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NBC, Microsoft Partner for Ad Sales System

With technology from Microsoft Ads, NBC Universal will begin selling commercial time on its broadcast and cable TV networks in a way that mimics online advertising sales.

The technology NBC will use in tandem with Microsoft will allow advertisers to target ads by demographic, according to The Wall Street Journal (via MarketingVOX).

It will analyze anonymous set-top box data from satellite and cable companies, and couple that with data - including purchasing habits, locations and the like - with other firms. Such data will be updated daily, said founder Chet Kanojia of Navic Networks, a TV ad tech firm that Microsoft bought last year.

For example, a real estate firm could place an ad across a handful of home improvement shows, then Microsoft’s technology can serve that marketer other shows that homebuyers/sellers are watching for potential ad placement, regardless of whether the content itself is relevant to real estate.

DirecTV also just announced a partnership that will allow for more granular targeting. The new offering, beginning in 2011, will allow advertisers to target ads based on Zip code, political district and at the household level, by picking up info from set-top boxes

NBC ads using the technology from Microsoft Ads will be sold via an automated ad buying process. Unlike past attempts by rivals that have failed, such as the experimental marketplace powered by eBay, the automated ad sales component will not be auction-based. But President Mike Pilot of Sales and Marketing at NBCU called it an “absolute necessity” to streamline ad sales efforts - in part to give staff more time to develop custom marketing campaigns, including some that weave an ad’s wares into a show’s storyline.

The internet may not eclipse television as a means of entertainment, but evidence exists that the future of both platforms is a blended one. A recent In-Stat study projects web-to-TV content will appear in 24 million homes by 2013. And companies like Ace Metrix are using merits of the ‘net — its speed and efficiency, for example — to measure the effectiveness of TV ad creative.