Comcast Spotlight Rebrands as Effectv, Launches New Solutions to Drive Better Performance in The New TV Landscape

Announces Two New Products to Bring Greater Addressability to TV Advertising

Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, announced that it has rebranded as Effectv (e-FEC-tiv), emphasizing its commitment to delivering measurable results for its clients. This name change follows a notable evolution of the company over the past year, including the rollout of new data-driven TV advertising strategies, targeting and attribution products, cross-screen capabilities and a self-service buying platform for advertisers.

“Our new name, Effectv, reflects our commitment to drive better performance for our advertising clients,” said Marcien Jenckes, President, Comcast Advertising. “By applying data to television advertising in new ways, across all screens, and making it easier to buy than ever before, we’re transforming TV advertising. We combine the targeting and measurement of digital, with the reach and impact of television – an unbeatable combination.”

As part of the rebrand, the company also announced the launch of two new products to bring greater addressability to television advertising:

• Audience Intelligence allows advertisers to plan and run data-informed linear TV schedules to more effectively identify and reach their target audiences at the local, regional and national level. Moving beyond age/gender demographics, advertisers can build campaigns using networks and dayparts to reach specific audiences – for instance, in-market SUV buyers, with scale and efficiency.
• Addressable Full Availis a linear TV product that enables advertisers to target custom audience segments at the household level. Advertisers can choose up to five different creative units for a given :30 spot, using Comcast viewership and third-party data to determine which ad unit should be sent to which household. For instance, an auto advertiser could send truck copy to truck intender Comcast households, sports car copy to sports car intender Comcast households, and default brand copy to all other homes in their selected markets. Since advertisers are buying the entire “avail” of that designated spot, they benefit from both the broad reach for branding and the addressable targeting for relevant households. Advertisers can then use reporting data to optimize their next campaign flight.

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Addressable Full Avail follows the On Addressability initiative announced earlier this year by Comcast Advertising with the goal of enabling addressability across the TV ecosystem.

“As we evolve to a more data-driven future, the work that Effectv is doing will make television a more effective, accountable medium for advertisers,” continued Jenckes. “These addressable solutions, as supported by our On Addressability efforts launched in Cannes, ensure that television will continue to be the most effective marketing medium for advertisers.”

“Our new name reinforces our mission of partnering with clients to deliver results that matter to them,” said Maria Weaver, Chief Marketing Officer, Comcast Advertising. “With the rollout of Effectv’s product suite over the past year, we can offer clients solutions to find their customers, target those audiences, report on delivery, and most importantly, prove effectiveness.”

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Effectv offers clients customized advertising capabilities, known as CrossReach solutions, which combine the right product mix to meet the specific needs of every advertiser. These full-funnel solutions reach customers throughout the purchase cycle:

• Upper-funnel: Broad reach and scale is achieved through demographic content-based buys and augmented with cross-screen, cross-platform audience delivery. To reach audiences on the TV viewing platform of their choice, Effectv offers digital video advertising across laptop, mobile devices and connected TVs, as well as subscribers viewing non-skippable advertising on Xfinity Video On Demand (VOD). Effectv’s research shows that VOD represents the largest growth segment in TV viewing, underscoring its importance for achieving incremental, targeted reach.
• Mid-funnel: More targeted messaging with focused reach of specific audience segments, including likely purchasers, in-market customers or other high-potential prospects, is enabled via Audience Intelligence. Addressable Full Avail targets specific audience segments at the household level, and Effectv’s audience-targeted premium digital video and digital TV products provide cross-platform targeted reach.
• Lower Funnel: Measurement at the point of action is enabled via Instant IMPACT, an attribution tool announced earlier this year to measure visits to an advertiser’s website within 30 minutes of a TV commercial airing. These added capabilities are beneficial to traditional TV advertisers such as auto and retail advertisers, and open the medium to other categories, such as direct-to- consumer (DTC) brands, which have historically used digital media for targeting and measurement.

Another key product launched this year is Effectv’s TV Ad Planner, allowing small business owners and local advertisers the independence to plan, design and manage advertising campaigns with a few clicks of a mouse at an affordable price. TV Ad Planner makes TV advertising more accessible and offers an alternative buying path for advertisers who prefer to use self-service portals like those offered by digital media platforms.

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