• Addressable TV company Finecast to launch in Canada
  • “Create the scale of partnerships required to find relevant audiences,” says GroupM boss
  • Advertisers to deliver targeted ads to audiences across multiple TV channels

finecast

Finecast: Launches in Canada 

WPP’s media investment arm GroupM has announced the Canadian launch of Finecast, an addressable TV service enabling advertisers to target audiences in connected TV environments.

GroupM’s Finecast aims to optimise delivery across the entire addressable TV marketplace.

Having previously launched and run campaigns in the UK and Australia, the entry to the Canadian market “solidifies Finecast as the first, truly global platform with these capabilities” the company said in a statement.

As consumption habits continue to evolve with the diversification of devices, content, and channels, it has become increasingly complex for brands to plan and target audiences on TV.

Finecast aims to solve this challenge for Canadian clients, by providing a single point of access into the whole TV ecosystem by managing distribution and frequency holistically across broadcasters and screens to delivering relevant audiences wherever they’re watching.

GroupM Canada chief executive Stuart Garvie said: “As the largest media advertising company in the world, GroupM is able to create the scale of partnerships required to find relevant audiences in the fragmented TV landscape.

“With Finecast, we have partnered with the top content providers, broadcasters, platforms and data providers in Canada to build this market that will inevitably add more value to consumers and advertisers.”

The Finecast model gives advertisers the ability to deliver targeted ads to audiences across multiple TV channels, pay-TV platforms and set-top boxes, a range of video on demand (VOD) services, over-the-top (OTT) providers, and game consoles.

All mediums have been combined for scale, inherently viewable, within high-quality and brand-safe content.

At launch, this includes distribution across broadcast partners such as Bell, Rogers, CBC and Corus who all develop high quality premium content, as well as distribution across platforms such as Tubi, Amazon, Roku and Samsung. Further partnerships are due to be announced later this year.

GroupM confirmed a series of data partnerships with the likes of Environics Analytics, Mastercard and a variety of third-party suppliers with “in-depth Canadian consumer expertise” in a bid to facilitate intelligent segmentation by socioeconomics, life-stage and financial behaviours.

The partnerships aim to provide clients with highly precise audience profiles on the big screen.

“This enables Finecast to show different ads to different households who are watching the same program, thereby reducing ad wastage, driving effective CPMs and minimising costs.”

Finecast global chief executive Jakob Nielsen said: “There’s never been a better time to watch TV, as investments in original content continue to exponentially increase.

“With the advancements in data and technology, the advanced TV advertising opportunities available for brands is truly exciting.

“We know linear TV viewership has been declining, but the audience is still there; they are just changing the way they consume content.

“Finecast gives GroupM’s clients a holistic view of, and access to, their audience, regardless of where they are watching.”