Peach is a technology company with the needs of creatives at its core

For more than a quarter of a century, Peach has been smoothing the journey from edit suite to audience for video ads.

Those decades have been particularly gnarly. Everyone in the industry has been holding on tightly as the video advertising landscape has shifted from broadcast domination into a complex web where distribution points include an endless cascade of social channels, broadcast video on demand (BVOD), subscription video on demand (SVOD), digital out of home (DOOH), ad-based video on demand (AVOD), and many, many more.

While many white-knuckled through the steep learning curve of endless format requirements and delivery pathways, Peach saw it as an opportunity to double-down on its core purpose.

“Peach was founded on ensuring ads are delivered in perfect quality,” says Jason Trout, Peach’s Chief Digital Officer.

“Technology is about automating repetitive things humans take time to do and can introduce errors. Take our proprietary technical quality check (QC) created from Oxford University broadcast engineers. This can process file analysis more quickly than any human and with far deeper scrutiny. This allows creative and production to focus on what they are good at, making great creative that truly connects with audiences.”

The pace of evolution at Peach has always been, and continues to be, rapid.

In the company’s ongoing search to optimise the ways video ads reach their destinations, it has developed automation for processes including to-spec video outputs, quality control, asset delivery, and publication. This list is far from exhaustive and is ever-growing, as Jason says much of the company’s time is spent looking into a crystal ball and devising solutions for challenges that are still on the horizon.

“We take time to listen to our customers' future needs as well as iterating for current refinements,” says Jason. “We see real advantage in an open ecosystem which links the best in class platforms and services clients have already invested in.

“Consumer trends play an important part in shaping our roadmap.”

Recent advances at the company include the acquisition of the Advalidation and Cape platforms, which bring new capacity in instantaneous technical assessment and in scaling and adapting ad variants for different markets.

In Australia specifically, Peach is looking ahead at key trends, including smoothing the introduction of AVOD by opening delivery channels into markets with this capability. It is also helping advertisers capitalise on the penetration of BVOD, which is more and more often finding its way into traditional Australian lounge room set-ups.

“The file quality of an advertiser’s BVOD asset is more important than ever given it will be delivered on ultra HD Large screen TVs,” says Jason.

“The Peach platform helps agencies automate the exact BVOD provider specs from one TV master or digital master. Peach enables the delivery of these assets to media partners who have them on reliable, non-expiring accounts.”

The other big trend Jason is tracking in Australia is in-housing. With clients using technology to bring media and creative functions in-house, he says they are discovering how much unseen administrative work was often being done by media agencies and post-production houses.

“This means clients are demanding more automation and transparency as the requirement for more targeted content grows ever larger,” he says. “With the Cape platform, brands can collaborate with their stakeholders to create dynamic content at scale, publish it to all platforms in seconds and retain control over their brand assets whilst liberating their agencies to focus on high value work.”

One of Peach’s other key Australian interests is AADC’s She Creates program, which the company has supported for about four years. Having been an AADC sponsor for more than eight years, Peach was an early advocate for the She Creates model.

“[It is] a way for Peach to support women and the industry in a more meaningful way,” says Jason.

“AADC and She Creates provides us with a platform to connect and educate members on what we do in TV, digital, and creative automation, but more importantly, it allows us to make a contribution back into an industry that has invested so much in Peach over the last 10 years.”