New York — Less than a month, hot on the heels of a deal to sell advertising on some of NBC Universal’s cable networks, Google is now expanding the scope of its TV ads platform with another partnership, this time with Bloomberg Television to sell some of its commercials, the companies said today.
Advertising is perhaps now the key element to Google. And extending its efforts to make television advertising more relevant, accountable and measurable, Google Inc. today made a deal with Bloomberg Television network that will make national cable advertising time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads platform.
It is a further step in Google’s endeavor to crack the television advertising market, a top priority for the Mountain View, Calif., Internet search giant. By providing self-service buying opportunities through Google TV Ads, the Bloomberg Television network will expand its reach to a wider range of advertisers, including those that are new to the medium.
The two companies disclosed the partnership Thursday, boasting the ad success measurement capabilities that Google has benefited from with its core search-ad business and is emphasizing as a way to get ahead over other ad mechanisms for TV.
Under the agreement, advertisers who use Google’s automated system will be able to reach wealthy and influential Bloomberg viewers. Google’s TV Ads platform can report second-by-second data from millions of anonymized set-top-boxes, allowing advertisers to measure viewer-ship of their ads more precisely than ever before.
The business and financial news network with 50 million subscribers could attract a broader range of advertisers since Google’s system makes it easier to target relevant programming. With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize the return on their TV ad investments. Google’s digital platform also makes it easier for advertisers to find relevant programming through its keyword search functionality.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Bloomberg Television to continue to make TV advertising more relevant and measurable,” said Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads. “We will now be able to give advertisers, many of whom have never tried TV advertising before, access to the desirable Bloomberg Television demographic.”
Television is a predominantly holds an important space when it comes to advertising today. And the reason for Google ads being attractive to those in the television industry is that Google has developed a technology that allows advertisers know which ads are being watched at any given moment.
Google says:
Through our partnerships with Dish Network, NBCU and now Bloomberg, we look forward to continuing to strengthen our platform and building a more robust television ad network for advertisers and inventory providers.
Bloomberg Television will make national cable ad time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads platform, a self-service, auction-based system launched officially in May. The similar deal with NBC, announced two weeks ago, has Google selling ads on Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and other networks.
Trevor Fellows, head of Bloomberg TV ad sales, said Bloomberg TV has been in talks with Google for the past year. The deal, he said, involves a “relatively small” amount of advertising time. Bloomberg TV hopes to collect viewer-ship information that “enables us to understand much more about our programming strengths,” he said, such as viewer preferences, say one anchor versus another, or shorter ad breaks versus longer ones.
Google would not say if it has any other partnerships in the works. “We believe our system is valuable,” said Steib. “We are out there full time offering this technology to new potential partners. We cannot announce what we have not announced. But I can tell you that we think these deals are of a good size and that there are good things to come.”
Fellows said his company and its advertisers hope the technology will help them learn more about the Bloomberg Television audience. “With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize the return on their TV ad investments,” said Fellows.
During a recent Google press conference, advertising chief Tim Armstrong said Google wants to replicate its success online by improving the quality of television ads, both for the consumers who view them and the advertisers who run them. “Television is a great medium that has been around for a long time and we are committed to it,” he said. “We expect the depth of our partnerships to increase.”
If something like this were to catch on, it could certainly transform the television advertising industry. The TV ads displayed through Google only cost money to advertisers when impressions are being made, just as Google’s online AdSense ads only charge per impressions made or click-throughs, as CNET notes.