America’s Test Kitchen is serving its ad inventory à la carte.
Earlier this year, the culinary-focused publisher introduced direct and programmatic buying for its free ad-supported TV channels – marking the first time it’s selling ad inventory as a standalone package. Before, advertisers were only able to access ATK’s content as part of inventory bundles that streaming distributors sell based on genre. Brands could work directly with ATK by underwriting sponsorships, but they couldn’t go beyond the bundle for traditional commercials.
Nowadays, however, transparency and control over where ads are running are nonnegotiables for media buyers.
ATK’s upgraded ad-buying options follow a 30% year-over-year increase in streaming audiences last year, said Daniella Clavell, VP of revenue operations. This increase, she said, is a testament to the company’s ability to reach new audiences, including viewers who watch more than just cooking shows.
The ability for ATK to guarantee advertisers will appear within ATK content also opens the doors for more effective media planning, Clavell said, including improved data access and pairing commercials with custom brand collabs.
ATK’s content library, which includes its flagship channel “America’s Test Kitchen” and other education-focused cooking shows, such as “Cook’s Country,” is available on FAST distributors such as Roku, Vizio, Xumo and Samsung. (ATK also has a website, podcast and digital subscription service, among other media.)
Order up!
Streaming distributors sell FAST channel inventory in genre-based packages because it’s an efficient way to monetize a content library while helping advertisers check the box on scale. But direct access to specific media companies has its own set of advantages.
In addition to direct insertion orders, ATK tapped Magnite and PubMatic to help sell its ad space via programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace deals. Since January, the media company has been onboarding additional supply-side platforms, too. ATK declined to name which ones, but “demand diversification” is a priority as the company tries to make its inventory easier to buy, Clavell said, noting that ATK is also “investigating direct DSP connections.”
For ATK, selling its inventory on a standalone basis allows it to give advertisers more content details, such as show title and episode number, ahead of running a campaign. Show-level information is often hard for media buyers to find in the era of streaming and media fragmentation – and it remains a sore spot as demands for transparency continue. Adding programmatic pipes also allows buyers to pair more audience targeting attributes with content metadata, Clavell said, including purchase intent.
ATK describes its audience as viewers who are highly educated with a high income and high purchase intent. In other words, its consumer surveys suggest viewers are “action-oriented” and watch ATK to learn how to become a better home chef, rather than solely for lean-back entertainment, CMO Lee Boykoff told AdExchanger. This degree of engagement is one of the company’s main differentiators from other food networks, Boykoff said.
ATK hopes that expanding inventory and data access – paired with a particularly engaged and growing audience – will help it attract more non-endemic brands to its audience.
While ATK is still “heavy” on endemic advertisers, including food-related products and services, “we’re already seeing an increase in different brands and verticals buying [ads] across our platforms” since January, Clavell said. ATK didn’t name newer brand clients, but Clavell said new verticals it’s seeing outside the food and lifestyle umbrella include auto, pharma, finance and consumer-packaged goods.
Going forward, ATK plans to create new ways for advertisers to pair custom brand sponsorships with commercials. Research suggests that juxtaposing a conventional commercial with a less traditional ad spot, including interactive ads, can improve certain performance metrics, such as brand recall.
Clavell said interactive ad formats, including pause ads, are something the company is “actively exploring,” although it’s too soon to say when ATK will roll them out.
Although it wouldn’t be surprising if ATK considers pause ads sooner rather than later, given all the recent hype around pause ads among media companies and distributors.
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