Digital ad tech firm Tappx has advertising solutions for mobile and OTT/CTV – has secured backing from the EU Horizon 2020 SME-1 fund to develop and launch the world’s first Programmatic Server-Side Ad Insertion (PSSAI) OTT/CTV (Over-the-Top/Connected TV) solution.

The company said the Tappx EU Horizon 2020 project, known as Tappx PSSAI, can simultaneously manage and programmatically insert contextually-relevant OTT/CTV video ad content seamlessly into CTV content. For example, a holiday travel video ad is inserted following a TV scene of people boarding an aeroplane. The Tappx PSSAI is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, which can analyze original video content and any associated metadata, enabling the Tappx PSSAI platform to serve contextually-relevant content.

The Tappx PSSAI solution can be used use across any type of digital CTV media player or any smart device, thereby reducing implementation and deployment costs for the inclusion of new video players and future devices. The Tappx PSSAI technology can also circumvent current ad blockers. The company also notes that Tappx PSSAI is device- and player-independent, whereas current client side ad insertion systems require individual media players. At present there are over 100 media players in the digital TV market, across mobile, CTV, browsers and OTT USB sticks devices.

“Tappx is immensely proud to have been selected and supported by the EU Horizon 2020 initiative,” said Tappx product strategist, David Lahoz Martin. “Their backing is validation of Tappx’s hard work and unstoppable drive for true innovation. The new Tappx Programmatic SSAI allows for targeted and non-intrusive programmatic advertising to be conducted at scale in the streaming video market. This quantum leap in SSAI methodology and technology offers true programmatic advertising capability for the OTT/CTV market, allowing for contextual and automatic insertion of targeted ads within internet streamed video content.”