Comcast AdDelivery and Adstream Team Up for Global Ad Delivery Platform

Comcast’s AdDelivery service, which includes an automated video asset management offering for the delivery of HD and SD television spots, and digital advertising distribution company Adstream are partnering to offer an ad delivery platform for global brands.

The offering will solve challenges in distribution and bring efficiency, productivity, and a coordinated approach to a complex ecosystem, says Todd Porch, vice president and general manager of Comcast AdDelivery.

It also gives Adstream a footprint in the U.S. market.

Adstream says it integrates digital asset management, workflow tools, and a global asset delivery network on a single platform to deliver more than 2 million assets per year to more than 106 countries. It provides direct distribution to Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

For its part, Comcast says its AdDelivery service provides distribution for more than 10,000 national, regional, and local advertisers in the U.S. and parts of Canada. Comcast says its footprint encompasses the majority of U.S. broadcast and cable networks, local broadcast stations, cable and other multichannel video distributors, radio stations, and online video Web publishers.

According to Comcast and Adstream, their simplified platform provides advertisers with a “fast, efficient, and reliable method for managing and distributing video assets over the industry’s most expansive international ad delivery network.”

This gives marketers visibility, control, reporting, and management of advertising asset distribution, the companies say. The relationship will also allow brand managers to receive reports in real time, showcasing assets on one digital system and giving visibility of all activity across global markets.

In other words, the partnership enables brands and agencies to repurpose ads around the world more simply and to receive more reporting about how the ads are used, says Gerry Sutton, chief executive (CEO) of Adstream.

“What we’re finding increasingly is that major brands are looking to centralize their marketing activities and create ads that are appropriate [across cultures, languages, and/or geography],” Sutton says. “We offer a platform that enables them to do that effectively and efficiently using digital files.”

While he did not provide specific examples of advertisers using the platform, Sutton says Adstream is working with the “50 or 70 top agencies” and “50 or 60 of the top brands around the world as well.”

“We’re increasingly dealing with global brands and agencies looking for more coverage around the world,” Sutton says. “[The partnership] enables us to offer to major agencies and global brands the ability to have TV ads and [increasingly digital ads as well] distributed quickly and effectively.”