If you were HBO, trying to convince consumers to subscribe to watch Game Of Thrones via HBO Go, you could target people Google for the show – or you could go straight to those already watching via unofficial channels.

That’s what ad-tech vendor Tru Optik is helping media and entertainment brands accomplish. The Stamford, CT-based outfit claims its technology has sight of what 500 million consumers in 150 countries are viewing or listening to, out of a library of 20 million titles.

CEO Andre Swanston says an upcoming research case study will show the uplift gained from encouraging OTT subscriptions to Hispanic telenovela services, by targeting people already watching them, as opposed to targeting people who have merely expressed an interest in the content.

“When it came to paid subscribers, we beat Facebook (page likes) by 8x,” he told a panel convened by Beet.TV.

“It’s not because our DSP is better than anyone else’s, it’s not. It comes down to the data. Knowing that a household watches Mexican telenovelas and you advertise to them that they can get access to that, that is better than knowing someone speaks Spanish.

“Oftentimes, that data is trapped behind walled gardens – Netflix doesn’t share data, Amazon doesn’t share data. But there’s no substitution for behavioural data.”

The panel was interviewed by MediaMath CMO Joanna O’Connell.

This video was produced at the Beet.TV leadership summit in New York on cross-platform addressability on July 26.  The event and the series is presented by DISH Media Sales and Experian Marketing Services.  Please visit this page to find addition videos from the summit.