Seven turns AI to ad targeting on 7plus platform

The Seven Network is expanding its use of AI technology to help advertisers find a targeted audience on 7plus.

The media company said it is using Databricks to predict audiences on its 7plus video-on-demand platform, and hopes to use it in future to tailor the length of advertising breaks in streamed content.

It is switching on the capabilities progressively, across three phases.

Phase one, it said, “has been completed”, and predicts “what the audience on 7plus will be over the next seven days, to a level of accuracy of over 91 percent”.

The second phase, currently underway, aims to segment the predicted audience; the third phase is about using AI “to identify acceptance of ad load by audience segment – and dynamically change the size of the ad breaks accordingly.”

Seven West Media’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette said the company wanted “to be meticulous about the right ad load, and the right type of ad, for the right audience.”

“There’s a lot more in play, like using AI not only to serve the ads but to find the most meaningful moment in any show to integrate brands inside the content, in real-time,” Burnette said.

The company already utilises AI for user experience, with 7plus’s personalisation engine in place for about 18 months and powered by AWS cloud services.

“For our viewers, it means a dynamic interface and real-time [content] 'shelf' ordering that serves the most relevant content recommendations, based on their individual viewing behaviour, and importantly, the AI model’s prediction of their future viewing behaviour,” chief digital officer Gereurd Roberts said.

“We are moving 7plus from being one product for all, with everyone seeing the same thing, to being truly one-to-one. 

“Audiences today expect personalised, relevant experiences, and they reward you when you get it right.”

Seven said that live streaming on 7plus was up 40 percent in the 2022-23 financial year, while video-on-demand viewing increased by 15 percent.