Viant Technology has acquired IRIS.TV, a platform known for its AI-enhanced proprietary video content identifier, which provides advertisers with contextual and brand-suitability data. The financial terms of the acquisition were not revealed. This strategic move aims to enhance transparency in connected TV (CTV) inventory, offering advertisers better insights into the context and suitability of their ad placements. IRIS.TVs technology is already integrated with over 1,400 video content owners and has indexed more than 60 million streaming video files, and this acquisition will allow it to expand further across premium publishers.
The acquisition comes as CTV advertising spend continues to rise, with Viant reporting a nearly 50% year-over-year increase in CTV spending during its third quarter. Viants CEO, Tim Vanderhook, emphasized the growing importance of CTV for advertisers and highlighted the acquisition as a step toward becoming a trusted programmatic partner in the space. The integration of IRIS.TVs technology is expected to provide advertisers with richer insights into the videos accompanying their ads, enabling safer and more effective CTV ad campaigns.
As major platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime embrace ad-supported programming, advertisers are still navigating the complexities of CTV buying. Viants COO, Chris Vanderhook, noted that most CTV ad targeting is currently based on app names, limiting marketers ability to target specific types of content accurately. The acquisition of IRIS.TV is seen as a solution to this problem, allowing for more precise content targeting and measurement of results.
The effectiveness of IRIS.TVs technology was exemplified in a recent CTV campaign for Carl’s Jr., which used contextual data to target young men interested in anime, gaming, and sports. This campaign resulted in significant success, including a 35% increase in incremental visits, a 152% boost in incremental sales, and a 2.2 times return on ad spend. This success story underscores the potential impact of IRIS.TVs contextual data capabilities in enhancing CTV advertising outcomes.