Sky cash fund targets TV virgins

Sky Media, the advertising sales division of Sky, is trying to woo the “the little guys” to the joys of highly personalised, targeted TV advertising by stumping up a cash fund to help them with their production costs.
The company is targeting SMEs and niche brands – which may have previously found TV too big or expensive – with a £500,000 fund to create ads and then use Sky AdSmart to control the targeting and scale of their campaigns with precision.
Their new TV commercials will then be activated across Sky channels including Sky 1, Sky Atlantic and Sky Sports.
Sky Media expects to use the fund to help over 100 advertisers develop ads for TV for the first time. Funding will be offered on a ‘first come first served’ basis for a limited period.
As well as the financial incentive, Sky Media will work with the companies to find the best production house to deliver a high-quality ad, and also offer advice to help them reach the right audiences for their brand or product with Sky AdSmart.
It is claimed that Sky AdSmart enables advertisers to target very specific audiences, choosing from any combination of up to 400 different customer attributes such as lifestyle, lifestage and location. Using Experian data, advertisers can reach customers by region, city or even down to the first two letters of a postcode.
Sky AdSmart means smaller brands can compete on a level playing field with national advertisers. Their ads can appear in the breaks of some of the UK and Ireland’s best programmes such as Game of Thrones (pictured), A League of their Own or a major Premier League clash on Ford Super Sunday on Sky Sports.
Sky Media deputy managing director Jamie West said: “TV advertising generates higher sales and brand awareness than any other form of advertising. The production fund means we can help even more companies join the over 500 advertisers who have used Sky AdSmart so far. It has made television more accessible for niche and growing brands – around 70% of the advertisers who use it are either new to TV or new to Sky. Sky AdSmart has allowed them to take full advantage of the power of TV to deliver growth for their businesses.”