AMENIA, NY – With the proliferation of “walled garden” media platforms that jealously guard their user data – such as Facebook, Amazon, Google and connected TV apps that require login – advertisers are looking for ways to gain more comprehensive information about consumers and their behavior.

Tech startup Telly aims to give advertisers a more holistic view of their audience by asking consumers for more detailed information about their household in exchange for a high-quality – and free – smart TV. The device also differs from others in that it has a second screen that displays ads unhindered.

“We like to say it’s the smartest TV ever made, and I think that’s true,” said Bob Ivins, head of data strategy at consumer electronics company Telly, in this interview at the Beet Retreat Berkshires with Beet.TV contributor Rob Williams. “We’re seeing this device being used twice as much as regular TVs.”

Telly’s operating system allows its TVs to run apps for video calling, music parties and home workouts. Ivins compares the more advanced devices to smartphones, which have built-in cameras and music players, replacing what were once separate devices.

Additionally, Telly’s set gives advertisers more ways to engage viewers. The goal is not only to give marketers the opportunity to increase awareness of their brands, but also to help guide consumers down the purchase funnel and get them to engage in some sort of interaction.

“The upper-funnel component of television serves a function, and it does it very well, but it doesn’t deliver,” Ivins said. “We’ve developed a series of new advertising units that are collapsing that funnel.”

For example, an automaker could show a commercial on the top screen of its television and a dynamically linked ad on the bottom screen, Ivins said.

“The interaction between the two screens allows advertisers to do a lot more with one device than if they were just putting a 30-second spot on a big screen,” he said. “Because we have no restrictions on what we can take off the glass, we know what you’re looking at in the walled gardens too, and that’s good for advertisers.”

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