LiveRamp’s IdentityLink for TV is now offering addressable TV targeting through its first reseller – Adobe

In March, LiveRamp expanded its IdentityLink customer data service to addressable television, enabling brands to target the set-top boxes — and thus the TVs — of their customers’ households.

Now, the San Francisco-based firm is integrating its TV service with Adobe’s Advertising Cloud and Audience Manager, so that the marketing cloud can offer access to addressable TV. LiveRamp GM of TV Allison Metcalfe told me that Adobe is the first reseller of LiveRamp’s addressable TV subscriber identification services.

Under this arrangement, a brand can upload its first-party data (customer relationship management files, customer lists, offline sales or loyalty program lists) to Adobe for transfer to LiveRamp.

LiveRamp then matches the list to the subscriber lists of MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors), via a persistent identifier like an email address. The matches can also be layered with third-party data to sift out, for instance, those subscribers who own trucks.

MVPDs that have addressable set-top boxes, she said, include cable systems Comcast, Charter Spectrum, Verizon Fios and ATT, and the Dish satellite network.

‘Data-driven linear’ targeting

The resulting subscriber IDs are then sent to the MVPD, such as Comcast, where the actual campaign is conducted.

Metcalfe noted that addressable TV campaigns can achieve a high level of attribution, since attribution data can be matched with specific households who receive the targeted ads.

She also pointed out this addressable targeting is at a household level, without regard to programs. So, if L’Oréal wants to reach Customer # 123, it can deliver an ad to a TV in the household of the identified customer through the appropriate cable service, in an available ad slot. That targeting isn’t by program or program type.

Metcalfe describes program-based contextual advertising as “data-driven linear” targeting because it’s similar to the age/gender targeting of the old days, when an advertiser might choose to target young men by advertising during an evening football game.

But now, additional data layers can also be added to that program/daypart, such as income level or vehicle ownership. That additional data can be gleaned from a brand’s own customers, as the brand tries to reach, say, young men making more than $75K annually, because those appear to have the same characteristics as most of their customers.

Metcalfe noted that the two strategies of TV targeting are not currently combined via the LiveRamp/Adobe offering: households where the customer lives, with ads inserted into the program/daypart that matches their attributes.

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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.