Sell-side advertising company Magnite has acquired generative AI technology company streamr.ai to make it easier for partners with small-and-medium business (SMB) clients to bring them into the connected TV advertising fold and drive ad spending.
Financial terms for the transaction weren’t disclosed.
The purchase comes as CTV players and publishers have been eyeing the SMB market as a large and growing opportunity to tap into.
Smaller brands have often turned to search and social platforms like Meta, Google and YouTube that in theory make it simpler to advertise and target, even with fewer resources, including through the use of AI. In an effort to both more effectively court these smaller brands and make it easier for them to leverage the shine and size of the TV screen, some CTV players have introduced self-serve platforms and other tools – like Roku Ads Manager or Comcast’s cross-publisher Universal Ads effort as just two examples - that lessen SMB barriers to TV advertising like cost and complexity.
With its purchase of streamer.ai, which offers a platform specializing in AI tools that make CTV advertising more easily accessible to SMBs, Magnite looks to be providing a further assist.
The independent SSP said it will offer streamr.ai’s tech to its ecosystem partners that are working with SMBs, including agencies, retail media networks, publishers operating buyer marketplaces and demand-side platforms (DSPs).
Streamr.ai’s tech helps address one of the needs for CTV advertising that SMBs are sometimes challenged by, which is cost, time and other resources to create video ad creative itself. Streamr.ai also helps with campaign setup. According to the announcement, the company’s platform can generate video ads and launch them on CTV in less than two minutes.
“The CTV advertising opportunity for small businesses is enormous, but it’s been bottlenecked by complexity and high costs. streamr.ai’s technology uses AI to accelerate this transition for SMBs, making tasks like CTV creative generation and campaign setup much easier,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of Magnite, in a statement. “By offering these tools to our ecosystem partners with SMB clients, we aim to unlock a significant revenue opportunity for our CTV publishers.”
How big is the SMB CTV advertising opportunity? Consider this, in April Advertiser Perceptions shared data with StreamTV Insider that in 2023 there were 6.2 million SMBs in the U.S. (meaning companies with fewer than 1,000 employees) that collectively contributed $99 billion in annual ad spend that year.
While the market represents a lot of ad spend, many SMBs haven’t advertised on TV before.
Although global search or social players like Meta have touted an SMB advertiser base of around 10 million, much of the SMB market has not yet gotten into CTV advertising – meaning potential untapped opportunity for publishers, as Magnite referred to in its streamr.ai announcement.
For a deep dive into the SMB opportunity for CTV, including market, historical barriers and new tools that help SMBs take advantage of several benefits of CTV advertising, read here.
In addition to ad revenue opportunity for publishers, CTV provides benefits for SMBs too thanks to its dynamic large-screen nature that also combines data-driven targeting and measurement capabilities that are still progressing. As StreamTV Insider’s report on the topic notes, CTV can also align SMB advertisers with premium content in a brand-safe environment, while offering upper-funnel brand awareness that provides a complement to other digital marketing channels.
As for today’s news, streamr.ai co-founders, CEO Jonathan Moffie and CTO Frank Turano, will join Magnite.
“Magnite is the perfect home for our technology and talent,” said Moffie in a statement. “Magnite shares our vision for helping small businesses grow revenue through CTV advertising, and their relationships and resources will enable us to accelerate that process.”