• by Alex Weprin , June 3, 2019

The advanced TV advertising firm Simulmedia is expanding the capabilities of its D2Cx platform. The media platform, which is geared toward direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, launched in beta last October.

Among the changes, per Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan: campaign minimums are being removed, letting brands launch on TV with small budgets, allowing them to optimize their campaigns before making larger investments. Near-real-time measurement and attribution tools are being added, as are automated creative diagnostic tools, and automated bid management tools.

D2Cx.com will also be receiving a redesigned application interface.

Morgan says the updates reduce the risk for D2C brands thinking about bringing their video ads to TV screens.

“No minimum spend means a lot less risk for marketers to test TV. Much more like digital that way,” Morgan tells Digital News Daily. “[The] only real risk is modifying social video creatives to be at acceptable TV quality. That is why we have released creative diagnostic tools, so that  marketers can test and fix their video creatives with us for free to bring them into technical compliance with the requirements set by national TV networks and trafficking services.”

D2C brands, born online, have become increasingly important to TV networks looking to expand their advertiser base. Most of these brands gain scale using social platforms, but at a certain point the acquisition costs of social level off, and the pure reach of TV becomes quite appealing.

Around 150 D2C brands are said to be looking to enter the TV marketplace this year, and may be willing to pay near-CPM prices. Of course, some smaller D2C brands may not have the cash to afford prime commercial slots on national broadcast networks during the upfront. That’s where D2Cx comes in.

“While we're still very much in the learning phase, we hope to make it a very comfortable and powerful platform for D2Cs to truly scale up their TV marketing efforts,” Morgan says.