LG Ad Solutions has confirmed its official expansion into Australia, a move set to spur advertiser interest across the connected TV (CTV) segment. 

Alex Blundell Jones has been appointed as the commercial director of Australia for the company, which is the advertising technology arm of LG Electronics. 

Deployed on LG Smart TVs across Australia, LG Ad Solutions offers advertisers an opportunity to go directly to consumers’ screens, backed by LG’s deterministic first-party viewership data.

In 2021, Foxtel Media was appointed as the exclusive sales agent for LG Ad Solutions in Australia. Now, LG is looking to have more control in-house of its advertising platform. 

“While we’ve had a presence in Australia through international sales and local partners, 2024 marked a tipping point,” Blundell Jones told Marketing Mag in an exclusive interview.  

“Australia became one of LG Ad Solutions’ fastest-growing markets, without a direct sales team on the ground. Given the increasing demand for premium CTV inventory and expertise, investing in a local team was the natural next step.” When asked whether it would mean that LG would be going entirely solo, Blundell Jones did not rule out the company continuing to work with external partners on the ground. 

“Having a direct team on the ground doesn’t mean these kinds of partnerships will no longer exist. They have and will continue to evolve to ensure the greatest impact for our business and our clients. If you want to go far, go together and we will continue to assess partner opportunities that may arise.” 

LG says its ad solutions will deliver its TV OEM data, native ad formats and measurement solutions to advertisers looking to unify performance and brand marketing across screens.

Although several million LG smart TVs are believed to be in use in Australia, Blundell Jones stresses it isn’t the reach that its platform delivers to advertisers, but rather the experience. 

“LG was the first OEM to successfully bring non-endemic advertising to the Smart TV home screen,” he says. “This has been a game changer for brands that are looking for creative ways to maximise their big screen reach during over-saturated or over-priced moments.”

Blundell Jones uses State of Origin as an example. “Across the three-game series, we had sponsorship packages with Kia, Apple and McDonald’s. The latter created an outstanding emotive, personalised experience for the Blue fans in NSW and the Maroons fans in Queensland.

“It is approaches like these which set us apart. Our team isn’t just selling inventory, we’re selling strategic partnerships and we are already well underway in creating advertising experiences for the NRL and AFL grand finals, Winter Olympics, the Football World Cup and more.” 

LG has previously come under fire over privacy concerns and its use of automatic content recognition (ACR) tracking technology, which shares snapshots of what viewers are watching, according to a recent University College London (UCL) study.

The UCL study says that data such as viewing history, location, and user pathways is gathered, which can then be sold to third parties, such as advertisers, to assist them in developing audience targets. 

Blundell Jones insists that stringent safeguards have been put into place to protect a customer’s privacy. “Consumers must explicitly opt in to ACR data collection during their TV setup, and they have full control to update their preferences at any time,” he says. “We do not collect or use personal information for advertising purposes. 

“Instead, our targeting is based solely on how the device interacts with content – not on who the viewer is. We don’t rely on sensitive demographic data like age, gender, or behaviour across the web.”