BlackArrow Comes Out of Stealth
BlackArrow has been one of those cool companies in Stealth that everyone wants to know more about.
Today we got our wish, the company announced $12 million in new funding from a range of technology, broadcast and venture sources and opened up their website revealing a lot more of what they do.
Larry Kramer has joined their board and they have lured several others including Dean Denhart of KnightRidder to be CEO, and Chris Hock of Adobe to join them. BlackArrow plans to bring broadcast advertising from a linear medium into the digital age.
If you are connected to the internet while consuming media, advertisers can target you far more effectively. And the likes of Cisco, Comcast, ABC, FOX and others are working with or investing in BlackArrow because they believe that what they do is game changing.
The difference is BlackArrow’s ability to target as well as to do day parting; sending a different ad to a user based on the time they viewed the content.
Take ABC’s player. The innovative ad-spots used by ABC are made possible by Black Arrow. There are several planned ad breaks during a standard hour program clock in ABC’s broadband player in addition to the paused ad-unit we questioned the value of several months ago.
The beauty is that the ads are interactive. Based on when you view them and your past behavior the ads you see will become increasingly more relevant.
Click on a shown product during the first break for more information and your path will be saved for future up-selling or targeting during a pause or planned ad break. Over time because Move’s player is a client-side protocol this data will get far more specific and valuable to advertisers.
What makes BlackArrow an even bigger deal is their close relationship with MSOs. They are working to improve ad-insertion and tracking to enhance targeting on IP equipped set-top boxes. When this all comes together it will change the business of broadcast advertising.