Pro7Sat1 digital chief takes the reins at Precise TV

ProSiebenSat.1 Digital CEO and chairman and Studio71 board member Christian Dankl has joined Precise TV as its chairman with a remit to oversee global expansion and product development.

Dankl’s arrival at the company he co-founded in 2015 and has since served as a member of the board, comes in a period of rapid growth. As a result, Dankl says now is the right moment to go full time: “The business is rocketing,” said Dankl, a former vice president, international at Walt Disney’s Maker Studios. “The numbers are good and we just opened up in the US with two new major clients.

Precise TV describes itself as a social video advertising platform that guarantees safe advertising on YouTube. The company, which works with brands like Breville, Sage by Heston Blumenthal, Colgate, Chanel, Garmin, Adobe and Tommy Hilfiger, increased its revenue three times and its EBITDA seven times from 2016 to 2017.

Dankl’s appointment follows the recent arrival of former OMD exec Joseph Woollen as president EMEA at Precise TV. “My move isn’t timely simply because of a good operating performance,” explained Dankl. “The beefing up of this management team with the arrival of Joseph and myself is about market context. Marketers want a solution on brand safety and make all kinds of threats they can’t keep about pulling their budget completely from the digital duopoly of Google and Facebook. But Precise TV’s clients understand they can stop talking about brand safety. We guarantee their ads are placed against relevant media which means brand safety is taken care of.”

News that large agencies are suspending audience-based campaigns in favour of contextual placements following GDPR, says Dankl, makes Precise TV’s offer even more compelling for brands. “Not only can we instantly help brands become more compliant in the age of GDPR, but what we do works for brands in a commercial sense. Our data tells us we produce 161% greater product interest and 25% purchase intent uplift, simply by helping brands be more relevant.”