Following early details revealed by Mediatel last week, Channel 4 has today formally announced its new AI driven adtech that enables the broadcaster to place a brand’s ads next to relevant scenes in a linear TV show.
To be revealed at its Upfronts event today (4 July), Channel 4 said it is now seeking advertising partners to test the new technology.
Last week Mediatel and Videonet revealed that Channel 4 has been conducting laboratory tests with viewers that have demonstrated the potential to dramatically improve ad recall, and also the ability to raise brand awareness, when ad breaks show brands that are directly relevant to programme scenes that preceded the ad break.
The broadcaster had used AI to identify what it calls ‘contextual moments’ where a category of goods is used or talked about in a positive manner during a programme. It found that when strong and positive contextual moments were followed by a relevant brand advertisement, ad recall was 101% higher than the recall amongst a control group.
Across all the brands that Channel 4 studied in the test, spontaneous awareness from relevant ads that followed ‘contextual moments’ was higher than from normal advertising. Compared to a control group that was not exposed to any advertising at all, normal ads played to test viewers resulted in 23% higher awareness.
For contextually placed ads, awareness uplift was 34% compared to viewers who saw no ads. Brand perception also benefited, with an average uplift for all the brands whose ads were contextually placed.
“Our pioneering ad tech provides an exciting opportunity for advertisers to test a global first in linear TV ad targeting which we know delivers strong results,” said Jonathan Allan, chief commercial officer, Channel 4.
“Our ‘Contextual Moments’ trial offers advertisers the ability to buy bundles of relevant advertising within a quality and safe broadcast environment for the first time ever.”
Channel 4’s Upfronts moved to the summer for the first time this year. Allan said this was to allow the newly appointed CEO, Alex Mahon, and director of programmes, Ian Katz, an earlier opportunity to address the broadcaster’s clients and agencies on the future of the channel.
