This is the fourth of five Innovator Spotlight articles from our newest TVREV Special Report, Local TV: Perils And Promise In The Age Of Streaming, which you can download for free.

“What sets Madhive apart is our completely white-labeled service. We recognize the challenges of the local high-volume marketplace, and in response, we've developed a unique DSP that seamlessly integrates with order management and measurement systems to simplify execution,” says Madhive SVP, Sales, Kristin Wnuk. “Unlike most DSPs, we’re not selling an out-of-the-box solution. We built a configurable tech stack to connect advertisers to new streaming audiences.” In this wide-ranging interview, Wnuk talks about Madhive’s role in the local TV ecosystem and how a banner political advertising season and AI will shape the years to come.

ALAN WOLK (AW): Where does Madhive fit into the local TV ecosystem? What are the industry needs that you are solving? 

KRISTIN WNUK (KW):  Traditionally, Madhive has assisted broadcasters in establishing their streaming ad sales business by providing the infrastructure that powers CTV campaigns. Our platform helps them plan, activate, and measure performance all in one customizable solution.The entire industry is currently grappling with convergence, whether in planning, activation, or measurement. Madhive has taken a proactive step to integrate these elements, assisting our clients in monetizing their owned and operated apps, (O&O's) prioritizing inventory, and supporting meaningful content and reach extension business. We understand the desire of our clients to monetize their owned and operated entities, and we acknowledge the potential scarcity within a local marketplace. Our focus is on helping our clients craft meaningful streaming packages tailored to local advertisers.

AW: What sets Madhive apart from other companies who are trying to compete in the local advertising space?

KW: What makes Madhive unique is that we built our tech specifically for local. We created a DSP designed to assemble video buys that are fair across content and designed to find really granular impressions. Our powerful bidder processes millions of queries per second. As you can see, local campaigns at scale require massive amounts of complex data, sophisticated targeting, and seamless delivery, which is where we excel.

We also created a DSP to focus on CTV first and foremost, unlike most programmatic buying platforms that started with banner ads and then tried to retrofit different media types. Our platform prioritizes content, ensuring better distribution across content providers. We can create packages focusing on local and TV components. 

Finally, Madhive's tech can be used out of the box or integrated with an advertiser’s existing tech stack, including order management systems, ad servers, and white labeling their platform. Our tech becomes a piece of their own, and we've done many customizations.

AW: If I am an advertiser, what is the big advantage to me of you having this super powerful bidder?

KW: For an advertiser, our powerful bidder means a higher comfort level in our ability to forecast campaigns and find impressions, especially during times of scarcity. We have over 20,000 data segments built into our system, allowing us to find highly granular geo-targeted impressions and tie them back to addressable impressions. This is meaningful as the marketplace moves away from traditional demographic buys towards more sophisticated audience-based buying.

AW: Local advertisers understand the correlation between their linear ad buys and sales results. How can they get that comfort level on streaming?

KW: I remember those days when furniture companies would ask how many rating points they needed to sell a certain number of couches. Streaming is allowing the marketplace to become more sophisticated. Clients should be tying back to their first-party data and internal measurement systems. Madhive can help plan, activate, deliver, and offer meaningful measurement outcomes. Clients can look at impressions, convert them back to ratings, or tie them to web conversions, foot traffic, or even app downloads. We're getting more sophisticated in tying real outcomes to media measurement, rather than relying on gut estimates. We can provide more real-time metrics to make measurement more robust.

AW:  2024 is supposed to be a banner year for political advertising. How does Madhive play in that field, and what are you seeing happening?

KW: Political advertising seasons are always an exciting time for local ad markets, and they continue to be so. The latest figures predict an eleven billion dollar year in 2024. Depending on the candidates and super PACs, political advertising will be huge for local again next year. Candidates and issue advertisers want to find people in specific geo-regions. Local broadcast will do well, as will streaming. During the last cycle, we saw a 1400% increase in impressions in the weeks leading up to the Massachusetts primaries. Political advertising will continue to be local, whether on local broadcast stations, geo-targeted national apps, or local broadcaster streaming. It's an exciting time with a lot of money out there. The key to doing political advertising right is getting the operations right. Madhive is uniquely set up for that, focusing on ease of execution and granular forecasting to deliver on those outcomes.

AW: There’s been a lot of talk about how down ballot races are going to make extensive use of local streaming next year. Are you hearing that as well? 

KW: Yes we are. That's part of the great thing about streaming. We're not bound by those traditional DMA lines; we can really get down to what an advertiser is looking for. Madhive can certainly target by zip, but one of the things that makes us unique is that we can target nationally, by state, by DMA, and we also have congressional districts set up in our system. We can target by zip code, which most platforms can do as well, but we also have zip radius targeting. So if there's a thought of wanting a specific zip code or maybe expanding that area, an advertiser or politician can type in an address and say, "You know what, I want everyone in a 10-mile radius," and it's quick, easy, seamless. You can forecast it, activate it, and then obviously deliver it.

AW: How do you see AI impacting local advertising?

KW: The more relevant your advertising becomes, the more meaningful it will be, leading to better outcomes. AI is absolutely going to open up the door to that, helping us understand where campaigns need to ebb and flow, even down to the creative level. There are some really exciting developments happening within AI in the creative field today. For example, AI can enable precision targeting based on weather conditions, allowing advertisers to choose the most relevant ads. If it's 65º in Chicago in February, that’s going to be an unusually warm day, and if I’m Dunkin Donuts, I’ll want to run ads for iced coffee. But that same temperature in Miami is going to mean it’s cold, and it's time to feature hot beverages. I find that level of precision targeting to be very exciting.