• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2024

Advertising-technology company Innovid is starting up a new connected TV/streamer-focused platform -- Harmony Direct -- to eliminate waste, fees, and industry “friction.”

The company says Harmony Direct is the first in a wave of new product changes from its overall Harmony media initiative to “streamline” the connected TV (CTV) supply path when it comes to “transparency, efficiency, and sustainability.”

Advertising agency PMG and streaming distributor Roku are among the first to sign on to Harmony Direct.

Specifically, the platform aims to eliminate all “friction” points. This can include helping publishers that often enable one exchange to resell another exchange’s auction -- so-called “hops” activity in the supply chain. 

Analysts say this does not add value for a brand, but can add fees to a media plan. Minimizing this activity can mean more dollars going directly to publishers.

A 2023 Pixalate survey report says an ad-supply chain with six or more hops has a 40% higher fraud advertising rate on average.

Innovid also says Harmony Direct will foster better sustainability by eliminating reselling, duplication and volume -- in other words, wasteful dollars, energy and carbon emissions.

In beta tests of the new product, Innovid says programmatic guaranteed spend to Harmony Direct led to an average 8% increase in working media for agency partners. Publishers improved revenue by up to 15%, with average fill rates of ad messaging units rising from 90% to 100%. 

A December 2023 ANA programmatic media study said there can be $22 billion in potential efficiency improvements available to the client-side marketer from the elimination of these costs -- with 29% of the original ad dollar going to DSP (demand-side platform) and SSP (supply-side platform) costs. 

Innovid’s advertising software platform focuses on the creation, delivery, measurement, and optimization of advertising across connected TV, as well as linear and digital media. It processes 1.3 billion video ad impressions per day.