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Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show, Comcast announced Universal Ads, a one-stop TV advertising platform that brings together leading media companies in a strategic partnership to simplify access to the premium video category. Universal ads will enable advertisers of all sizes to buy premium video directly from some of the most prestigious media companies in bulk, just as easily as they buy on social media platforms. Launched in Q1, Universal Ads is built on FreeWheel’s industry-leading ad technology and will seamlessly enable ad buyers and sellers to transact directly in one place.
“Universal ads were purpose-built in response to what advertisers wanted from Comcast. That means making it easier to buy, scale and measure TVs in a way that’s compatible with the needs of powerful marketers, and indeed all marketers.”
Through strategic partnerships with premium industry partners, Universal Ads will provide streamlined access to scalable, qualified audiences delivered on premium content that will drive full-funnel performance for advertisers while opening new demand channels for publishers. This is Comcast’s first-ever cross-industry collaboration of this scale, with A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery and Xumo committed as featured partners and others. will be announced in the coming months.
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“Universal ads were purpose-built in response to what advertisers wanted from Comcast. That means making it easier to buy, scale and measure TVs in a way that’s compatible with the needs of powerful marketers, and indeed all marketers,” said James Rooke, president of Comcast Advertising. “Comcast has tremendous advantages in technology, media and data. Universal ads bring these assets together in a way that has never been done before. Just as importantly, we are thrilled that our partners, many of whom are already FreeWheel clients, have joined us in this initiative as we strive to transform the TV advertising market of the future.”
According to a 2024 Comcast Advertising study of 250 performance-based advertisers, 50% of advertisers who had never or minimally advertised on TV felt their ROI from social media buying had peaked or was declining, and 89% are willing to try TV advertising. By creating Universal Ads with an advertiser-centric approach as an ecosystem over a shared technology infrastructure across publishers, performance advertisers who previously had limited ability to purchase premium and brand-safe inventory from some of the leading TV publishers can now access premium video at scale directly, with a simple and consistent shopping experience regardless of publisher.
“Advertising’s North Star has always combined the premium reach of linear advertising with the precision of data-driven targeting for marketers,” said Mark Marshall, chairman of NBCUniversal Global Advertising & Partnerships. “Now with Universal Ads, we’re bringing that vision to businesses of all sizes. Television has always been a powerful tool for brands, and Universal Ads puts the scaled reach and premium content television is known for into the hands of marketers around the world.”
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More specifically, Universal Ads will offer:
– Universal Ads Manager, a free self-service, easy-to-use TV ad buying tool.
– Direct access to brand-safe premium video that reaches over 90% of US households.
– Plans to offer free, automated AI creative production of TV commercials.
– A marketing API that will enable developers to create reports, metrics, creative generation and other applications.
“The biggest mistake TV has made is acting like it’s 1995. Small and medium businesses want and deserve to be. Like social democratized advertising, TV needs to drop the barriers and let brands of all sizes play big,” he said . Gary Vaynerchuk, Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, CEO of VeeFriends.
Comcast CEO James Grant has been tapped to lead the Universal Ads initiative. On the product front, former Snap executive James Borow, who helped platforms like Snap, Reddit and Discord launch their ad businesses, was hired to work with FreeWheel’s product and technology team. .
According to the IAB, 75% of CTV ads are now bought programmatically, but only about 20% of premium video is programmatic, according to FreeWheel, due to increased complexity and guardrails that protect both the brand and the viewer experience. By enabling users to easily communicate with multiple vendors, data and technology partners in a single, secure ecosystem, Universal Ads will facilitate programmatic trading of a larger percentage of media dollars in the premium video space.
“Universal Ads offers a solution for the fragmented premium video advertising category. Bringing publishers together allows us to present a unique platform for brands of any size in any category to advertise in premium video – all with the ease and familiarity of buying on social media. This is a great opportunity for both advertisers and publishers,” said Jeff Collins, president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships, Fox Corporation.