Wednesday, January 8, 2020

NBCUniversal To Merge TV, Digital Ad Buying With New Tech


Comcast Corp.-owned NBCUniversal says it is accelerating efforts to create a single ad technology and sales infrastructure for marketers to run media plans across its TV and digital properties, and across local, national and global markets.

The Wall Street Journal reports the efforts center on One Platform, which will combine existing and new tools for advertisers to plan, schedule, optimize and measure video ad campaigns. Previously, NBCUniversal had separate tools for traditional linear TV and digital advertising, which forced it and its advertisers to combine orders manually.

For decades, TV networks relied on broad demographics such as age and gender to sell ads. Now they are trying to update how they sell ads to better compete with digital media, which allows marketers to use data to find specific audiences such as people in the market for a new car.

TV powers including AT&T Inc. -owned Xandr and ViacomCBS Inc. are racing to deliver capabilities to sell audience-based video advertising across TV and digital viewing, which also will be an option on One Platform, said NBCUniversal, which already sells some TV and digital ads in an audience-based fashion.

A large part of the TV advertising industry remains locked into buying based on delivered impressions against age and sex demographics, said Catherine Warburton, chief investment officer at MDC Partners Inc.-owned ad agency Assembly. “That is how agencies are compensated for TV buying,” she said.

But advertisers have been clamoring for data-driven ad targeting from TV companies, especially as viewers gravitate toward digital platforms where the advertising technology should make it easier to target precise audiences, Ms. Warburton said.

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