MADRID – As user attention splits between the open web and connected television, how can contextual advertising remain relevant?

Jorge Poyatos thinks the industry needs technology that can read the room, discerning not just topics, but also emotion and intent.

This is a challenge that requires a “neuro-contextual” approach, said Poyatos, co-founder, Seedtag, in this video interview in its Madrid headquarters with Beet.TV. His company believes artificial intelligence can now go far beyond legacy taxonomies to deliver more powerful, privacy-first advertising.

Cracking the CTV code

CTV advertising in the U.S. is expected to drive all the growth in the total TV ad market through 2027, according to an eMarketer forecast.

“We’ve seen a huge rise on the connected TV environment, so we thought that was a perfect opportunity to expand into that territory,” Poyatos said, citing the company’s acquisition of video ad platform Beachfront to access that inventory.

The company is now deploying its proprietary AI across both channels. “Neuro-contextual is about that. It’s not only about understanding a taxonomy, it’s about understanding the interest, the emotion, and the intent of a user,” Poyatos explained.

He offered a cinematic example to illustrate the power of emotional targeting in a CTV environment. “I was the other day watching Gladiator and there are parts of the movie where you are very excited,” Poyatos said. “But there are other parts of the movie where you’re very sad. If you’re able to match the ad with the emotional state of the consumer, that is going to deliver way superior performance.”

From interest to intent

It’s not just about emotion. Seedtag is developing models to discern a user’s purchase intent from the content they consume, a capability Poyatos claims is unique. He argued that traditional IAB taxonomies treat all content within a category equally, missing crucial signals. This focus on performance was bolstered by its 2022 acquisition of KMTX, a firm specializing in AI for performance campaigns.

“If you compare an article where you’re reading about the last Formula One race, and if you compare an article where you’re reading about the top features of the latest SUV, the intent level of the user is much higher on the second one,” Poyatos explained. “The second one is probably on a journey to buy a car. The first one is just entertaining.”

The company’s technology works to quantify that difference. “We’ve been able to build models that are delivering an intention score that is basically classifying articles based on that point on the customer journey that we find them,” he added. Poyatos believes this sophisticated layering of signals represents a significant leap forward for the ad-tech space.

Scaling for the next phase

With the company growing to over 500 employees, its co-founders decided it was time to bring in leadership equipped for the next stage of growth. “The company today is at a stage where we’ve reached some scale. We’re not a startup anymore,” Poyatos said. “I think for the next phase of the company, we believe that there are people that are better equipped to keep scaling the company.”

After a lengthy search, the company appointed former GroupM and Criteo executive Brian Gleason as its new CEO. Poyatos described him as the “perfect fit for the company.”

“The combination of his experience and understanding of the industry with his experience also in more scaled companies and international companies like WPP or Criteo, I think gives him a unique position to maximize the growth of Seedtag in the coming years,” Poyatos said.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews