Matching Ads with Emotional Context to Programming. An AI Approach with Wurl

Wurl, a connected TV adtech company owned by marketing platform AppLovin, has embarked on an interesting approach to ad monetization. Partnering with BrandDiscovery with its GenAI-powered contextual targeting, Wurl is said to be able to, “precisely match ads with the emotion and context of programming in real time,” according to Wurl’s VP of Business Development for Agencies and Brands, Peter Crofut.

He explained that by aligning an ad’s emotion to the content’s emotion, brands can improve viewer memorability and campaign engagement which he says, “ultimately drives stronger outcomes and performance. Our own data has shown that advertisers can experience a significant uplift in conversion of 2-3x when they find moments of emotional resonance.”

Charlene Weisler: How does the AI matching component work?

Peter Crofut: Wurl uses GenAI to analyze the emotion of the content in the scene closest to the ad break. That analysis is based on Robert Plutchik’s wheel of emotions which includes eight primary emotions at three different intensities (high, medium, and low) that can be combined to represent the full spectrum of human emotional states. Once the emotional score for the scene is determined, it is then matched to an ad with a similar emotional score. This prevents viewers from having a jarring experience where, say, they’re crying from watching a sad scene and are then disrupted with an overly upbeat ad. When scenes and ads are misaligned that’s where negative attention can be created for a brand.

Weisler: What data is collected – how is the platform measured?

Crofut: To determine the emotional segments of the content for BrandDiscovery, we leverage GenAI to view and analyze content from a variety of different sources including images, sound, and text. From there, BrandDiscovery assigns, at a scene level, the corresponding emotional value as determined by the AI. Notably with GenAI, we offer scene-level targeting through BrandDiscovery as opposed to categorizing an entire program, series or channel under any one contextual category. Equally, BrandDiscovery’s targeting is free – we don’t charge any data fees for emotional segments. In terms of measurement, we work with independent partners like EDO and Kantar to look at things like campaign effectiveness, brand awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent for BrandDiscovery campaigns.

Weisler: How does scene-level analysis work?

Crofut: BrandDiscovery was born out of a curiosity to consider whether or not ads that were emotionally aligned with content perform better. During initial testing, we discovered that the most significant correlation with ad engagement took place when the emotions depicted in the scene just before the ad break aligned with those portrayed in the ad creative. As a result, Wurl developed its own GenAI models trained against millions of assets to analyze content in real time. As noted earlier, we use Plutchik’s wheel of emotions to determine the emotional score of the scene, and then match it with an ad that scored similarly. This analysis is calculated in real time across FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels just before the ad break for highest relevance.

Weisler: Can you give an example of what a campaign looks like?

Crofut: We recently partnered with Media.Monks, who was tasked with executing a CTV campaign for a financial services client to expand its audience, improve awareness, and ultimately boost purchase intent. Using BrandDiscovery’s emotion-based targeting to run CTV ads across Wurl’s network of premium content publishers, Media.Monks was able to bolster the resonance of their client’s brand messaging and optimize targeting for more impactful brand engagements. The client saw a 7x lift in aided brand awareness and 2x lift in purchase intent compared to five-year industry benchmarks for Lending brand impact studies.

Weisler: What are the opportunities here?

Crofut: CTV offers massive potential for brands to connect with audiences in meaningful ways, especially as the biggest screen in the home. And, while contextual targeting on CTV certainly isn’t a new concept, we’re confident in the idea that emotions-based targeting is truly reshaping how we think about this approach today. By aligning ads based on the emotional context of the scene right before the ad break, brands can meet audiences where they already are and not just increase attention, but increase positive attention among viewers.

Weisler: What are the challenges?

Crofut: Media buyers today face a fragmented CTV ecosystem with multiple walled gardens and no standardized metadata – one movie or TV show could be categorized as multiple different genres depending on where you look. And, while CTV offers a significant step above linear in that it offers the ability to control who sees an ad, it still lacks control over the placement of the ad. All of this has resulted in limited transparency into where ads are displayed and in what contexts, ultimately contributing to the fact that advertising dollars have not kept pace with the shift in viewership from linear to CTV. By aligning ads’ emotions with the emotions of the programming, brands can have more confidence that their ads will show up in the appropriate context and better resonate with audiences.

Weisler: What are your next steps?

