Samsung Ads Reveals Conan O’Brien FAST Channel and More

Samsung Ads is strictly Team Coco. At its Tuesday morning IAB NewFronts presentation in New York, Samsung Electronics’ advertising arm revealed several new, performance-focused solutions as well as comedy legend Conan O'Brien's first-ever FAST channel. Starting later this month, Samsung TV Plus, Samsung’s free, ad-supported streaming service, will launch The Conan O’Brien TV channel. This 24/7 programming is curated as 30-minute collections of clips featuring the best of Conan’s late-night archives, with everything from sketch comedy to celebrity guests. O'Brien earned the title of Adweek's 2022 Media Visionary for his influence across late-night, broadcast, cable, podcasting and streaming, and Cathy Oh, vp global head of marketing at Samsung Ads, said the comedian's first FAST channel has been in the works for a while. The Evolution of Conan O’Brien "From what I know, he's been thinking about it for some time," Oh told Adweek. "I think a part of it was that he was trying to build the content. I still remember all of those vignettes and little 30-minute or even shorter sometimes, eight and ten-minute, little blurbs that he used to do." With interviews from big names, including Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hanks, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell, O'Brien's channel has 100 hours of programming lined up for the launch, with more to come. Oh assured Adweek that the channel is "definitely binge-able." "What we're seeing is that Samsung TV Plus happens to feel like a destination for Samsung home users," Oh said. Beyond adding O'Brien's channel to Samsung TV Plus' growing catalog of more than 250 live channels in the U.S., Samsung Ads is launching several performance-focused solutions, from measurement to shopping, to help marketers better reach their audiences. Building a data community Among the new additions, the company is unveiling its Samsung TV and You Community, a new panel measurement offering designed to provide advertisers, marketers and publishers granular data about a consumer's television consumption. Oh credits Justin Evans, global head of analytics and insights for Samsung Ads, for driving the panel program internally. According to the company, the program uses audio ACR technology to measure the holistic TV content consumption of individual viewers within Samsung households, across both linear television channels and streaming services. The program is set to include 5,000 opt-in participants by the end of Q1 and has already launched with four pilot partners: a wireless brand, a QSR, an auto brand and a healthcare brand. "The TV and You Community is intended to provide more of real-time people viewership. I think there's going to be some incredible learnings that we're going to uncover both across linear and streaming viewership," Oh said. "And think about advertisers who want to partner with us receiving deduplicated information." More measurement capabilities are also on the way with Streaming ACR Ad Viewership, measuring the actual viewership of ads that run on FAST service Samsung TV Plus and select streaming services and connected devices. With Streaming ACR Ad Viewership, the company said it will be able to provide advertisers with a previously unavailable level of holistic viewership information. "When we think about streaming in-app ACR, it's our ability now to measure streaming ads, and more specifically, how our viewers look at streaming ads versus linear ads versus other places that they're viewing it," Oh said. "And again, going back to the deduplication." Adweek Media Visionary Conan O’Brien Gets Sirius About His Audio Empire—and a TV Return Incorporating AI The company is also bringing AI-powered experiences to shoppable thanks to a new partnership with Kerv. Samsung already has a partnership with Clinch that uses QR code-enabled ad creative with tag-based solutions. Now, this new Kerv partnership takes a combination of machine learning and algorithms to offer automated, interactive and shoppable advertising solutions for brand partners at scale. Kerv's machine learning and AI actively scan placements, recognizing depth, dimension and objects within video in real-time. As a result, Samsung Ads can leverage Kerv to equip its advertisers with the tools to create and implement interactive and automated campaigns across TV, increasing the value of impressions by optimizing toward user engagement. To reach even more customers, Samsung will also roll out digital out-of-home, with ads appearing within Samsung branded first-party DOOH inventory in premium high-traffic locations in key cities around the country. Additionally, alpha in-store retail supply partners increase the scale of the DOOH network to ensure nationwide coverage. Oh told Adweek that Samsung is No. 1 in terms of digital screens around the world, and the DOOH inventory will help "reimagine what a screen can do." "It's not just about what's happening at home. It's not just about the TV. It's not just about mobile, which we are absolutely innovating and thinking more about advertising within there," Oh said. "But it's about capturing consumers when they leave the home and in different experiences." Focusing on ROI of KPIs And for advertisers concerned about achieving KPIs, Samsung is releasing its Smart Outcomes solutions. Oh calls Smart Outcomes a "natural evolution" for Samsung Ads' business, as the company delivers a suite of performance-focused solutions tied to key performance indicators (KPIs) in areas such as website engagement, new user acquisition, gameplay and TV network tune-ins. According to the company, Smart Outcomes pulls together planning and optimization tools across Samsung Ads product portfolio, including pre-campaign insights tool Audience Advisor, AI-driven Smart Audiences and the Samsung Pixel product. It's all part of the company's plan to connect the dots between consumer experiences and advertiser goals. "What we're now looking at is how do we develop services that are going to happen on our TVs and our mobile devices that are not just intuitive and beneficial for consumers, but has a benefit for partners and advertisers as well," Oh said.

NewFronts

Samsung Ads Reveals First Conan O’Brien FAST Channel, Panel Data and More

The company announced several performance-focused solutions at its NewFronts presentation

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