Behavioral Targeting now playing on your TV

Well, don’t get alarmed yet but that’s the way future is going to look like. TV will (in near future) start showing Behaviorally Targeted ads. The idea is not new, it has been talked about for quite some time but Time Warners’ purchase of Tacoda has moved this idea a step closer to reality.

Here is an excerpt from iMedia Connection interview with Dave Morgan of Tacoda.

Recently on an analysts call, Time Warner COO Jeff Bewkes expressed enthusiasm for the targeting capabilities of the company's cable network. Can Tacoda's technology be applied to the cable platform or does it only function on a web platform?
We do believe that BT will be applied to cable networks and we have built our business and our technology with that future in mind. What we do on the PC we certainly intend to do for the TV.

How about mobile?
The same. What we do for the PC, we intend to do for the mobile device. Of course, since those systems are much less open and also may involve more personal data, this area may develop much slower.


The same concepts that are used today online to show Behaviorally Targeted ads will translate into TV (and other media e.g. mobile) as well. Based on what time of the day a user watches TV, what program she watches, how often she watches, weather she TiVo’s the programs and what programs, does she watches commercials or skips them everything will help segment users and better target the ads. Yes, there will be issues in exactly identifying what ad will make sense but with smart segmentation providers will be able to deliver the right ads to right viewers. For example, there are certain programs that I watch which my wife does not like, there are certain programs that my wife watches which I don’t watch and then there are others that we both watch. By putting both me and my wife (household) in one segment 1/3 of the time the advertiser will be wrong, still better than being 50% (or more) wrong. Now if they overlay other household information and find affinities between the programs watched and the time of the day and flipping of the channels (time a person stops on a particular channel before flipping again) etc, providers will be able to better segment the viewers and hence better target the Ads.
This is just the beginning, you will hear more and more about TV ad targeting in next 2 years.

So watch out for the Behavioral Targeted Ads coming to your TV.
Comments/Thoughts?