PilatMedia Introduces Path to Targeted Ads

By Debra Kaufman

PilatMedia announced a new add-on product for its IBMS Sales system that will enable targeted ad campaigns. “What we’re doing is launching our personalized advertising platforms for linear television,” says CTO Bob Lamb, who notes that the on-demand platform for last-minute commercial insertion was introduced at last year’s NAB.

IBMS:OnTarget will, for the first time, enable content and service providers to integrate both targeted and traditional advertising using the same campaign and inventory management software. Lamb describes how the using a unique set of attributes about the consumer is the basis for advertising campaigns aimed at that market. “We have a modeling tool that tells us to look at a consumer advertising break,” he says. “It allows you to model the effect of adding that consumer break.”

IBMS will allow the broadcaster to use the ad space twice if suitable for more than one consumer profile. “It adds a Z dimension and allows you to do as many versions of the break as you want,” he says.

Privacy issues rear their head when it comes to targeted advertising, but Lamb describes how PilatMedia’s system handles it. “We have a set of business rules that tells IBMS how to behave,” he says. “It’s customized for each market.” The level of detail in the U.S. is much larger than in any other market, he notes.

Although broadcasters have yet to implement this level of targeted advertising, Lamb says it’s at the talking stage. “We’re demonstrating a platform based on what people said we should do,” he says. In other words, if everything works as planned, they will come.