National linear addressable advertising: Delivering competitive separation that works

Linear addressable TV spending is expected to grow by 33.1% this year with advertisers willing to spend more to ensure their ads are seen by their targeted audiences. While TV networks are testing and delivering single advertiser spot optimization (SASO) campaigns to claim a piece of the pie, they continue to leave money on the table by not selling the same ad spot to several advertisers or even venture out to programmatic environments.

Why do TV networks continue to leave money on the table? For fear of breaching their competitive separation agreements (e.g. ensuring popular soft drink brands are not in the same ad break or program). Competitive separation is a contractual requirement in business agreements and not honoring it can have significant financial, legal, and reputational consequences. These requirements and their implications make ad sales teams nervous about taking the next step in addressable TV and launching multiple advertiser spot optimization (MASO) campaigns, missing out on a key revenue-generating engine.

Ad sales can work around this challenge and ensure competitive separation agreements are protected so that TV networks can reap the full benefits of national linear addressable advertising without risking existing business or client relationships.

...TV networks can reap the full benefits of national linear addressable advertising without risking existing business or client relationships.

A brief technical detour into how a system can ensure competitive separation while keeping existing business

The addressable advertising ecosystem is fragmented. It comprises many players with different systems, technologies, and solutions, from ad insertion and ad decisioning to broadcast scheduling and traffic systems. In order to protect competitive separation agreements, these pieces must work together seamlessly, ensuring the right information is communicated between them, at the right time.

For this to happen, ad decisioning systems need to understand the category of each ad in an ad pod to decide which to exclude in their selection process. A universal ad signaling solution like LTN Target acts as a communications proxy that integrates with all parts of the advertising ecosystem, allowing information to flow and systems to make the right decisions about which ads to select for the ad pod.

Ad ecosystems typically comprise various systems and solutions. The ability to have interoperability and automation at scale to overcome system fragmentation is mission-critical. Automated processes across ad insertion platforms, ad decision providers, broadcast traffic and scheduling systems protects competitive separation agreements even in fast-moving programmatic environments where advance notice for ad replacement might be down to 30 seconds and ad decisions are made almost in real-time. The correct data bridges enable the automatic communication of the category of ads that should be excluded to the ad decision systems.

This method is proven to work — TV networks have been testing competitive separation for the last several months, seamlessly while honoring existing business agreements and client relationships.

This method is proven to work — TV networks have been testing competitive separation for the last several months, seamlessly while honoring existing business agreements and client relationships.

Building on the present and getting ready for the future

National linear addressable advertising enables TV networks to generate new revenue from their ad inventory. Ensuring the ecosystem is as automated as possible and that it enables all parts to communicate is key for protecting business contracts and client relationships.

Automation and communication in the addressable advertising ad tech stack are critical for media companies looking to future-proof their business. With more TV networks testing and launching addressable advertising campaigns, this is the right time to invest in ad signaling solutions that enable them to build on their existing business to explore new models and revenue streams.

Automation and communication in the addressable advertising ad tech stack are critical for media companies looking to future-proof their business.