Samba TV and IRIS.TV partner up, combine AI with contextual advertising

Samba TV and IRIS.TV have a new partnership that combines the former’s artificial intelligence solution with the latter’s contextual advertising tools.

The collaboration will use Samba AI, Samba TV’s suite of generative AI and machine learning technologies, to analyze the video catalogs of connected TV and digital media publishers that are indexed with universal content identifier IRIS_ID. The partners say the combination will provide contextual ad-targeting measured by reach, frequency and other factors.

In an announcement released out of New York Advertising Week, the two companies noted more than 55 million video titles across thousands of sites and apps on smart TVs and connected devise are IRIS_ID-enabled, allowing advertisers to target granular content attributes including genres, logos and actors. IRIS.TV enables advertisers to target over 500 billion monthly ad requests through their preferred ad platforms.

That joint statement also touted (once again) IRIS.TV’s spring case-study results illustrating IRIS_ID’s efficacy for contextual ad targeting — restaurant chain Carl’s Jr. saw a 6X awareness boost, and a 2.5X increase in incremental sales from targeting CTV advertising based on contextual content signals, with the universal content identifier.

"Our industry has been riddled by a conflict between context and audience,” said Samba TV co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin, in a statement. “This partnership with IRIS.TV represents convergence — reconnecting context and audiences to achieve measurable gains for marketers. By applying our AI to any IRIS-enabled publisher, we're not only expanding contextual advertising attributes but also providing advertisers with more accurate and comprehensive cross-platform measurement.”

Added IRIS.TV co-founder and CEO Field Garthwaite: "The integration of Samba AI strengthens the rich contextual intelligence on every IRIS_ID, providing advertisers with deeper insights and targeting capabilities while giving our publishing partners new ways to monetize their content.”

Samba TV, tracks TV usage across 111 million U.S. households using opt-in data from smart TVs. Samba AI solutions aim to provide a real-time, second-by-second understanding of every scene, including facial recognition of actors and athletes in scripted, reality, and sports programming. The solution also provides recognition of logo, object, and products for both brands and their competitors. The technology accounts for sentiment and behavioral analysis, as well as brand-safety detection.

The measurement company behind it has been busy of late.

Samba TV last week announced another new partnership, becoming the preferred audience targeting partner for Madhive, an end-to-end connected TV (CTV) advertising platform for local businesses.

In September, Comcast’s FreeWheel ad tech unit announced that it, too, is integrating ACR-based data from Samba TV to help it better target viewers across TV viewing platforms, ahead of November’s U.S. elections.

Also this week, Australian outdoor company QMS announced that a partnership with Samba TV established back in March has attracted clients including Energy Australia, along with financial services, department stores and food services brands.