For years, broadcasters have aimed to provide advertisers and buyers with the capability to execute TV buys with the same targeting precision they get with digital media. Now Bell Media has jumped into the fray with its Strategic Audience Management tool (SAM), a platform for brands looking to reach niche audiences.

SAM is powered by NLogic and provides segmentation based on Numeris data, a currency media buyers understand. It then integrates that info into existing buying methods. The platform measures household, behavioural and TV viewing data to identify high-indexing TV audiences. It then uses this data to maximize inventory allocation across Bell Media properties, including CTV and specialty channels (excluding TSN and CP24). This optimizes the advertising schedule, based on the selected strategic audience.

Darryl Coburn, VP, national video sales for Bell Media, tells MIC the tool provides optimized media plans based on data segments that live outside the traditional broad TV demos. “With digital players offering more strategic audiences, clients were asking for TV to come up with a similar product – and SAM is in response to that.”

SAM has just had its initial roll-out. According to Coburn, it has “generated a lot of interest” at media agencies.

Mark Finney, VP of strategic sales at Bell Media, says the purpose of TV will remain as it always has been – to build mass reach quickly. However, he says, if advertisers are interested in reaching a more specific audience, SAM enables that.

“It’s based on the most recent Numeris NLogic data, and so is as wide as it can be. With SAM, we can target primary grocery shoppers, for example, rather than simply women 25 to 54 as a proxy. It enables us to get more targeted in cases that work for the advertiser and the campaign.”

Pictured: CTV’s freshman hit The Rookie