Basis Announces FreeWheel Partnership to Democratize CTV Advertising
As more TV watchers cut the cord and shift to streaming services, connected TV advertising is seeing a surge in popularity. CTV advertising spend hit a record-breaking $1 billion in June, and now more programmatic firms are looking at partnerships with companies specializing in CTV as a hedge against the evolving landscape.
Just this week, the programmatic adtech company Basis Technologies announced that it’s teaming up with FreeWheel, a technology platform for the television advertising industry, to give advertisers more direct access to premium CTV ad inventory. The integration will give Basis platform users access to programmatic guaranteed buying capabilities on premium video inventory, on publishers across the ad ecosystem.
“Basis Technologies and FreeWheel have had a longstanding relationship. Our programmatic advertising and media automation platform has been delivering to FreeWheel a critical mass of regional and local advertising demand sourced from our agency and brand customers,” said Basis Technologies President Tyler Kelly. “Our newest development gives our customers access to premium CTV ad inventory that’s uniquely available through programmatic guaranteed buying channels.”
The partnership puts Basis in a unique position among programmatic adtech firms. Currently, the majority of ad inventory on high-quality CTV content are exclusively available through direct channels, like deals negotiated with publishers and processed through IOs, or activated through programmatic guaranteed or private marketplace buying.
Kelly says that Basis has found a solution to that challenge by offering an omnichannel DSP that gives advertisers access to premium advanced TV inventory, combined with media automation software that enables direct dealmaking with publishers.
“Our customers have the potential to automate the process of buying ads on major networks such as Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery, NBCUniversal, FOX Corporation and more,” Kelly says.
CTV advertising is expected to grow by more than 13% globally this year, to $25.9 billion, according to mid-year forecasts by GroupM. Leveraging the power of internet-connected televisions and streaming devices, CTV advertising gives brand advertisers the opportunity to engage with highly-engaged and targeted audiences.
Unlike traditional TV, CTV allows for more precise demographic and behavioral targeting, which means advertisers can deliver personalized messages to viewers who are actively consuming content on platforms like Hulu, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. It also gives advertisers an easier way to measure campaign performance with greater accuracy, optimizing their strategies for maximum impact.
By offering new integrated capabilities, Basis and FreeWheel are looking to expand CTV advertising’s supply to an even larger group of brands.
“When people think of ‘programmatic guaranteed,’ the first association or use case that may come to mind is the upfronts, but nowadays, the potential and opportunity for this medium have expanded beyond that,” explained FreeWheel Executive Jon Mansell.
The integration will give marketers the ability to access guaranteed, upfront-like premium CTV ad inventory commitments, which should put smaller advertisers on more equal footing with competitors who have larger advertising budgets.
“Large national advertisers are regularly buying CTV ads today. However, for CTV advertising to grow rapidly overall, advertisers of all types need optimized supply paths and robust capabilities to buy this channel efficiently at scale,” Kelly says. “Basis Technologies’ platform combined with FreeWheel’s access to high quality publishers is democratizing this channel by making it easy for most advertisers to explore its opportunities, make deals, execute a buy, optimize it alongside with other types of digital ad buys, and measure KPIs and outcomes.”
