Cox to Use Visible World Product to Target Promos

Customized ads addressed to cable zones

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/4/2011 9:00:00 AM

Addressable television provider Visible World says Cox Communications has adopted its Conductor product to more precisely target its marketing efforts.

Conductor provides an automated way to customize advertising campaigns and efficiently deliver appropriate messages to the right audiences.

"Consumers want to see relevant and timely advertising that speaks to their lifestyle and needs," said Mark Greatrex, Cox senior VP and CMO said in a statement.  "We are pleased to work with Visible World to provide a communication framework to assure brand consistency while providing flexibility for local markets to customize according to their specifics."

Initially, Cox will be using Conductor to send promos to its own subscribers. It started with a back-to-school campaign and will be doing other holiday-themed campaigns. The ads are customized down to the cable zone level, though, according to Tania Yuki, VP, advertiser solutions, at Visible World, Conductor is capable of targeting ads down to the household level, if it is connected to set-top boxes.

"This is really all about putting tools in marketers' hand to leverage all of the infrastructure out there." Eventually, Cox might choose to sell the addressable advertising activated by Conductor to its advertising clients. "I think that's definitely the direction," Yuki says.

Yuki sees the industry moving toward addressable advertising and away from more generalized advertising, but she's still surprised at the number of people in the industry that don't know that products such as Conductor make customizing and targeting advertising possible now.

She says that Visible World recently signed a deal with one of the agency holding companies.

"That could be a game changer," Yuki said. "Having more people actually using it is a really big deal."