6 Contextual Video Advertising Platforms

Advertisers are leaning into contextual targeting as a way to connect with consumers in brand-suitable environments. They’re also investing more heavily in video advertising, upping ad spend on video by 12% in 2021 to a record $81.9 billion for the year. As we move further into 2022, the real magic looks to be in the combination of contextual advertising with video advertising, as more brands discover the power that comes with being able to reach audiences interested in their messages with video content that’s designed to engage. 

Contextual video gives brands a way to sidestep many of the challenges that are expected to come with the imminent cookieless era of advertising. It’s also providing more control and safety to brand advertisers, in an era where anything seems to go online.

For companies that are interested in jumping in, here are six solutions for powering sophisticated contextual video advertising.

6 Contextual Video Advertising Solutions

1. IRIS.TV

IRIS.TV’s contextual video advertising solution leverages data science for sophisticated video ad targeting. Companies can put video where they want it—in brand-safe, relevant environments—using custom audience segments based on observed consumer behavior. IRIS.TV applies the optimization strategies that are common in television advertising to video, while also increasing brand access to inventory designed to improve ad spend efficiencies. Video ads are directly aligned to the content of the video consumers are watching on connected TV (CTV), web, or mobile devices. IRIS.TV’s matching platform works in real-time and across multiple platforms. 

2. Integral Ad Science 

Integral Ad Science just acquired Context, which powers analyses of images and videos, earlier this month. Combined, Integral Ad Science and Context are helping brands navigate the world of digital media and reach audiences that are actually interested in their content. The platform pairs ads with the direct content to which they are relevant, allowing brands to target certain groups without relying on third-party audience data.

3. SilverPush

For brands that regularly advertise on YouTube, SilverPush’s technology offers a way to contextual target video ads based on relevancy using human-augmented artificial intelligence (AI). Ad placements are calibrated based on context relevance, with custom content safety themes that are unique to each brand. SilverPush’s AI model detects “unsafe context” (like faces, actions, or objects) and develops brand suitability scores that are used to determine where video campaigns should be placed. Advertisers maintain control over every video ad placement, and they get access to post-campaign analysis tools that measure the performance of past campaigns and finetune future campaigns.

4. Brid.TV

Brid.TV’s decision to enter the contextual advertising space has largely been driven by the imminent end of third-party cookies, which will limit how advertisers can connect with relevant audiences online. In December, the company announced it was investing in contextual targeting for video advertisers as a temporary solution. Brid.TV’s contextual targeting program would be powered by Amazon’s machine learning technology (Amazon Rekognition), which was designed to streamline image and video analysis using advanced recognition tools. Implementing the technology would allow Brid.TV to analyze videos using metadata and assign them contextually relevant tags, which publishers would send to their ad servers to enable advertisers to contextually target videos.

5. MediaMath

MediaMath’s solution gives brands the ability to have a one-to-one relationship with their customers across all screens using data-driven audience targeting. The company’s contextual ad targeting solution for video was launched in partnership with IRIS.TV in 2019. Since then, MediaMath has been providing brands with the ability to target video campaigns based on the context of each video being watched. MediaMath’s offering gives brands a better way to protect their audiences by selecting the types of content they don’t want to be associated with, which enhances overall targeting, control, and brand safety. The solution is video infrastructure agnostic, with cross-screen buying capabilities designed to scale across desktop, mobile, and OTT devices.

6. Terminus

Brands can use Terminus to focus their ad spend on websites that are contextually relevant to their businesses. Terminus offers multiple tools to leverage contextual targeting for specific campaigns, including Digital and Video 360 (DV360), a service offered by Google that uses Google search technology and video metadata to determine which keywords are relevant to a page. Brands can set up ads that won’t show up for unwanted terms and adjust campaigns to avoid drawing the wrong traffic to their websites. In addition to contextual advertising, Terminus also offers transparent ad reporting and built-in retargeting.