AI contextual advertising

Until last year, video was a largely untapped revenue opportunity for Advance Local, a media group that operates local news sites. And then 2023 happened.

Under COPPA, businesses can’t target ads based on the data of children under 13 years old. Toy manufacturers like WowWee need other ways to get their products in market via advertising, and after testing a YouTube campaign with contextual ad platform Precise TV, the promising results allude to the potential of contextual in targeting ads effectively without audience data, profiles or cookies.

The biggest reason marketers aren’t shifting their linear TV dollars to CTV is the lack of visibility into where their ads are going, said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science. In attempt to bridge that gap, IAS is tying its contextual tech into its CTV strategy, which started maturing after the company bought the video ad server Publica last summer.

Hive, which supplies AI-based contextual and measurement technology to media and ad tech companies, said Wednesday it raised $85 million in funding, valuing the company at over $2 billion. The company has raised $121 million in total. Hive has raised a lot in the past year. It closed a $50 million Series D round earlier […]