Unreel, the leading platform for networks and publishers launching over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, today announces the launch of its innovative AdStack TV feature with the purpose of optimizing the process of streamlining ads on AVOD (ad-based video on demand) platforms. Implementing this engine on Unreel powered streaming services can improve fill and increase revenue threefold.
AdStack TV comes packaged into every single app that Unreel powers. In simple terms, the feature represents the most robust AVOD monetization solution for OTT platforms, giving them more autonomy and control over their advertising space. It helps them connect to DSPs (demand-side platforms) to easily sell their addressable ad inventory to advertisers. It also enables parallel ad calls to various partners and makes smart selections between them.
One of the unique functions is that AdStack TV receives ads from different sources or demand partners and classifies them into pods. These are intelligently built based on ad responses from various partners. This helps deliver ads with optimized CPMs and fill rates automatically, allowing for immediate monetization. For example, if 150 seconds are allocated, AdStack TV pulls data from different demand sources and stitches a pod for the allocated time.
AdStack was constructed as an effective, scalable middleware component that is as lightweight as possible. Due to its usage of prediction algorithms and recommendation engines, it also works as a data enrichment player. It can capture massive amounts of user behavior data, analyze it, and pass it on to different ad servers.
By deploying the feature on the Unreel network, the Let’s Play Network of apps expanded their ad avails five times and the allowed stitching of ads between multiple ad-demand sources into a pod brought a threefold fill increase.
Every video platform powered by ads requires an implementation similar to AdStack TV. With growing interest in OTT – approximately $2 billion dollars were spent on OTT ads in 2018 – Unreel seized the opportunity to advance a new and more effective mechanism. The company closely collaborated with its partners through the development process to construct a tool that meets the exact demands of streaming platforms. For this reason, AdStack TV also has added value: It brings flexibility to the industry.
“Similar products on the market only provide a partial solution. That is why we wanted to develop a comprehensive framework that will empower OTT platforms,” says Krish Arvapally, the CTO at Unreel. “In the past, these platforms had to face dysfunctionality of several ad networks or restrictions imposed by ad servers. But that is about to change. AdStack gives them the agency to determine the sources they want to collaborate with or the number of ads in each pod to be shown.”
