Finecast brings audience measurement to Australian BVOD platforms

Monday, August 3rd, 2020
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Finecast launches a universal ID to bring advertisers the ability to measure reach across BVOD platforms for the first time

  • Finecast ID is an industry-first BVOD Identity tool to improve user experience and advertiser effectiveness in Australia

AUSTRALIA — Finecast, the addressable TV business of GroupM, has launched the Finecast ID, which will enable advertisers to measure and manage frequency and reach across the broadcast video on demand ecosystem for the first time.

Through collaboration with SBS and Australian FTA broadcast partners, the Finecast ID will power Finecast’s connected television campaign planning, optimisation and measurement providing marketers with targeting, tracking and measurement of Household reach through a single buying platform for the first time in Australia.

Finecast ID has been created with marketers’ need for a consistent identifier for targeting and measurement at the heart, delivering an accurate and measurable CTV reach and frequency builder while also addressing their concerns around consumer privacy and respecting regulatory pressures.

It is already being embraced by Australia’s largest advertisers with Wavemaker client Domino’s one of the first to adopt the Finecast ID in their media planning.

Domino’s Australia & NZ CMO Allan Collins says: “Tech innovation is central to everything we do at Domino’s, from how we constantly improve our pizza quality, provide the best ordering and delivery experience to the way our messages reach consumers. Every major advertiser knows the importance of being able to measure reach and ensure our marketing dollars are being spent effectively to reach the right audiences and deliver a return. With BVOD audiences surging, the Finecast ID is an instrumental reach builder helping us plan, optimize and measure true 1:1 Household reach on Connected Television. Finecast is leading the way in addressable TV and it’s exciting to be one of the first brands to adopt a media innovation that is shaping the future of television advertising.”

At the same time as improving advertiser ROI and efficiency, Finecast ID was built to improve the consumer’s experience when watching premium broadcast content via BVOD platforms eliminating the risk of back-to-back ads and over-exposure for clients.

Brett Poole, Managing Director of Finecast, says: “Our challenge was to develop and deliver a stable, credible approach to measuring Connected TV reach for brands. The Finecast ID now firmly sets the standard for identity, frequency management and campaign reach reporting on CTV. It sounds easy but in reality, it has been one of the biggest challenges advertisers face in the Connected TV ecosystem, where most common digital identifiers don’t work.”

“With Finecast ID, brands will be able to gain an advantage of the most accurate and reliable way to build reach and deliver effective and efficient TV campaigns in market.”

When Finecast launched in Australia in 2018, there were three common questions from marketers: How can I build incremental reach with linear TV through Finecast? How can I optimise reach and frequency and deliver optimal efficiencies? How can I make sure I am not putting my brand at risk of a poor user experience on BVOD?”

With the business problem front of mind, Finecast set out to work with Australian broadcast partners to find a way to manage frequency and deduplicated reach across BVOD on CTV and build a solution that provides a consistent identifier across their combined inventory.

Kim Portrate, CEO of ThinkTV, says: “Genuine collaboration across broadcasters and agencies to support Australia’s fastest-growing media channel is shaping the future of the television and TV advertising. Australian’s watch more and more BVOD every week making television, which is twice as effective as social video, the best choice by far to deliver brand growth and commercial outcomes for advertisers. Innovations like Finecast ID being delivered into the BVOD ecosystem presents a unique opportunity for marketers to position themselves to take advantage of this opportunity for growth.”

Adam Sadler, SBS Director of Media Sales, says “SBS are truly excited to partner with Finecast for their universal ID solution. This is a market and agency-first initiative, a true step-change for the broadcast video on-demand marketplace. As measurability, reach, user experience and data privacy continue to dominate the focus and strategy for most advertisers, Finecast has created a solution that delivers on all of these metrics and this, in turn, will grow the commercial video-on-demand streaming space. A great initiative and we look forward to working with the Finecast team.”

GroupM and Finecast are part of WPP AUNZ, Australasia’s leading creative technology company.