Real-time TV ad measurement is increasing in importance for both marketers and the broadcast and cable TV station owners where commercials of all lengths continue to drive brand growth.
Among the big believers in attention measurement, conversions, and business outcomes is NBCUniversal, which has been vocal in its desire to have something more than Nielsen data at its disposal. That’s one reason why NBCUniversal on Friday (5/4) “expanded its measurement commitment to business outcomes” for its Audience Studio clients by partnering with iSpot.TV.
Bellevue, Wash.-based iSpot.tv, which has a second office in New York, has achieved significant growth by carving a niche as a real-time analytics company that measures attention and conversions for TV advertising.
The deal allows iSpot.TV to provide attribution services to NBCUniversal’s Audience Studio, a division launched in Q1 2016 as a way advertisers can more effectively use data to pinpoint target audiences across all video delivery platforms — TV, social media, and digital media. It involves a “DMP,” a data management platform that has rapidly become an integral part of media buying and media planning. Audience Studio links NBCU’s Audience Targeting Platform, NBCU+ powered by Comcast, and Social Synch.
Under the terms of the deal, existing iSpot clients may choose to enable NBCUniversal Audience Studio measurement, which will show the lift in conversion rates of NBCUniversal Audience Studio-targeted units compared to baseline conversion rates. For non-iSpot clients, NBCUniversal will offer the service as part of its Audience Studio to validate lift in business outcomes.
The pact with iSpot.TV comes as NBCUniversal races to complete its 2018-2019 Upfront plans, with the traditional Upfront week of May 14-18 in midtown Manhattan still a major gathering point for key advertising clients and media buyers.
“With this new capability across its entire portfolio of broadcast and cable networks ahead of the 2018-2019 Upfront marketplace, NBCUniversal continues to innovate and offer advertisers third-party validation that its data-driven offering delivers quantifiable business outcomes,” the network and O&O owner said.
At the core of iSpot.TV’s deliverables is data that can determine tune-out of television commercials on certain television screens through pixel examination technology. Rather than a visual measurement tool that some may worry spies on viewers, iSpot.TV technology can verify if the channel has been changed. If not, combined metrics allow a brand to see if there has been an immediate consumer reaction to ad — such as an online purchase, in-store sale or website visit within the next 48 hours.
“NBCUniversal has made a commitment to providing the best data-driven custom targeting capabilities for our clients to achieve their unique business outcomes, and now we’re taking steps to quantify the substantive benefits of advanced targeting of our premium content,” NBCU EVP/Advanced Advertising and Platform Sales Mike Rosen said. “Providing relevant back-end attribution analytics of our client’s targeted media investments elevates the value of audience-buying ahead of this year’s Upfront.”
NBCUniversal clients will receive site conversion reporting on optimized, linear managed service buys, and can also access real-time dashboard reporting on how TV ad exposures are driving viewers to website, app or other digital activity, and the lift provided by the Audience Studio-optimized campaign vs. non-optimized portions of the campaign.
iSpot.TV has been working with NBCUniversal for three years and is considered “a preferred attribution analytics partner” of NBCU’s ad sales and client partnerships division.
iSpot.TV uses a proprietary system for tracking TV advertising activity at scale and in real-time, and created the Automated Content Recognition (ACR)-based measurement for all ads in a syndicated manner.
“We spent the last two years helping hundreds of brands on the buy side of the equation connect TV spending to business outcomes,” said iSpot.tv CEO Sean Muller. “Now with a sell-side offering put in place by the forward-thinking Audience Studio Group at NBCUniversal, the TV advertising industry can move toward accountability and performance measures as a standard.”
