"Consumers switch between their mobiles and TV screens, especially during ad breaks. Syncing content across traditional and digital platforms gives advertisers another way to engage target audiences by airing ads directly to their second, or even third, screens," says Nick Hodge, managing director of YDigital Media Africa, a mobile-first media buying agency.

It works by using YDigital Media’s mobile programmatic technology, Mobyd. "By intimately understanding who the target audience is, as well as when they are online, we can serve them an ad on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop. The magic happens when the mobile user is watching TV while online, thus seeing two ads at once," adds Hodge.

BMW was the first brand to adopt the technology in South Africa, promoting its new 5 Series in July, which was managed by Vizeum to raise awareness of the new model among BMW’s target audience. 

Since its launch, Hodge says there has been significant interest in the technology from a broad range of brands, several established car manufacturer brands in South Africa as well as Telkom, Eucerin, and banking groups.

"TV Sync is exciting media buyers and brands as it provides an additional layer of exposure. With access to 80% of local mobile traffic and unique users, YDigital Media can target a brands’ creative execution at most South African demographics down to very detailed profiles for an almost perfect bullseye," says Hodge.

Creative mirrors that are created of the TV ad either in the form of a mobile banner, media, or video allow the campaign to run for as long as the ad is in 'flight'. It can also be used to drive lead generations from highly targeted consumers.

"In the instance of BMW, the mobile creative could promote a call to action to visit a dealership for a test drive," adds Hodge. "This provides brands with direct interaction with a qualified and engaged consumer, in addition to creating viable leads to engage at another time."

TV Sync also provides competitor insights. "YDigital Media can receive a video and sound clip from a client’s competitor and draw up a schedule of where and when their ads play. This allows us to then offer brands the opportunity to display their ads in the same time slots," he adds.

"In our quest to be digital first and drive innovation for our clients, I am very proud of this piece of work, which takes the continuous topic of multi-screening and makes it a reality. The market is continuously evolving and we need to have a major step-change in how we plan audio visual content. A great collaborative effort between the Vizeum team and YDigital Media," concludes Kelvin Storie, managing director for Vizeum South Africa.

For more information, visit www.vizeum.co.za or www.ydigitalmedia.com.