Wurl Shortlisted for Ad Tech Company of the Year

The Connected TV (CTV) market is booming. According to eMarketer, nearly three-quarters of the UK population will watch digital video content this year. This rapid rise in viewers, coupled with a high volume of new content coming to CTV, is leading advertisers to allocate bigger budgets to the medium. Globally, CTV revenue is estimated to climb more than 13% this year to $25.9 billion.

With the streaming market taking off in Europe and beyond, Wurl has set out to provide the best solutions for publishers and streamers to maximise their revenues, grow their CTV viewership, and strengthen their brand value. Most recently, in May 2023, we launched ContentDiscovery – our machine learning-powered advertising platform for publishers and streamers to acquire viewers and scale profitably across channels.

While CTV’s growth has introduced new opportunities for the market, it’s also come with challenges. Notably, viewer and subscriber churn is at an all-time high as streamers and publishers struggle to keep audiences engaged. The average consumer today juggles nearly 12 TV services, and most think the content they pay for is “not relevant to them.” From streamers’ and publishers’ perspectives, 58% agree that ensuring content is visible and discoverable is the biggest challenge they face today.

ContentDiscovery was created to tackle exactly these challenges. The solution finds high-value viewers where they spend their time by promoting content they will want to watch across streaming apps and on mobile devices. With ContentDiscovery, streamers and publishers can track return on ad spend (ROAS) immediately with 100% measurable campaigns, as well as connect people to content at scale with the ability to advertise across massive mobile supply and more than 3,000 CTV channels. In the end, ContentDiscovery works to grow audiences, increase engagement, and reduce churn for streaming platforms and apps.

With the launch of ContentDiscovery – and the burgeoning CTV market in the region – Wurl has been steadily focused on growing our European division. Most notably, Keith Bedford joined the team earlier this year as Wurl’s General Manager of EMEA to oversee the company’s European clients, including many of the most notable publishers and streamers in the region.

“The European streaming market is experiencing a period of rapid and exciting growth. At Wurl, we’re hyper-focused on helping streamers and publishers navigate this nascent world with performance-driven advertising solutions to help connect them to viewers who will love their content,” said Bedford. “We’re honored to be recognised for these efforts by the UK Business Tech Awards, and couldn’t be more excited to celebrate as a team.”

Alongside Bedford, Wurl’s Business Development team in Europe comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience, having previously worked with some of the top publishers and streamers in the industry. Agnieszka Somerville, Business Development Director, brings an extensive background from NBCUniversal and AMC; Ben Mison, Business Development Director, spent time at Willow Sports and VidZone Digital Media; and Tom Daley, Business Development Manager, built his career with previous roles at Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Disney.

Beyond ContentDiscovery, Wurl’s suite of solutions also includes AdPool and Global FAST Pass. AdPool is the leading CTV ad marketplace that gives streamers and publishers access to top advertisers for their inventory to maximise their ad revenues. To date, Wurl’s AdPool has seen more than 30 billion ad impressions and expects over $37 billion in ad spend by 2025 through the platform. Global Fast Pass (GFP) is the simplest solution to launch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. Wurl’s network gives publishers access to a global audience of more than 300 million viewers across 195 countries. GFP is an award-winning solution, having recently been named “Best Publisher Platform” by the 2023 Digiday Media Awards and “FAST Innovation of the Year” by the 2022 VideoTech Innovation Awards.