I’ve oftentimes considered making my computer password IF**KINGHATETECHNOLOGY!!!!. I’m admittedly not a big fan, though I recognize I couldn’t run my business without it.
Tonight I found myself tending to numerous chores. I put the same movie on two television sets as I bounced around the house, and followed the story relatively uninterrupted.
I’ve done this kind of thing before and found that everything typically tracks, so I didn’t think twice about it.
Only this time was different. Upstairs had one set of commercials, while another set appeared downstairs. The movie started and ended at the same time, but the commercials were all different.
Turns out this isn’t as unusual as I thought. I’ve since learned that two televisions in the same home can show different ads because most streaming and smart TV ads are dynamically inserted and personalized, rather than broadcast identically as on traditional cable.
I was streaming through Roku on one of the sets, and it seems they have their own advertising identification. Put another way: advertising networks treat each device separately. Thus, one TV might get a car ad while the other gets an insurance spot.
Mystery solved, right? Well, it also seems that many streaming ads are chosen milliseconds before the break via automated bidding. Two devices requesting ads simultaneously may receive ads from different advertisers.
Then, at the risk of thoroughly confusing you, there’s also usually a few seconds difference in buffer time, so each device hits the ad break at a slightly different moment, triggering a different ad.
UGH! At day’s end, streaming ads are personalized and dynamically inserted on each device, so two TVs almost never get identical ads.
By now, my head was ready to explode, so I resolved to call my pal Candace at CNS Communications any time I needed to place media in the future. Because this stuff is WAY beyond my pay grade, and technology is getting further away from my comprehension level every day.
So I think I’ll just stick to doing what I do best, and leave the media buys to a professional. Because, as a former client of mine said as he held up his cell phone, “I don’t know how this thing works; I just need to know that it works.”
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing. Send your marketing questions to [email protected].
