A Winning Partnership: Scale Plus Personalization

Gamut entered into a strategic partnership with AdGreetz that enables personalized local OTT advertisements to consumers, at scale, reaching over 100 of the most popular premium publishers streaming OTT content. National, regional, and local advertisers can produce, deploy, and optimize relevant, data-driven, hyper-personalized ads received in real-time via OTT.

The partnership solves a major industry challenge, notes SooJin Oh, President of Gamut. “AdGreetz enhances and complements what we do in local OTT, by allowing Gamut clients to target the right video to the right person, at the right time, in the right location. We are now able to automate versioning and accurately deliver locally, with precision. This production and delivery, along with the ability to deploy at scale smart, data-driven, hyper-personalized video ads was difficult, if not impossible, in the recent past.”

Why Personalization in Advertising?

Research into ad personalization supports the two companies’ claims as to the impact of personalization in advertising. A study conducted by Segment in 2017 showed that 71% of consumers feel frustrated when a brand experience is impersonal. Accenture surveyed consumers in 2018 about the issue of advertising relevance and determined that, “91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them.” Epsilon research from the same year showed that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences.

Granularity Is Growing

The word “personalization” is used often in media these days, but it means something very specific in respect to OTT. Says Frankel, “Today, the Gamut/AdGreetz partnership offers: Recipient Location; nearest retail location; day of the week; time of day; countdown clocks and weather. Shortly, we’ll be able to add additional data points that can include gender and other demography including marital status, familial status, relevant SKUs, affinities and many more.”

Even more sophisticated targeting is on the horizon. “We anticipate having hundreds of data points in the next 1-3 years, which will increase our knowledge of the ad recipient and allow for substantially more relevance and granularity,” says Frankel. “Examples might include loyalty points; purchase history; favorite destinations and purchase Intent (new car, house, etc.).”

Reach PLUS Personalization: A Powerful Combo

Advertisers have wanted to get more opportunity in OTT for some time but must balance reach goals along with conversion objectives. And now they can. “We can now offer advertisers a more engaging relationship with customers by helping them easily produce and deliver smart, data-driven, hyper-personalized ads,” says Gamut’s Oh. “For example, our first campaign for a national wine and spirits retailer was deployed to 3,347 zip codes, including the recipient’s city and the nearest retail location (e.g. Huntington, 4242 Main Street). Personalization increased conversion by 2.3X and revenue by 2.05X, versus ads that didn’t include the personalization.”
Why should TV advertisers who for so long bought on reach be interested in personalization? “Research has shown that personalization in advertising builds a stronger connection between brands and consumers,” says Oh. “The Internet and its data-driven advertising changed the game in terms of what consumers expect from advertising. In OTT, we can present a relevant ad that delivers a relatable and appealing customer connection to the brand. As we’ve shown, these ads drive increased conversion rates and dollars spent.”

Given that TV has always sold itself as a reach vehicle and now OTT has achieved critical reach of the US media audience, how does this project advise clients to balance reach objectives with personalization/targeted delivery? Says Oh: “The Gamut & AdGreetz partnership does not compromise the ability to achieve critical reach. It’s really just the opposite. We can deliver local OTT personalization at scale, leveraging and further extending Gamut’s platform capabilities and reach to an expansive list of over 100 of the most popular and premium publishers who are streaming OTT content.”

OTT Ad Personalization Can Work in Any Product Category, Not Just Retail

The test case was a retail-sales driven campaign, but local OTT advertisers of all sorts will benefit from the ability to engage their customers in a more meaningful way than a generic, traditional, one-size-fits-all ad can deliver, says Oh: “The point of advertising is to build a relationship with a customer and get them to take action. That’s not exclusive to retail. Personalized advertisements perform better for everyone. Every past, current or prospective customer is unique and different, so one message for all doesn’t work as well as a hyper-personalized, data-driven ad that speaks directly to the customer.”

Eric Frankel concurs. “Before the Gamut/AdGreetz partnership, AdGreetz deployed data-driven, hyper-personalized ads and messages for more than 150 brands and agencies over 8 years and 5,000,000 messages delivered (historically on Facebook, Google, email, app, Snapchat, TikTok, et al). Across the board, AdGreetz has seen significant (and often record-breaking) increases in engagement and activation for all verticals including CPG; Auto; Insurance; Finance; Travel; Hospitality; Telecommunications; QSR; and FMCG.”

The Upfronts and Personalization

The personalization that the Gamut/AdGreetz partnership enables is crucial as Upfront deals are made – especially with marketers demanding increased flexibility after Covid. “We agree with the Adweek article that Upfronts need to evolve into FlexFronts,’” says Oh. “Personalization is flashy and it’s a game changer. Marketers love it. Consumers love it. But it’s hard. So is Local. This proven partnership makes it easy and flexible, with instant creative activation and impact in any DMA with no additional lift. It’s where ultimate agility meets flexibility.”