TORONTO – CHCH TV and Cogeco Cable announced Tuesday they are now offering advertisers the ability to customize their message to viewers according to their geolocation.
The broadcasters are using the Advatar addressable advertising platform from Invidi Technologies Corp. which supports geo-specific delivery. Cogeco and CHCH have also collaborated with software distributor Capital Networks Limited, which is managing the ad insertion operation for the Advatar platform.
“Cogeco is proud to be the first Canadian cable distributor to support television advertising by geolocation,” said Jean-Pierre Caveen, Cogeco’s VP of affiliate, partner and carrier relations, in a release. “This new and more efficient advertising opportunity brings the print direct marketing model to television.”
Cogeco and CHCH may have been the first broadcasters to cross the finish line in the race to deliver geotargeted advertising, but that race has more of a long-distance marathon. The broadcasters started this process back in December 2010, when they signed an agreement with Invidi Technologies to trial the Advatar addressable targeted advertising system with TV broadcaster CHCH.
Cogeco subscribers viewing CHCH will see the content of ads evolve to become more pertinent with regards to subscribers' market locations.
The Advatar platform lets CHCH’s advertisers deliver tailored messaging during a commercial break to households of a specific geographical area within Cogeco’s footprint in the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario.
The New Democratic Party of Ontario is the advertiser to try the new system, which will broadcast the party’s ads to households within the Niagara Falls by-election riding boundaries, according to Geoff Thrasher, general sales manager for Channel Zero Inc., parent company of CHCH.
Advertisers can use the addressable advertising technology during CHCH’s key 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. evening newscasts, as well as throughout primetime movies and programs including U.S. simulcasts 20/20, 48 Hours and 60 Minutes.
