LONDON — The streaming TV ad business is going big and going global – and that means ad-tech vendors supporting it have to do the same.
But how can the suppliers to this booming business continue to provide value to publishers and advertisers in the fast-changing sector?
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Thomas Bremond, SVP & Chief Revenue Officer, International, FreeWheel, discusses how the Comcast-owned company is thinking about it.
Following Clients and Building Scale
“The core thing for us is we’ve noted over the past 18 months the importance of globalization in not just ad-tech, but also from a publisher standpoint,”
The launch of various FAST channels and global streamers has driven the need for FreeWheel to be present everywhere for their customers, with the ability to help them both technically and with their demand proposition.
Bremond states that “objective number one is to make sure that we are able to build scale and follow our clients where they need to be and where they want to go, and find their audiences”.
FreeWheel was recently named by Havas Media North America as its preferred SSP partner and was picked by Fox to power its OneFOX inventory.
It is almost a decade since FreeWheel was acquired by Comcast.
Interoperability: Connecting the Ecosystem
The second objective is interoperability, which Bremond describes as “making sure that whatever we build is for the good of the ecosystem, and also connecting as many people in the ecosystem”.
This involves not only connecting supply side platforms and demand side platforms but also data partners, creating a mesh that simplifies the connection process between different parties.
The goal is to make audiences in different countries comparable from a planning perspective. Bremond emphasizes: “What we’re trying to do from an ad-tech perspective is simplifying things so that buyers are able to buy premium video at scale and not just limit it to one market and have to repeat that by order 25 different times based on the reach of their campaign”.
Opportunities and Challenges for Streamers and Brands
Bremond believes that the key opportunity for streamers is their ability to bring a new advertising proposition that is truly local. He explains that “when these global platforms launch across 12-15 different countries, they bring something to brands that allow them to reach audiences globally, which in the past they would have to piecemeal together.”
However, the challenge lies in the difficulty of setting up sales teams, tech platforms, and going to market in individual markets without the necessary knowledge or historical experience.
“Great opportunity, but also challenges,” Bremond notes.
You’re watching “The Road to Cannes 2023 – Making TV Advertising Relevant Across Screens, Platforms and Cultures,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by FreeWheel. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. For more information on FreeWheel’s activations at Cannes Lions 2023, please visit freewheelcannes.com.