Kargo Gives Buyers More Detail on CTV Campaigns

Kargo said it has launched a new product that gives advertisers more details about the connected TV campaigns they are buying.

At a time when more advertisers are diving into CTV, Kargo’s new show-level transparency system provides information about what specific shows they’re buying, which episodes are streaming and what scenes in those shows might be contextually helpful to the marketing message, making campaigns more effective.

“CTV to date really has been pretty opaque,” David Naffis, general manager of CTV at Kargo told Broadcasting+Cable.

“We’re looking to open that up and be very transparent to our clients to give them more power and precision into what they’re delivering against and then be able to make decisions about where they’re performing better and optimizing,” he said.

Better information will also help with brand safety, a big issue for clients, Naffis said.

Currently, most media companies selling inventory through programmatic channels restrict details about the shows that are available to give themselves more control and prevent buyers from cherry-picking the inventory.

Buyers and advertisers “know the publisher, but they often don’t know what channel, what show, what content they’re delivering against,” Naffis said.

Kargo, which works with many large media-buying agencies and advertisers, takes the data the programmers make available programmatically, plus all information about the show — audience size, content rating and even the location of ad breaks —-to infer which show is being offered and which episode will appear. For example if Kargo knows a FAST channel is streaming season three of Three’s Company, Kargo is able to narrow down in which episode an ad will appear in.

If it’s a good fit for the marketer, Kargo makes the buy. If it’s not, Kargo passes.

“We can target specific shows to target or block, again for brand-safety reasons,” Naffis said. “We’re only delivering into shows we’re able to 100% identify.”

The new system, available only on buys made or managed by Kargo, can help advertisers select where their messages will run, and also report where and when a spot ran and what effect it had.

“One of the reasons that clients come and work with Kargo is so they can leverage products like this and our high-impact units for CTV that they’re not able to get from their direct publisher relationships,” Naffis said.

Adding contextual information can double or triple the performance of a commercial, Naffis said.

Naffis said the product is already out in the field and its first clients have used it. “It’s been really well-received,” he said.