Coincidence or conspiracy? Samba.TV just reported that duplicated impressions are growing on linear TV, resulting in both wasted ad spend and annoyed consumers. In fact, 97% of linear impressions reach the same 55% of households. Samba’s main message is that advertisers should spend more on non-linear TV to reach a broader audience and, presumably, reduce duplication.
Connected TV is one of advertising’s main frontiers, although at this point it’s well past the trailblazer stage. But it’s still facing some challenges that more mature digital ad channels have largely addressed, such as applying frequency caps to limit how often the same person sees the same ad. Google just knocked a few more bushes out of the way with a feature to control frequency across multiple CTV apps, rather than separately for each app.
Off in another portion of the media forest, the communications platform vendors keep building their own empires. The latest news is that messaging vendor Gupshup has purchased cloud communications platform Knowlarity. The deal gives GupShup new capabilities for cloud telephony, contact centers, AI-powered chatbots, and speech analytics. The combination of cloud communication platforms in marketing and customer experience applications probably deserves more attention than it’s been getting.
CX management platform Sprinklr is introducing “digital twins.” Not your average chatbot, a Sprinklr digital twin is more like an AI-powered employee, able to plan actions, create workflows and make decisions, but at speed and at scale. They are said to be more easily trained than chatbots and can operate within brand policies and guardrails.