StackAdapt, Samba TV team up to advance CTV in Australia

StackAdapt has announced the expansion of its partnership with Samba TV to deliver enhanced connected TV (CTV) planning, targeting and measurement capabilities for advertisers in Australia.

The move builds on StackAdapt and Samba TV's collaboration in the United States, extending the use of Samba TV's artificial intelligence-driven media analytics into the Australian market. The partnership is set to provide StackAdapt clients with additional audience insights and access to advanced tools for managing CTV media buys across Australia.

StackAdapt clients in Australia will now be able to use Samba TV data to forecast incremental reach during planning and budgeting phases, refine targeting across premium CTV inventory, and evaluate and optimise campaign performance using robust measurement features. Additionally, Australian advertisers will be able to access Samba TV audiences and contextual intelligence from Semasio, a company owned by Samba TV.

Liam McCarten, Vice President, APAC at StackAdapt, said, "Our goal is to make it increasingly frictionless for brands and agencies to invest in CTV and reap the benefits. What we hear from our partners is that they want access to the CTV market, and specifically to improve the discovery, targeting and reporting processes. While an obvious ask, transparency on where your ads are being run, access to premium inventory, and creative adaptability are key needs. This integration enables us to achieve this, setting a new standard across the industry."

Samba TV's audience segments are generated through its first-party data collected from opted-in Smart TVs across a wide range of brands, using its own automatic content recognition technology. The company provides data that covers streaming, linear and gaming content to offer a comprehensive representation of viewing habits.

Yasmin Sanders, Vice President, APAC at Samba TV, said, "Our expanded collaboration with StackAdapt marks a significant milestone in bringing integrated planning, activation, and measurement to Australia. By extending Samba TV's comprehensive first-party insights to StackAdapt clients in Australia, we're empowering advertisers with the ability to transact more efficiently within a single programmatic platform and achieve stronger return on ad spend in these markets through both TV and contextual audiences."

As part of its broader CTV strategy, StackAdapt has announced the introduction of a new classification system called CTV Properties. This framework results from StackAdapt's detailed analysis of the CTV supply chain, spanning networks, applications, free ad-supported streaming television, ad-based video-on-demand, broadcaster video-on-demand, streaming platforms, TV manufacturers, and publishers.

The CTV Properties system aims to simplify the categorisation of CTV supply, providing advertisers with clearer visibility into where their advertisements are shown. StackAdapt stated that this would help advertisers more easily identify, target, and measure inventory, which should, in turn, reduce complexity and improve clarity in the programmatic CTV landscape.

The integration with Samba TV, alongside StackAdapt's new classification advances, is intended to deliver greater transparency, enhanced measurement accuracy, and access to premium CTV inventory for advertisers in Australia.

StackAdapt recently raised USD $235 million in funding, underlining the company's focus on expanding its market presence and improving technological capabilities in digital advertising.

Industry observers note that the Australian CTV advertising market is growing, with brands and agencies demanding improved tools and greater transparency in digital ad placements. Initiatives such as the StackAdapt-Samba TV partnership reflect continued investments by digital media firms to address these market requirements.