Jivox launches digital ads that are created on the spot from your data

Digital ad company Jivox is announcing today it has launched something the rest of the industry is still prepping.

Ads that are created on the fly just for you. Not just for your type — for you.

The new technology, which the San Mateo, California-based company calls Dynamic Canvas, constructs in real-time the creative components of an ad — including text and various graphical or animated elements — for you.

The configuration is based on such data triggers as the weather, an upcoming sports event, your age, whether you like art, and your geolocation. Some data, like the weather, is always available, and some, like your inclination toward art, depend on how deep the available profile on the identified or unidentified you goes.

The new update turns Jivox’s IQ ad platform into what the company describes as “the first digital advertising platform designed to deliver dynamic ads at scale for programmatic media.” Programmatic refers to the automated buying, selling, and delivery of digital ads.

These creative components came together, for instance, in a test for Jack Daniel’s Whisky conducted during the technology’s beta period, which began last November. CEO Diaz Nesamoney told me that the ad has about 3000 possible variations, and the version configured for you is delivered as your web page or app screen is delivered.

There has been “a land rush” to develop this kind of dynamically rendered ad, Interactive Advertising Bureau exec Peter Minnium told me. “It’s the next big thing.”

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He noted that Dynamic Creative Optimization, or DCO, has been around a while, but it previously meant the advertiser created up to several dozen ad variations and served them as single files to users segmented according to category characteristics.

The trick has been to construct the ad on the fly, based on a variety of data feeds, and do it at scale. Nesamoney pointed out eBay has offered the ability for a dynamic ad to reflect where you are or your eBay-personalized interests.

Minnium said that ads in major social sites, like Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, are similarly built on the fly in response to data.

Jivox’s ad platform sends the tags for its ads to programmatic advertiser platforms, which handle the business deal and the delivery. When the Web page or app is ready to load the ad, Jivox serves it up to standard ad formats on computers or mobile devices.

The company is also offering a Dynamic Ad Studio dashboard, where brand clients can build their own ads, designate which elements — such as different kinds of animation in the ad or different text phrases — are dynamic, and define what kinds of data will act as triggers. The brand can also upload bulk assets, like catalog images, and use them as dynamic elements.

Nesamoney mentioned that some brands, when shown Jivox’ new technology, have suggested that their rich media ad technology — such as DoubleClick Studio or Sizmek — can similarly build ads on the fly.

But, he said, rich media ad tools are not up to this task.

“If you tried to code the Jack Daniel’s [ad in a rich media platform], it’s impossible,” Nesamoney said. “They’re missing a CMS [content management system to handle the assets], a decisioning engine, and integration with data.”

“Rich media vendors are trying” to develop dynamic creative ads, he added, but it’s “more of a retrofit, a bolt-on.”

When I asked Nesamoney if I should expect someday soon that an online ad might address me by name through voice or text — when I was logged on — he answered affirmatively.

His background includes co-founding and acting as president and chief operating officer of data integration software provider Informatica, which went public in 1999. He also founded and served as CEO of Celequest, which introduced an early business intelligence appliance and was acquired by Cognos in 2007.

Jivox has received a total of $31.4 million in investment funding. Investors include Helion Venture Partners, Opus Capital, Fortisure Ventures, and Shah Capital Partners.