Samsung, the world’s largest manufacturer of TVs, is now giving brands the ability to target certain audiences in campaigns running on its smart TVs in a move that could help the brand stand out with advertisers eager to reach specific types of viewers.

With the new program from the company's Samsung Ads unit, marketers using their own first-party datasets can now target ads at certain audiences on Samsung’s more than 50 million smart TVs in the U.S. Known as the Samsung Onboarding Partner Program, the new project comes as marketers are further investing in their own data, especially as they prepare for the eventual demise of third-party cookies.

“The Onboarding Partner Program helps the advertisers get what I call a ‘return on their data investment’ by taking that data they’ve curated and deploying it in streaming advertising,” said Justin Evans, global head of analytics and insights at Samsung Ads.

See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.

Using Samsung Ads—a so-called “advanced advertising ecosystem” built on the South Korean tech giant’s millions of devices—advertisers will be able to know which TVs have seen their linear ads and which ones have not, Evans said. 

Samsung can also help brands zero in on more specific audiences by cross-referencing brands’ own data with that collected by Samsung Ads. Evans gives the example of an entertainment company looking to reach individuals based on their streaming and linear TV viewing preferences. 

“We’re seeing this as a more and more prevalent trend … to have advertisers in effect have a moment of empowerment, where they decide they know their customers better than a third party could ever know it,” he said.

Samsung Ads research, conducted in the first nine months of 2021, suggests that when advertisers use their own proprietary data in campaigns, it can drive up to 161% higher conversion rates than for those that do not.

Advertisers who sign on with the program will also have access to Samsung’s Audience Advisor, a tool introduced earlier this year that reveals how audiences engage with and divvy up their time in ad-supported streaming platforms.

It’s a divide that is becoming increasingly important—and stark—as consumers continue to shift away from traditional TV in favor of video-on-demand streaming. According to Samsung, 75% of Samsung smart TV owners spend most of their viewing time on streaming platforms, watching just 11% of all linear TV on the devices, while the other 25% of Samsung smart TVs owners watch 89% of all linear TV viewed on the devices.

Evans declined to name specific advertisers that are interested in using the platform, though he did confirm that Samsung has seen “a lot of engagement” coming from the automotive and entertainment industries.

See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.

“That streaming ecosystem is really kind of opaque to a lot of advertisers," said Evans, who suggests that advertisers using the company's audience advisor and new onboarding program combined will gain a better understanding of their consumers. "If you’re an advertiser, and you put all this investment into knowing your customer, now you can know how your customer acts as a streamer."

Starting in the first quarter of 2022, brands will be able to access curated audiences via data management platforms including Acxiom, LiveRamp, Experian and Oracle for campaign planning and execution via Samsung Ads’ network. More partners are slated to be added to the program’s roster throughout next year.

Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis.