One of Canada’s fastest-growing startups is looking to cash in on bar patrons glued to TVs.
What happened: Winnipeg-based advertising startup Taiv, which offers restaurants and bars targeted commercials to air on their TVs, raised US$13 million in a funding round that values the company at nearly $100 million.
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Once installed at restaurants and bars, Taiv’s system automatically senses and replaces live TV ads with a customized reel of hand-picked commercials.
Catch-up: Taiv offers its service free to venues and even gives them a cut of the cash from advertisers. The startup’s revenue, which has grown by over 7,400% since launching in 2021, comes from selling slots to individual partners, including Pepsi, Google, and FanDuel.
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What’s different about Taiv’s offering is that advertisers can pick more specific contexts in which their ad is shown (like the first commercial break after the Canadian Olympic hockey team scores a goal, for example).
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They also let venues use spare commercial time to plug their own promotions, like happy hours or menu discounts.
Why it matters: Taiv is applying the same lucrative targeted advertising model to live sports that has made Meta a US$1.7 trillion company, giving advertisers more control over how their ad is delivered while also creating a brand new revenue stream for venues.
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In one example of how effective the system can be, Taiv says a Bacardi ad campaign for its spiced rum led to a 287% increase in sales at participating venues over four months — as well as a 28% decrease in sales for rival Captain Morgan.
Our take: We’re getting closer and closer to a world where ads on every platform we interact with are personalized to some degree. Let’s just hope we never lose the shared experience of watching (and critiquing) US$10 million Super Bowl commercials.—LA
