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Microsoft has purchased Navic Networks, a company that offers television advertising campaign management tools.
“Television media represents the largest percentage of advertisers and agencies’ media budget today,” Microsoft senior vp Brian McAndrews said in a statement (via CNET). “Together, Navic and Microsoft will deliver addressable television advertising solutions to help our partners better manage media spend by increasing advertiser reach and ROI, and maximizing publisher yield on television advertising.”
McAndrews says that in the next three to five years, TV advertising will get greater targeting, measurability and accountability and will, in fact, come to resemble the internet in many ways. Broadcasters, he predicts, will rely on ad networks to fill ad slots they don’t sell through their own sales force.
The announcement comes six days after the company failed to make a deal with Yahoo. Yahoo instead struck an ad deal with Google.
Navic’s technology allows users to target ad campaigns to specific viewer groups, and also offers interactive features like the ability to click through for more content, writes Adweek. The move is a way to keep pace with Google, which is pushing into the $80 million TV ad market via deals with satellite services. Microsoft’s approach differs from Google by working directly with cable companies, by allowing for greater targeting, and by not forcing broadcasters to use an auction-based buying approach, Microsoft says.
Both Google and Microsoft will compete with Project Canoe, which is attempting to bring ad targeting to TV through a consortium of cable companies. The venture is being headed up by former Aegis CEO David Verklin.
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