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.
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.
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).
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.
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
