LOS ANGELES — Its smart TVs offer some of the best value in the market, so combining a direct ad offering with a growing sales footprint is proving powerful.

Vizio, which has steadily built itself into a leading TV electronics brand, is now transforming itself by helping advertisers go directly to viewers of Vizio screens.

But, in this video interview with Beet.TV, Adam Bergman, VP, National Ad sales, Vizio, says it is not just about the TV anymore.

TV and beyond

Vizio’s Inscape division was already collecting accurate viewer data, through automatic content recognition (ACR), made actionable for targeting purposes.

But last year the company also unveiled Household Connect, a way to use that viewer data to retarget audiences on other devices.

“We’ve taken our Inscape ACR data and operationalized it,” says Bergman. “So now advertisers can deliver cross-device ads based on TV viewership data.”

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Cross-device ads

Bergman gave an example.

“If you are an auto brand, and you want to target households who watch live sports, we have that data that you can now leverage for targeting on our platform in a streaming environment, on a mobile device, on a tablet.

“It’s using ACR data to deliver relevant ads to consumers across all of their devices in the Vizio household.

“Based on ad exposure and TV viewership on my Vizio Smart TV, when I pick up from the couch, and I head out to get my morning coffee, I can now be shown a relevant ad based on what I’ve been watching on my Vizio Smart TV.”

SmartCast grows

Last month, Vizio updated WatchFree+, its own free, ad-supported TV streaming service, with more than 4,000 free movies and TV shows thanks to deals with Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn​ and more.

It also added Discovery+ Now, Discovery’s subscription streaming service, giving it a dedicated carousel on Vizio’s SmartCast operating system.

For Bergman, respecting the viewer experience is crucial.

“How does a brand affiliate themselves with premium content, enhance the user experience?,” he says. “We think about consumers at the centre of it.

“Understanding what consumers like to watch, we can now promote appropriate content to them in the search and discovery experience. We actually now are programming unique channels inside of our WatchFree+ streaming service based on viewership data.”

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By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews