COLOGNE — Brands’ demand to buy TV ads on connected TV sets with new targeting capabilities is growing and bringing new kinds of advertisers in to the market – but the powers that be must come together to capitalize on the opportunity.

That is the call from one of the leading advertising demand-side platforms, when it comes to measurement.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, The Trade Desk UK GM Anna Forbes  says: “It could be improved and I think that there’s a real opportunity here for standardization across both linear and connected TV because they’re coming at it from different worlds.

“I don’t think that’s going to change overnight, those two competing systems are gonna need to work side by side. I’d call on industry bodies that represent those two categories – whether it’s the IAB, or Thinkbox  [UK commercial broadcasters’ advertising umbrella] – but to work together to create that harmonized measurement that will ultimately help drive revenue forwards, get brands comfortable, and ultimately help monetize that inventory better.”

In the UK, the TV measurement agency BARB has been measuring online TV viewing through main broadcaster apps since 2015.

Under BARB’s “Project Dovetail“, the agency aims to generate census data for online viewing. As part of that scheme, BARB is due to launch this month a “fusion” measurement combining data programmes viewed across four screens: TV sets, tablets, PCs and smartphones. BARB has also explored whether it should extend the measurement to short-form online video.

Forbes say UK brands are keenly looking at spending in connected TV and benefitting from its targeting capabilities.

But there is also what she calls a “secondary brand audience that might not have had budgets”.

“There’s incremental opportunity here for broadcasters to monetize their inventory with people that traditionally haven’t been able to reach that really high threshold of traditional linear TV buying that can now buy very specific impressions,” she explains.

This interview is part of a series titled Advertising Reimagined: The View from DMEXCO 2018, presented by Criteo. Please find more videos from the series here.