#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Vassil Mladjov, Chairman & Investor, Tallio.io
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Personalizing the Television Advertising Experience in the age of Streaming
Vassil Mladjov is the chairman and investor at Tallio.io, a startup that delivers targeted Shoppable ads to TV viewers. Tallio aims to make the experience of watching TV more relevant to the viewers by personalizing the ad experience. We spoke with Vassil about the history of Tallio and how it pivoted from a live stream shopping platform to a personalized TV advertising system, as well as the current landscape of data privacy laws and the implications of allowing companies to copyright their application programming interfaces (APIs).
Can you tell us a little about the history of Tallio.io? What does Tallio.io do?
We initially launched Tallio as a live stream shopping platform that enabled viewers to purchase products showcased during the video by simply clicking on the image. Our early potential partners were impressed by the idea and wondered if it could be applied to other channels and platforms rather than just our own. We then began working to determine how the same technology could be used for TV. Meanwhile, we increasingly saw streaming services like Netflix express interest in or announce plans to introduce advertising. This got us thinking about modernizing TV advertising and making it more personalized, which no one else was doing at the time. We conducted thorough research and realized that we could use the same technology we had developed for live stream shopping and apply it to TV advertising. This realization led us to pivot our strategy, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, Tallio is a system that delivers targeted advertisements to TV viewers. Our platform plugs into different TV systems—over-the-top TV (OTT), connected TV (CTV), and traditional TV—and their players. From there, our system will display specific ads in real time based on certain pieces of information. For example, maybe we show you information about a pizza app for the local pizza chain on top of whatever you're watching because it's five o'clock in the evening and they have nearby locations.
Tallio centers around the idea of personalizing the ad experience for TV viewers. Some policymakers have expressed concern about the use of data for a personalized Internet experience. How would you respond to that concern?
Our system makes the experience of watching TV more relevant to the viewers, just as targeted ads online help people see ads the ones that are most relevant to them. One of the prime examples of how we can help an advertiser find their target viewers is in the case of politicians. Campaigns rely on all kinds of targeted ad systems on the Internet to reach and communicate with specific voters and now, with Tallio, they would have the same opportunity with TV. On top of that, our system is actually engaging, so—sticking with the politician example—the viewer will have the opportunity to make a donation right from the TV ad with a click of a button or have a QR code for that politician’s email list. Systems like Tallio are extremely important to them or anyone else who is looking to get better engagement with the right people and not spend more to show an ad to a person who is the wrong fit.
What do you think the impact of the proliferation of different privacy laws at the state and international levels has been on the innovation ecosystem?
Based on my conversations with people in the industry over the last year, there is a lot of confusion about what the standards are and where they’ll come from next. For better or worse, GDPR was the Europeans taking the lead on user privacy. And then California brought this issue to the forefront of the conversation here in the U.S. when they passed CCPA. What hopefully comes next is a new standard that's a nationwide standard around user privacy and includes clarity on television data rights or any other kind of media data.
Can you expand on why you specifically pointed out televisions as a data collection point that needs to be considered as a part of these laws?
Streaming rose in popularity for so long, but as the pandemic subsides, people have more options for entertainment. To maintain profitability, streaming providers are introducing different pricing tiers that include ads, and soon every TV channel will have its own streaming channel or app. This will impact a huge market of 250 million streaming television users, with revenues estimated to reach $30-$40 billion in the U.S. over the next two to three years. It's clear that these shifts will necessitate an understanding of how new tech policies translate to this industry.
Right now, not many people are aware that smart TVs are collecting and sharing user data. The current privacy rules will need to be fine-tuned to address the unique data privacy concerns of television viewers, as it is not the same as on the Internet. Unlike online interactions, there are no cookies or third-party tracking on a TV. However, streaming providers may collect other types of information that are more sensitive. This has been going on for years with both traditional and streaming TV platforms, but marketers and advertisers are only beginning to try to understand how to navigate the gray area of how data privacy laws apply to the data that is collected from these devices. As new companies like ours innovate in this space, there will be even more opportunities to enhance the client experience, but we need regulations to keep pace with these developments and allow for innovation.
Does your system make use of APIs? What would the implications be for your company if companies were able to copyright their APIs?
Everything in our systems is done through an API or a software development kit (SDK). If these systems become eligible for copyright protection, the companies that create them would essentially have a monopoly on the information that it transfers. Any time certain companies have the ability to control information transmissions like that the result is it will raise operating costs, limit the development of innovative technologies, and will create a huge barrier for new companies to enter new spaces. Policy needs to favor the open flow of information between platforms or companies, but also in a way that layers in a standard of privacy and security. That’s what will protect the best interest of consumers and startups in the long run.
What are your goals for Tallio moving forward?
Our vision is to open source some of the technology we have developed, in order to begin to create some industry standards for personalized TV advertising. Currently, no such standards are in place for this type of advertising, and establishing them would accelerate the adoption of such systems while helping to ensure consumer data privacy and security. Additionally, wider adoption of our system would reduce the price for consumers to watch streaming television by allowing TV ads to sponsor content and better control the costs of these services in the future. Our goal is to make this technology accessible and beneficial to everyone in the industry.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
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