Digital Ad Tools Are Gaining Traction in Connected TV: FreeWheels Michelle Zyglis Beet.TV [Video]

Software tools that transformed the way brands buy digital advertising are coming to television as marketers and agencies seek to reach the growing audience for video streaming. FreeWheel, Comcast’s advertising technology platform, this year is bringing these programmatic tools to the upfronts as billions of dollars are transacted.

“We have a lot of growth happening in the industry, where the eyeballs are shifting,” Michelle Zyglis, vice president of product management, TV platform at Comcast’s FreeWheel, said in this interview with Lisa Granatstein, editorial director of Beet.TV. “The ad spending is following. It gives us a great opportunity to monetize those eyeballs in a much better way using the power of programmatic.”

Amid this shift in spending toward connected television, advertisers, media companies and ad-tech platforms are grappling with the challenges that come with new workflows. Television advertising deals are transitioning from insertion-order contracts to automated transactions that offer greater efficiency and data-driven audience targeting.

“There’s a lot of ad-tech …