Vizio announces certifications for open addressable ready tech ecosystem

VIZIO today announced that LTN, Beachfront, FreeWheel, INVIDI, Google, Adcuratio and Extreme Reach have met the technology specifications of the Open Addressable Ready (OAR) specifications and are certified by VIZIO for successfully enabling addressable campaigns. This announcement comes on the heels of VIZIO surpassing 11.2 million addressable TVs across the U.S. and successfully launching live addressable TV ad campaigns with top TV networks.

“Addressable advertising is going to play an important role in the future of TV advertising, and we are working to ensure scale, standards and technology to power this future,” said Zeev Neumeier, Chief Innovation Officer for VIZIO and steering community tech lead for Project OAR. “These partner certifications expand the OAR ecosystem so platforms and participants can use their preferred tech stacks or existing solutions.”

Founded by VIZIO, Project OAR is a consortium of America’s leading media companies created to establish a common technology for dynamic, addressable advertising management for TV. The OAR standard helps optimize ad inventory and utilize unsold and underperforming inventory, while also highlighting how to target different demographics and specific regions with localized ad content.

The certification symbolizes that the vendors have proven their commitment to driving addressable TV forward by working directly with VIZIO on watermarking and decisioning technologies. This small circle of OAR-certified partners provides a distinction in the industry for addressable-ready companies who are helping to drive and enable the future of addressable TV. Working closely with VIZIO, the following partners have completed testing with several executing addressable campaigns across VIZIO TVs:

LTN Global’s metadata signaling services are compatible with every partner in the advertising ecosystem, and its workflow automations support every business model, including MASO/ SASO, programmatic advertising and traditional competitive separation agreements. “We’ve been working with VIZIO since the beginning and they’ve changed the course of addressable advertising,” said Malik Khan, CEO and Co-Founder of LTN. “Their open and collaborative approach has paved the way for networks to galvanize their ad business through addressable advertising at scale.”

Beachfront recently completed a national campaign across 125 broadcast DMAs and more than 3 million VIZIO TVs, fully adhering to the OAR technical specifications. The campaign leveraged Beachfront’s Unified Decisioning product for ad decisioning, and the inventory included locally and nationally syndicated broadcast programming. “We’re excited to take the next step with VIZIO via this certification as we help programmers unlock additional inventory for addressable TV advertising,” said Beachfront VP of Advanced TV, Ben Abbatiello.

FreeWheel, a founding member of Project OAR, recently completed trials of live national addressable TV ad campaigns on OAR-enabled VIZIO TVs. Those trials reached more than three million VIZIO TVs and will continue to grow across a larger footprint in 2021. The success of those trials, powered by FreeWheel’s underlying technology layer, means that programmers can now deliver scalable, integrated, addressable campaigns across both digital video and linear addressable TV advertising via smart TVs. “We’re honored to receive this OAR certification from VIZIO and look forward to working with Project OAR and the industry in pioneering the next frontier in addressable advertising,” said Stefan Maris, VP, Global Partnerships, FreeWheel.

INVIDI Technologies is now OAR-certified, enabling addressable advertising with WarnerMedia programming across millions of VIZIO TVs across the U.S. “INVIDI’s addressable ad tech now reaches millions of smart TVs in addition to much of the footprint of DIRECTV, DISH, and Verizon set-top boxes for WarnerMedia networks that are OAR-enabled,” explained Co-CEO/CTO Bruce Anderson. “INVIDI would welcome the opportunity to support additional programming networks.”

Google recently completed its Project OAR certification for its Google Ad Manager video and advanced TV solutions. “Our integration with Project OAR enables our TV programmer partners to deliver addressable ads on Vizio Smart TVs, so that they can monetize their content and grow their business with high-quality ads that provide a great viewing experience,” said Peentoo Patel, Director of Product Management, Google Ad Manager.

Adcuratio Media, Inc. and partners ViacomCBS and FOX delivered one of the largest national addressable advertiser campaigns across broadcast and cable networks, including the first-ever execution during live sports. The campaign spanned more than 200 broadcast DMAs, across millions of VIZIO TVs. “With the expansion of VIZIO addressable TVs and with an expanding list of network partners that already include ViacomCBS, Fox, A+E and Univision, we are thrilled to finally see the vision of national addressable becoming a reality,” said Chris Geraci, Chief Client Officer at Adcuratio.

Extreme Reach has integrated OAR watermark encoding into media processing on their AdBridgeTM platform. They have also successfully conducted tests of ad replacement within syndicated programming, performing both the encoding and serving of replacement ads. “Addressable TV is a true coming together of digital with linear TV, and a critical piece for marketers navigating the complexity of today’s multi-channel media ecosystem,” said Dan Brackett, CTO Extreme Reach. “We’re delighted to receive this certification and contribute to the work of Project OAR, an important initiative in simplifying campaign activation for brands and their partners.”

The certification also enables technology partners to work more closely with OAR steering committee members including Disney’s Media Networks, WarnerMedia, Comcast NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Discovery, Hearst Television, AMC Networks, Fox Corporation, Scripps and Univision; as well as working closely with agency advisory committee members including Publicis Media, Omnicom Media Group, GroupM, IPG/Magna, Dentsu Aegis Network, Havas, Horizon Media and RPA. Business Wire