CANNES — Effectv, the advertising unit of Comcast Cable, is aiming to challenge perceptions and redefine its position in the digital media landscape.

“We are not just the cable company, and we’re not your parents’ cable company,” says Pooja Midha, EVP and General Manager of Effectv (pronounced as “effective”).

Previously known as Comcast Spotlight, Effectv is aiming to be a key player in multi-screen and addressable advertising. Midha took the helm in September 2022, replacing James Rooke, who joined Comcast Advertising.

She was interviewed for Beet.TV by Sean Cunningham, CEO of the VAB.

Redefining Cable TV’s Role in the Advertising Landscape

Effectv specializes in providing targeted advertising solutions to businesses, helping them reach their desired audiences through TV and digital media. It reaches 96 million adults in more than 60 markets. Effectv offers targeted advertising, cross-screen delivery, local and national reach, plus measurement and analytics.

“We are so much more beyond what people perceive local television to be,” Midha says. “We’re not even just local anymore. We serve local advertisers, regional advertisers, and national advertisers. In an addressable world, all those lines blur and, with a footprint as large as ours, it makes a lot of sense,” says Midha.

Talking tactics

Alongside this, Effectv’s streaming capabilities enable them to connect with cord-cutting, broadband-only homes. The company’s launch of new services, such as Comcast’s ‘Now TV’, further extends its reach, offering a combination of subscriber video on demand (SVOD) with fast and streaming live television.

“We are able to help an advertiser find their unique audience or audiences and reach them at scale,” Midha says. “We have the technology and first-party data that allows us to do that with a lot of precision and intelligence.”

A key part of Effectv’s strategy is to help businesses strike a balance between driving brand awareness and performance-driven tactics. “We can help a national advertiser use the context of location in a really meaningful way and help a local advertiser think beyond their immediate geography to people that might be adjacent to them,” explains Midha.

Amid the complexity of today’s advertising landscape, Midha advises businesses to focus on high-attention, high-engagement environments, scale, and thoughtful use of data.

Recently-published Effectv research showed summer TV advertising may boost share of voice by as much as 36%.

You are watching ‘The Transformation Of Television: Connected, Addressable & Outcome-Based,’ presented by Go Addressable & Teads at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. For more videos from Beet.TV’s Cannes Lions 2023 coverage, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews