Innovid teams with Tapad to target video ads at users across devices

Image from Innovid

Video marketing platform Innovid is now able to deliver video ads to the same user across their devices, thanks to a partnership announced today with cross-device identity provider Tapad.

This is the first time that Innovid has employed cross-device identification, SVP of Product Ronnie Lavi told me.

He noted that advertisers will now be able to retarget a potential customer across devices, deliver the most effective sequence of ads across devices and provide a related experience as users move from device to device.

For its part, this is the first time that Tapad’s cross-device Device Graph is being used by a global ad server, SVP of Global Partnerships Chris Feo said via email.

Tapad utilizes probabilistic techniques — such as similar IP addresses, location of the devices at night, correlations of cookies to mobile device IDs and so on — to infer that you are the same user on a smartphone, laptop and computer.

The mapping of devices is made to an anonymized individual profile. Late last month, Tapad began a partnership with identity provider Signal, which tracks known and identified customers for brands on and beyond their websites. The Tapad arrangement expands Signal’s reach of identified customers by offering anonymized users across their multiple devices.

In February of last year, mobile telecom operator Telenor Group purchased the New York-based Tapad for $360 million.

Innovid added a Marketing Cloud Suite to its video platform at the end of last year. Among other things, it allows data surrounding a user’s site visit or video ad viewing to be used elsewhere.

For instance, the company said, the platform might send data on a user who engaged with a swimming-related video ad to the sponsor, outdoor retailer REI, so REI can deliver more swimming-related content via other channels. The Marketing Suite is integrated with major marketing clouds like Adobe and Oracle and includes analytics and the ability to optimize campaign performance.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.