Sure, online retailers use targeted advertising to serve up their ads, but TV commercials traditionally are impartial. All that’s about to change as TV operators experiment with ways to show commercials for dog food to only dog owners.
According to the TV Week story, New York cable operator Cablevision and TV technology firm Visible World are testing targeted advertising on more than 100,000 homes later this year. If successful, Cablevision will roll out the capability across its 3 million homes next year. Comcast is in talks to have a similar test, as well.
In the Cablevision trial, the operator will marry set-top box data with consumer data from third-party providers such as Experian or Acxiom to deliver messages to specific homes that fit certain profiles, such as households with an income of more than $100,000 and two children.
However, as the story says, addressable advertising is still an unproven technology. iTV firm OpenTV conducted a technical trial two years ago of addressable ads in Colorado, and Cox’s effort in Phoenix to offer some degree of targeting has met with little interest from local advertisers. .