Comcast’s Universal Ads is continuing its SMB push.
Earlier this week, Universal Ads—positioning itself as a one-stop TV advertising platform—announced the launch of a generative AI-powered ad creation tool natively within its tech. Essentially, according to the press release, the new AI video ad generator “lets advertisers build commercials… in just minutes,” with “no need for pre-existing video assets.” The goal is to make TV ad buying easier for businesses of all sizes and, in particular, to give smaller brands a clearer entry point into TV.
Universal Ads’ video generator works by pulling in brand assets, product images, and messaging from advertiser websites. The tool also offers customizable AI-generated scripts and supports targeting a variety of audience segments within a single campaign.
Why This Matters:
Universal Ads is only about nine months old, having launched at CES, but it has quickly become one of the best examples of perhaps the year’s biggest trend: democratizing CTV ad buying.
Yes, CTV ad spend is booming, projected to reach $42.4 billion by 2027. But growth depends on making programmatic buying easier and more accessible. Today, only about 20% of premium video is bought programmatically, according to FreeWheel, largely because of the complexity. Simplifying access and opening up ad-creation tools could unlock more spend and give smaller advertisers the ability to more easily tap into CTV’s reach and targeting.
Experts React:
James Borow, VP of Product and Engineering at Universal Ads, said the launch solidifies Universal Ads as “a one-stop-shop for advertisers from campaign creation to delivery and measurement.” Here’s a post on X from him, as well:
Note that, in the post if you click Show More, he also shares that the company helping to power the new AI offering, Creatify, is receiving an investment from Comcast’s venture arm, Comcast Ventures. Now that’s corporate synergy, baby!
Our Take:
One question about this in-platform offering: could it compete with some of the partners Universal Ads has already added to its Business Partner Program? For example, does streamr.ai, which seems somewhat similar, still make sense as part of that program after being acquired by SSP Magnite? (Let us know, guys, on X.)
To Universal Ads’ credit, the press release emphasizes the importance of the partner program, underscoring that it’s “designed to give brands flexibility to work with the creative partner of their choosing” and making it easy for advertisers “who have a preferred creative partner to easily integrate them.” So, very much a team sport.
