audience or demographic, and then it's generally served over a large geographic area like a DMA or a cable zone. So we really wanted to say, can we build a solution that translates more easily to what is known in linear, but provides some really added benefits? So ZTV, quite simply is a turnkey precision audience-based solution for connected TV that delivers across really high quality connected TV inventory, but does so at a substantially lower cost than typical data-driven connected TV solutions. So we think it's going to be incredibly popular in the marketplace. Ann Kraus: That lower price point does sound enticing. Can you tell us more about how ZTV works specifically? James Moore: Yeah, sure. The specifics behind how it works, as you can imagine, is multiple components coming together to create a powerful solution. It really began with us kind of dealing with the geography question, which is rather than executing across broad areas like preset cable zones or DMAs, we took the zip codes in the United States, there's over 40,000 zip codes in this country, and we built a proprietary zip code system so that we could begin to target and optimize at the zip code level, which is much more granular than a DMA or a cable zone. We then took census data, and if you're familiar with census data, there's a lot of demographic based information, age and gender and income, and really a lot more. But we began mapping that data to the zip code, to the proprietary zip code system that we built so that we can identify which zip codes over index to all of these different variables that are provided by the census data. We then also have access to ACR data and ACR data allows us at a zip code level to look at TV viewing behavior. So we're able to look at things such as like which zip codes are heavy streaming zip codes versus linear TV viewing zip codes or what programming specifically is being viewed more often than other programming and what time of day are they viewing that programming compared to other areas and that sort of thing. So you put all this together, what you get is the culmination of a connected TV solution, which we call ZTV, where you can execute at a zip code level, optimize at a zip code level against programmatic connected TV inventory, against premium private marketplace connected TV inventory. And because this is not identifier dependent, it allows us to execute with more dollars going toward the media, meaning that we can do it at a much lower cost than a typical data-driven connected TV solution that you see in the marketplace. And the pricing, frankly is more in line with what you would see with linear pricing. Ann Kraus: James, you've mentioned some benefits before. What are some additional benefits that ZTV can offer advertisers? James Moore: Well, I think it's a good question. I think there are an awful lot of benefits. So as I'd mentioned previously, I think this solution takes a planning and buying process that has been normalized in linear TV buying and really kind of moves it forward from a precision standpoint. It allows these advertisers to obviously execute at a more granular level from a location basis, and it allows them obviously to be able to do audience-based buying in a way that leveraging the census data and the TV viewing habit behavior data, which is a world that linear advertisers know quite well. Some of the other really big benefits behind the scenes are that this solution is completely future-proof. Unlike most data-driven connected TV solutions, there's no device level or address level or household level identifier dependencies here. We're mapping the data to the zip codes and then we're executing and optimizing to these zip codes without that kind of identifier dependency. What that means is that frankly, more of the CPM flows directly to the publisher and the media cost, allowing our advertisers to execute at a much lower price CPM than they typically would if they were doing a typical data-driven guaranteed to audience by leveraging third-party data, which is quite normal in the connected TV space. So it's got this great benefit of being future-proof at a lower cost. And then here's the thing, right? While this natively functions the way that is normal and linear and is more in line with their norms, it also carries all these enormous benefits that we know come with digital. And I think probably the single most significant benefit is the fact that you can really have accountability around your media. You can do digital online and offline conversion measurements. You can get really specific about measuring lift and incrementality. You can provide really, really detailed reporting that you don't typically see in linear executions. Ann Kraus: All of these benefits that you've mentioned, they sound great for both linear and digital TV, but what type of advertiser is ZTV best suited for? James Moore: Well, the truth is that ZTV is a solution that's going to work really well for both local TV buyers and national TV buyers because obviously we can isolate and identify and target down to a single zip code, or we can isolate and identify thousands of zip codes nationwide against a particular audience that an advertiser might be trying to reach. It also is going to translate incredibly well across a fairly broad range of verticals. And so I think you're going to find that this solution is going to help digital buyers, it's going to help linear buyers. It's going to provide a broad range of benefits. Some of the benefits, by the way, would include things like the fact that it's completely future-proof. This solution does not rely on any kind of third-party identifiers. It doesn't rely on any device or household-level graphs. Because we're mapping this data to these zip codes, it allows us to really execute in kind of an identifier-free way. And this of course means that more of the dollars, as I mentioned before, are going directly to the publisher and to the media buy in the CPM, which means you can do a highly-targeted audience-based connected TV buy, but do so at a price point that is really much, much lower than you're typically going to see when doing data-dependent connected TV executions. So it's going to have some really powerful benefits and we can't wait to introduce it into the marketplace. Ann Kraus: What are some of the specific use cases where you see ZTV providing the most value? James Moore: Another great question, Anne. First and foremost, when it comes to TV buyers, whether they're local or national buyers, there is a desire to ensure that they're reducing or eliminating duplication of impressions to the same consumer that they're reaching with their linear advertising. So as you can imagine, the ability to isolate and identify leverage in the ACR data, those zip codes that specifically heavy up on streaming view and behavior to balance the campaign is going to make a lot of sense and provide a lot of value to a linear TV buyer. Another great use case and specific use case that we've seen even in early testing is when you're working with businesses and organizations that operate in trade zones or trade zips such as multi-location retailers, multi-location quick service, restaurants, dealerships, businesses like this, the ability to execute connected TV advertisement on high quality inventory, but to refine that targeting to the specific audience and deliver specifically in those trade zips for those individual locations with that level of provision provides a huge level of precision boost when compared to buying DMA wide or cable zone type buys. Ann Kraus: This is not the only CTV offering that I know Simpli.fi has. So how does ZTV enhance this advertising sweep that you already have for CTV? James Moore: Well, I would say this, connected TV has been a priority for this company now for several years, and it's going to be a priority for this company for the foreseeable future. As a demand side platform, we have been focused on data-driven executions, and we've got a very robust suite of data-driven audience first solutions for executing on connected TV inventory. Some of the pre-existing solutions that are most popular include things like the ability to onboard client first party data and to identify the households you either want to target or to exclude from a connected TV campaign using our addressable geo-fencing solution. We also see a lot of people asking us to customize and identify specific households that they want to target with our addressable solution, where we basically map thousands of data points from valuable data providers like credit bureaus to households so that we can either on a local or national basis customize audiences on the fly to execute to very specific households based on advertiser needs. Some of the other executions that are really, really popular are, for instance, site retargeting, where there's a great many advertisers who are taking advantage of the traffic that's visiting their websites and making sure that they re-target them with connected TV ads after they leave that web property. We also have clients who are using our solutions that frankly, we developed and perfected over many years around keyword execution, keyword search behavior and keyword contextual behavior to be able to target people with connected TV ads on their large screen TV after they've been on publisher sites, doing specific searches on certain keywords or reading certain content online. And so these are just some of the many solutions that we have in place. And we've got a team, by the way, that is focused on helping our advertisers and our agency partners. And our media partners, when they have specific use case needs for connected TV they come to us with problems and challenges, and our team basically goes into the suite of solutions that are available at our disposal, which now includes the ZTV solution, and they develop the best possible mix of these solutions or non-CTV solutions that are going to help you achieve those goals and objectives. So ZTV is a great addition because it's totally future-proof. It brings precision-based audience targeting in at a lower price point. It translates really nicely with how linear TV buyers buy local and national TV. And we already know through early testing or early exposure to beta customers that this is going to be wildly popular and highly effective. Ann Kraus: James, thank you so much for sharing about ZTV. James Moore: You're very welcome. Ann Kraus: And if you want to learn more about Simpli.fi's ZTV offering, email hi@simpli.fi, or visit our website at simpli.fi.