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Advanced Advertising

Introduction

Cable networks in place today are excellent platforms for delivering advanced advertising. Thanks to the highly addressable nature of the millions of set-tops already deployed, as well as new solutions that measure viewership habits and facilitate targeted advertisements, there are many new revenue opportunities in advanced advertising.

Digital ad insertion gives you the ability to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) by selling spots to local advertisers. Cisco’s flexible advertising solution can:

• Deliver addressable advertising for both linear and nonlinear services, including switched digital video (SDV) and video on demand (VoD)

• Help you target "ad zones" in specific geographic areas or use SDV to precisely target advertisements based on demographic profiles

• Give valuable insight into the viewing habits of subscribers to help you customize ad offerings

Cisco Advanced Advertising solution elements include:

Digital Content Manager

A key component of Cisco’s advanced advertising solution is the Digital Content Manager (DCM), which provides the critical video grooming and splicing needed for ad insertions.


Content Delivery System

This flexible, scalable system inserts ads into on-demand content.


Cisco Digital Cable Set-Tops

Network-based ad insertion can be deployed on all Cisco’s digital cable set-tops. Client-based ad insertion using tru2way can be deployed across the range of set-tops, including the Cisco Explorer 4000 and 8000 Series.


Viewership Measurement

Cisco can help you assess the viewing habits of subscribers and make use of the information. Cisco solutions are designed for use in switched (Cisco SDV Collector) and nonswitched (Cisco Retriever) environments, so you can use viewership information gathered from set-tops to evaluate channel rankings and examine minute-by-minute viewing behavior and patterns, including channel changes.


Ad Insertion in Digital and Switched Digital Video

Cisco Advanced Advertising solution allows you either to target "ad zones" in specific geographic areas or to use switched digital video (SDV) to target advertisements based on demographic profiles.

Fully standards-based for interoperability and ease of integration, the solution includes support for SCTE 30 and SCTE 35, the standards typically used for linear ad insertion, as well as future support for the emerging SCTE 130 specification.

Cisco’s local ad insertion solution is based on the Digital Content Manager (DCM), a very dense splicing solution delivering 400 ad splices in a single 2 rack unit chassis.

Ad Insertion in Video on Demand Systems

As advertisers look for opportunities to personalize their messages and better target their audience, video on demand (VoD) ad insertion is taking on a new strategic importance.

The Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS) provides the flexibility and scalability to perform ad insertion according to your needs. VoD ad insertion can be accomplished either by inserting ads into each VoD asset before it is played or by dynamically inserting ads into VoD assets while they are playing. In future, CDS will also dynamically select ads using the SCTE 130 standard.

Set-Top Ad Insertion

In addition to the network-based ad insertion technologies, the Cisco advanced advertising solution includes set-tops that are field-tested in running advertising applications directly. In the tru2way environment, advertising applications deliver a new level of interactivity for the consumer by:

• Providing additional information through telescoping advertisements

• Allowing customers to bookmark a specific advertisement they wish to see later

• Selecting the optimal ad for a given viewer based on either demographic profiles or viewing patterns

Cisco’s advanced advertising solution can help you fulfill the potential of your considerable investment in digital networks to tap into the $70 billion TV advertising market. It provides compact and efficient zoned ad insertion along with the ability to deliver advanced advertising based on subscriber demographics in conjunction with the SCTE 30, SCTE 35, and future SCTE 130 standards.