Tag: Peter Docherty

  • ThinkAnalytics launches ThinkContextualAI  high privacy ad solution

    ThinkAnalytics launches ThinkContextualAI high privacy ad solution

    MUMBAI: If you think about, privacy is becoming increasingly important online what with GDPR and all the regulations which apply.

    AI driven video discovery, viewer insights, targeted advertising solutions provider ThinkAnalytics thought about it. The company has launched ThinkContextualAI, a contextual advertising solution that raises the bar for privacy-first, audience-aligned advertising. The solution complements ThinkAnalytics’ broader ThinkAdvertising offerings which have been instrumental in redefining ad targeting across connected TV (CTV)  platforms.

    Combining its  two decades of expertise in viewer behavior and advanced AI technology, ThinkContextualAI leverages a proprietary ontology of more than 40,000 metadata tags, crafted to decode not only what content is about but why it resonates with individual viewers.

    With this insight, ThinkContextualAI allows CTV advertisers to engage with audiences without invasive tracking, ensuring that content signals like genre and sub-genre are mapped to a known ontology so that they can be leveraged consistently by supply side platforms (SSPs).
     
    As fragmentation increases, privacy regulations tighten and personal data access diminishes, advertisers face mounting challenges to engage with audiences. Traditional contextual advertising solutions often fall short, either lacking nuance or failing to capture the true mood and engagement factors of content. In addition, SSPs  are seeing up to 11 million similar but different titled genres and subgenres, meaning buyers can’t reliably buy content-based audiences.

    ThinkContextualAI meets this untapped need, enabling advertisers to target viewers with unmatched precision by moving beyond simple context to align ad placements with themes and emotions.
     
    “Our 40,000+ metadata tags represent not only the subjects of content but also why viewers connect with it,” says ThinkAnalytics CTO & founder Peter Docherty. “This unique capability allows advertisers to achieve a new level of relevance and resonance in ad placement, benefiting both viewer engagement and campaign performance. We worked closely in partnership with customers to ensure this solution meets advertisers’ needs across diverse markets in an evolving regulatory environment.”
     
    ThinkContextualAI empowers advertisers with advanced contextual targeting capabilities, including:

    * Premium Audience Segmentation: advertisers can reach high-value segments like luxury lifestyle and travel enthusiasts without using personal data.
    * Scalable Content Understanding: Scale across vast content libraries with consistent, high-quality categorisation, to enhance the impact of advertising campaigns.
    * Privacy-Safe Solutions: Deploy ad campaigns that are compliant with global privacy standards, helping advertisers maintain audience trust while maximising results.

    ThinkContextualAI offers measurable improvements in campaign effectiveness and user experience:

    * Improved Ad Recall: Drive higher ad recall through genuine content-ad alignment.
    * Increased Viewer Satisfaction: Maintain ad relevance, increasing viewer engagement.
    * Enhanced ROI: Maximize ROI with targeted, privacy-safe placements.
    * Reduced Ad Waste: Minimise irrelevant placements, ensuring efficient ad spend.

    With over 85 service providers serving approximately 475 million subscribers in 47 languages, and generating eight billion recommendations per day, ThinkAnalytics is amongst the largest independent content discovery platform. Its clients include Liberty Global, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, DirecTV, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Bell Media, BritBox International, Crunchyroll, Astro, Intigral, MBC, OSN, Proximus, Rogers, Sky Mexico, Tata Play, TELUS, and Mediacorp.

  • Market-leading ThinkAnalytics is the only content discovery vendor with capability to scale to over 100 million users in the cloud

    Market-leading ThinkAnalytics is the only content discovery vendor with capability to scale to over 100 million users in the cloud

    MUMBAI: ThinkAnalytics™ today announced that its cloud-based personalized content discovery platform is the first in the industry to scale to over 100 million monthly active users in the cloud.

    ThinkAnalytics’ customers rely on this ability to deal with massive scale to power personalized user experiences as they undergo rapid growth in both audience numbers and the number of hours each user spends viewing content.

    Four of the firm’s OTT customers – BBC, DAZN, Tata Sky and Viacom 18 – now have a combined user base that exceeds 100 million monthly active users. Plus Viacom18 has attracted more than 50 million monthly users to its Voot platform and is targeting 100 million by the end of March 2020.

    Using the Amazon Web Services cloud platform, ThinkAnalytics’ content discovery platform both auto-scales to meet peak demand and deliver a consistently high-quality personalized viewing experience that boosts engagement, and scales down during quieter periods to reduce costs.  Combining full redundancy in geographically distributed data centres and a self-healing capability that automatically replaces any failed instances, the ThinkAnalytics platform provides industry-leading performance, scalability and reliability.

    One global streaming customer recently scaled to run at over a million requests per minute without a glitch, with no manual intervention required. The ThinkAnalytics platform auto-scaled from the minimum configuration to peak demand, all fully automated.

