SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Contextual advertising has been around for years, but its role was somewhat diminished as marketers relied on tracking cookies to improve their audience targeting online. With connected television, which is a cookieless environment, contextual advertising is getting supercharged with advances in technology.
“Contextual targeting is going to play a significant role moving forward,” Marni Rommel, vice president, business development at Seedtag’s Beachfront, said in this interview at the Beet Retreat Santa Monica with Beet.TV contributor Rob Williams.
“The way that targeting has happened to date, it’s audience targeting with this whole privacy landscape,” she said. “It’s a challenge and things have to change.”
Beachfront is working to play a significant role in that transformation. The company, a sell-side platform that specializes in CTV, in June was acquired by contextual advertising platform Seedtag for an undisclosed amount.
“The acquisition made a ton of sense, with complementary offerings and capabilities,” Rommel said. “You look at Seedtag, their strength is contextual AI and open web. If you look at Beachfront, our strength is CTV.”
The deal announcement followed Seedtag’s launch of Contextual TV, which harnesses AI-based network dynamics, rich consumer insights and bespoke creative to enable advertisers to create more effective CTV strategies and drive high-performing, privacy-compliant advertising campaigns.
“The integration has been going great so far,” Rommel said. “We’re heads down like everyone else in 2025 planning.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2024. This series and event is sponsored by OpenX, Publica by IAS, Snowflake & Spotter. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