Crofut: In advertising, we hear a lot of talk about finding the right user at the right time with the right ad – though, in reality, we don’t really know what “right” is. As with all AI-driven innovation, the technology only gets stronger over time as it learns from more inputs. Right now, we’re in the early stages of seeing brands utilize emotions-based contextual targeting on CTV – as more advertisers adopt this approach, we’ll have even greater knowledge to learn and grow from as an industry and help us define what the “right” context truly is.

 

 This article first appeared in Mediapost.com 

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

The TV of Tomorrow Looks Ahead

Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp., is an industry visionary who has been charting the course of media since the 1990s. Her bi-annual TV of Tomorrow conferences bring together a stellar group of industry professionals who offer insightful takeaways about the landscape and how executives can embrace and prosper through the transformation. 

What are the biggest trends going on right now in the industry? According to Swedlow, it is attribution and ATSC 3.0. “Attribution is a super-hot topic,” she noted, “It is the customer journey – how they move through apps, websites and eventually into stores where they buy something.” She believes that we will get to full attribution soon.  With ATSC 3.0, “We are still very much behind the development of that technology for local broadcasting. Local broadcasting will change and we want to be as supportive as we can to get the right people together,” she added. 

I interviewed a few speakers, asking them their opinion of what we should expect in the next year and in the next three years. Here is what they reported: 

Question: What do you see as the biggest changes or transformations in the media industry in 2019?

Sean Doherty, CEO of Wurl: The biggest transformation we anticipate is the “tipping point” we’ve talked about through this decade, and is now becoming reality: the shift away from traditional TV viewing to Internet-based viewing. This opens up new paths to revenue for the streaming platforms already included in connected TVs, and a huge opportunity for those who have not yet crossed over to OTT. These free, ad-supported channels are unburdened by the parameters of traditional, linear TV and can bring viewers new experiences outside of “the box.” The technology is here, the viewers are here. There’s no reason for video producers and services not to keep up.

Ryan Rolf, VP, Data Solutions at Lotame: Unified view-ability standards in TV will start to come to life. The shift in how we understand TV and its influence on audiences will allow advertisers to engage in the same types of strategies they do on digital channels, creating a holistic view across channels and engaging, measureable campaigns. However, the industry should take the learnings from earlier programmatic days and not rush to "scale" at expense of quality and ask right questions as they merge TV, Digital, Linear, and Mobile with Data.

Jeff Greenfield, COO and Co-Founder of C3 Metrics: There are two major trends. The first is that traditional brand metrics will be unified with multi-touch attribution. As of now, the number one thing that CMOs want is ROI and attribution. They exist, but technical issues (such as ad fraud) have prohibited attribution from becoming the Holy Grail for CMOs – we can expect this to change this year as attribution has matured. The second is that standards for attribution accreditation will be set. The industry is currently lacking standards, given that accreditation had been non-existent, but the Media Ratings Council has come out with view-ability accreditation. With upcoming attribution accreditation, marketers will be relieved that standards will be followed by measurement companies.

Question: Where do you see the industry 3-5 years from now? 

Swedlow: I am very excited about new ideas in interactivity. There have been some exciting new developments. Walmart, for example, is investing in a company called Echo. They also bought MGM assets. They are going to be moving forward on interactive TV technology. Netflix announced in the Fall that they are going to launch interactive content with Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series and they have been doing some interactive content with children’s programming. So I would say that this is an exciting new development to watch – interactive storytelling in a commercial environment. 

Doherty: All US-based video content will be consumed over the top.  The viewers are already there and from a business point of view, the revenue associated with “un-structuring” TV is evident, easily reachable, and simply makes sense.

Rolf: Voice data is early and overhyped at the moment, but eventually it will change advertising and tip the scales of power to the operators of the voice assistants in terms of who they recommend when a search request is initiated. CPG brands should be very wary of jumping in with Amazon for the sole fact that Amazon would likely learn all the data on what CPG products are most bought via voice and create their "Basics" version of it. They could possibly tilt scales in their own brand’s favor vs. the best interest of brands themselves. Also, voice takes away some power from consumers because unlike other medium where you have options visually displayed, that aspect is missing with voice allowing them to re-order or promote a brand of their choosing without your knowledge. It will be interesting to see how voice shakes out over the next several years.

Greenfield:  The biggest change will be the "Attribution Effect" – the 'after shocks' of advertisers leveraging attribution data which will force publishers to adapt to not only new formats, but content which is started from the perspective of the advertiser with outcome in mind.  The “Attribution Effect” will move media from its current outdated currency to Attribution's Outcome Currency.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com