• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 20, 2010

Starcom MediaVest Group has signed a deal looking to run national campaigns on DirecTV, where different messages will reach different homes based on relevance. The addressable advertising will run in some 10 million homes with DVRs as the spots appear in the space DirecTV owns on 25 cable networks. 

SMG will be able to work with DirecTV to decide which homes should receive which ads. Homes to target can be selected based on geography and a host of other characteristics.

SMG has been involved with DirecTV's trials of the system and will help advise it on moving ahead. Deployment is unclear, although more testing is coming next year.

National addressable advertising is notable because the type of hyper-targeted marketing has only been deployed in local markets so far. Canoe Ventures tried to launch a national version, but it ran into hurdles.

"We believe this is the tipping point -- an entirely new marketplace is being created and shaped that will increase marketing effectiveness." stated SMG CEO Laura Desmond in regard to national addressable opportunities.

SMG's Tracey Scheppach estimated that national addressable advertising could "infuse $10 billion in incremental revenue into the television marketplace as its appeal is universal and has the ability to bring a whole new class of marketers to the medium."

By adding a local advertising offering next year and the addressable initiative going forward, DirecTV is counting on advertising to be an even more important revenue stream.

Still, the satellite provider is thriving. Its customer base has continued to grow to more than 19 million, even as other multichannel video providers have seen erosion.