    Peter Docherty, ThinkAnalytics CTO, said, “Scalability, which has always been at the heart of our technology, is critical as established brands look to scale their D2C services quickly across multiple markets, while established providers in countries such as India are breaking new barriers with ever growing numbers of active OTT users. For these providers, a cloud-based content discovery platform that can reliably auto-scale to support many millions of viewers is a priority, offering the peace of mind that comes with a reliable, high-quality experience – even at peak periods. With our platform, customers get the world-leading personalization capabilities they need to engage their audiences and showcase the breadth and depth of content available, combined with the tools and insight needed to attract and retain viewers. ”

    The ThinkAnalytics portfolio gives customers a holistic view of their business with full viewer lifecycle management, helping them to better address KPIs such as boosting loyalty, ARPU and customer experience, and developing new revenue streams.

    As well as personalized content discovery powered by AI and machine learning, solutions include: ThinkInsight, the TV industry’s first viewer and video insight platform; the ThinkEditorial campaign tool, and the ThinkComposer dynamic UX engine that provides the ability to personalise the viewer experience.

  • Viacom 18 adds ThinkAnalytics personalized multi-language recommendations to VOOT

    Viacom 18 adds ThinkAnalytics personalized multi-language recommendations to VOOT

    Pay-TV and OTT content discovery and viewer analytics vendor ThinkAnalytics™ today announced that Viacom18 in India has gone live with ThinkAnalytics on the ad-funded OTT service VOOT.  VOOT’s 37 million monthly active users now have personalized recommendations in seven languages on the home screen, making it quicker and easier to find content they want to watch.

    Viacom18 has also deployed the ThinkComposer UX engine and ThinkEditorial, integrated with the ThinkAnalytics Recommendations Engine, enabling its editorial team to automate and streamline content curation and promotions to better meet KPIs and business goals.

    The ad-funded VOOT service offers over 50,000 hours of original, domestic and international content for free. Content includes: COLORS TV, MTV India, Nickelodeon India, a wide range of Bollywood movies, and VOOT Original shows.

    The ThinkAnalytics Recommendation Engine uses machine learning and predictive analytics to understand individual viewer preferences and broader viewing trends in real-time and suggests new content, personalized to each viewer. As a result, operators see a substantial uplift in viewer engagement and loyalty.

    Mohit Srivastava, Head – Product and Engineering, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, said, “When we saw the data showing how much ThinkAnalytics boosts viewer engagement, we knew it was the right service for VOOT and for our viewers. Having ThinkAnalytics intelligent search and personalized recommendations on the main UI makes it easy for viewers to discover more exciting programs from the wealth of content available on VOOT.”

    Peter Docherty, Founder and CTO, ThinkAnalytics added, “ By adding ThinkAnalytics personalized recommendations to the VOOT home screen, Viacom18 is once again staying ahead of the innovation curve and offering its large and loyal customer base the ability to find suitable content fast. This represents the very best in personalized entertainment on a significant scale.”

    For over 15 years ThinkAnalytics has grown to become the leader in content discovery and viewer lifecycle management. By applying advanced machine learning technology and analytics to content discovery, editorial curation, ThinkAnalytics increases viewer satisfaction, boosts engagement across all TV and video content platforms and increases operator ARPU. Viewers’ interests and previous viewing behaviour are analyzed using advanced AI and machine learning techniques to help them find new content they want to watch quickly and easily.

    About Viacom18

    Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd. is one of India’s fastest growing entertainment networks and a house of iconic brands that offers multi-platform, multi-generational and multicultural brand experiences. A joint venture of TV18, which owns 51%, and Viacom Inc., with a 49% stake, Viacom18 defines entertainment in India by touching the lives of people through its properties on air, online, on ground, in shop and through cinema.

    About ThinkAnalytics

    ThinkAnalytics’ flagship solution is the ThinkAnalytics Emmy® award-winning Content Discovery Platform, the most widely deployed real-time, personalized content and recommendations engine worldwide. More recently, the company has broadened its reach with ThinkInsight, the industry’s first Viewer and Video Insight Platform built specifically to meet the needs of TV operators. ThinkInsight incorporates the ThinkAnalytics Content Discovery Engine, ThinkBigData, ThinkCpmposer UX engine, ThinkEditorial and ThinkVoice marketing suite of products. It gives TV players a holistic view of their business, with full viewer lifecycle management enabling them to better address key industry KPIs that will help to boost loyalty, ARPU, customer experience and develop new revenue streams.

    The company’s customer base of over 80 video service providers serves more than 250 million subscribers worldwide. Customers include: Liberty Global, BBC, Proximus, Cox, Rogers, Sky, Swisscom, Astro, Singtel, TataSky, Viacom18 and Vodafone. The ThinkAnalytics Content Discovery  Engine now serves over 3 billion recommendations per day and is available as a cloud service or on premise.

    ThinkAnalytics is a private, employee-owned company with offices in UK, USA, Singapore and India.