WPP’s GroupM has announced the launch of its addressable TV business, Finecast, Down Under.

Finecast offers the power of television with the precision of digital, allowing advertisers to target viewers across multiple on demand, set top box and live streaming TV environments.

Australia is the second market launch for Finecast, following its successful UK debut a year ago. In the UK, Finecast has attracted advertisers across categories including automotive, retail, banking, FMCG and beyond, with close to 100 per cent of clients pleased with their measured results and return on investment.

Jakob Nielsen (pictured above, third from the left), global CEO at Finecast, said: “Watching TV has never been as good as it is now, but as viewing behaviours evolve and audiences fragment across platforms, advertisers are grappling with how to continue making the best use of one of their most trusted mediums.

“The collaboration between Finecast and broadcasters uses data to provide more relevant ads within professionally created content. It’s a win for everyone – advertisers, media owners and consumers.”

Launch partners

A recent research report Finecast conducted with third party provider IHS Markit projected that 14 million addressable-capable TV devices will be in Australian homes within two years, setting the stage for industry momentum with addressable TV.

To seize the opportunity, Finecast is facilitating collaboration across the TV ecosystem.

With broadcast partners Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS and Foxtel via Multi Channel Network (MCN), Finecast built a targeted TV inventory pool reaching Australian households at scale – across TV channel brands, pay TV platforms and digital media players, a range of broadcast video on demand (BVOD) services, over-the-top providers, and games consoles.

Finecast is live and already running campaigns as part of a pre-launch pilot program. From today, it is open to all advertisers large and small.

GroupM Australia CEO Mark Lollback (pictured above, second from the left) said: “Marketers are asking how to increase efficiency while also maintaining mass brand awareness and long-term brand health.

“Finecast solves this by allowing them to use television in new ways. It also paves the way for new, smaller advertisers to cost efficiently use the medium.

“Together, this strengthens the Australian TV market, ushering a new golden age of television. And our clients will be there first.”

Finecast’s benefits

Finecast’s planning tool is powered by data from Australian trusted household data sets: ABS Census, GeoEmma, Experian and RDA Research, as well as GroupM’s propriety audience segment database.

Finecast offers access to over 1200 data variables such as socio-economic, life stage, financial, purchase data, and more.

Additional benefits include: the broadest access to addressable TV supply across all major platform; exclusively premium, 100 per cent viewable, brand-safe TV content, with no ad blocking; holistic optimisation to manage reach and frequency across platform; dynamic end frame versioning for different geographies/target audiences; and delivery of affluent audiences and the ability to use first party data in targeting custom segments

In conjunction with the launch, Brett Poole (pictured above, far left) has been named Finecast’s managing director in Australia.  Poole was previously [m]PLATFORM’s vice president of media and activation, and prior to that, the general Manager of Plista, GroupM’s native advertising business.

“What we’re offering is the power of television, with the precision of digital and we’ve been working closely with all corners of the TV community to comprehensively understand the opportunity for addressable TV,” Poole said.

“With on-demand audiences growing rapidly and advertiser appetite for holistic, targeted access at scale, now the time is right to deliver our comprehensive solution.”

Seven Network’s network head of digital sales, James Bayes, said 2018 has seen an explosion in connected TV, with streaming up over 120 per cent year on year.

“Connected TV brings together the best of TV and the best of digital,” he said.

“Seven is a clear market leader in live streaming, with connected TV now contributing more than 60 per cent of our 7plus consumption from week to week.

“With login being rolled out to our @7plus CTV products this month, the launch of Finecast comes at a great time to leverage the potential for addressable TV at scale on the largest and most effective screen in driving brand outcomes.

“We’re pleased to see GroupM and Finecast lean in on this significant opportunity and look forward to delivering outstanding results for their clients.”

Nine’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, said: “Television has always operated at the top of the marketing funnel, creating mass awareness and an emotional connection to your brand, but addressability on TV is a game-changer.

“It brings together the best of television and digital, helping to create people-based marketing solutions that link brand building together with activation and conversion.

“We welcome the launch of Finecast, as it will help marketers navigate this new important frontier and will help grow the Australian broadcast video on demand (BVOD) market, as more marketers move to capitalise on the power of this important medium.”

Network Ten’s chief sales officer, Rod Prosser, said: “The introduction of Finecast into Australia opens up many more ways advertisers and broadcasters can collaborate together.

“Finecast will reshape the benefits of advertising on TV, not just as a high-impact, mass-reaching medium, but now with the added benefits of better audience targeting and accountability. It’s great to be part of this industry-defining solution.”

MCN/Foxtel’s national digital sales director, Nev Hasan, said: “Over the years, MCN has experienced a strong legacy in data-led TV buying, with our programmatic TV solution being a core part of our innovation roadmap.

“Addressable TV is the next evolution in our journey and in collaboration with Foxtel’s asset base, industry partners like GroupM and MCN’s rich data stack, Multiview, we are creating a slate of addressable products.

“Our addressable TV product will further help build upon how we can link the world of TV and digital with on demand linear TV services to give advertisers reach, coupled with the power of advanced audience targeting capability.

“Our partnership with Finecast will support this offering, so we’re thrilled to be working with GroupM to better understand and ultimately target consumers to drive business results for television.”

SBS’s Adam Sadler said: “SBS On Demand is Australia’s most diverse and popular commercial streaming service.

“With more than 5.4 million registered users, we are excited to be working with Finecast to help advertisers reach more targeted consumers, as consumption on connected TVs continues to grow.”