Introducing Yahoo Connected TV

Are you aware that traffic by mobile web users can go up by 39 per cent during commercial breaks even when some nationally important events like Oscar or Super Bowl are showing? Strange it may sound, but that is a reality advertisers have to remember when they plan commercials during TV shows. Had you not as an advertiser wished that you had something for the viewers to keep them glued to the monitor while your advertisement runs? May be you can provide some bits of information that you can let the viewers ask and provide it. That is what Yahoo Connected TV is all about – keeping viewers happy just as much as the advertisers. In short, it means that television sets have to be interactive to achieve it.


It is almost a year and a half that Yahoo had introduced Connected TV and today has more than half a million people using it in their television sets. The benefits that accrue to the advertisers are not difficult to see. What makes Connected TV interesting is it provides an interactive ambience just right for the users as well. Using Connected TV is beneficial for advertisers because it give them the opportunity to get the much sought after insight into what consumers are looking for. And another comforting thing for the advertisers is that they let them engage in a meaningful conversation with prospective customers.

At the time Connected TV was introduced, Yahoo invited advertisers in a big way to make it a grand success. Among the incentives they said advertisers can gain are: become a trend setter by understanding how users interact and experiment, get real-world information, evaluate data to plan future campaigns in Connected TV and become a leader by innovating.

The benefits of experimenting as Yahoo saw it, was to give the advertiser a six month period for testing and then give them an opportunity to buy media. The second in the evaluation sector was getting metrics related to campaigning. The third benefit, Yahoo said was it will give advertisers a flexible option to plan for further campaigns, shape the future of Connected TV and finally manage a campaign optimization scheme.
Yahoo at the time it introduced Connected TV had much wooing to do. They had to rope in the advertisers just as much as the OEM manufacturers, so that future televisions will have the apps required built into the television itself. It was their idea that such a mechanism will save users the ordeal of having to download the apps to their internet enabled TV. In return, Yahoo promised to give Analytics reporting, a software developer kit, tech support, creative design support and more. Over and above, they also promised to give users, access to research findings.

For the participants it means understanding the value of going interactive in the Connected TV, understanding the value that viewers attach to channels and advertisers, make an accurate measure of how much viewers are willing to participate in advertisements that are educative, learn best practices while developing the software for advertisements, and finally give for itself the opportunity to evaluate how to improve the Connected TV services.

This is a guest post by Teyona Dame.