Advertisers considering new ways to measure video audiences may finally be getting a yardstick that can actually do the job.
For years, individual TV companies have been testing a number of would-be competitors to Nielsen. each offering a bespoke brew of measurement technologies that marketers and media agencies can test as they see fit. Now one of the bigger media buyers wants to help connect the dots.
Dentsu said it plans to utilize technology from VideoAmp to guarantee audience buys across the media portfolios of seven different media companies, including Paramount Global, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery, A+E Networks, Hallmark Media and NBCUniversal. Advertisers will be able to use Dentsu’s platform to devise plans to reach audiences as well as guarantees of levels of reach and frequency.
“This isn’t just the big conglomerates, but the smaller networks,” says Brad Stockton, senior vice president of video innovation at Dentsu Media US, in an interview. Ultimately, he says, the goal is for advertisers to learn how many people in a specific customer segment are being reached across different companies, allowing an advertiser to move part of its spending based on where the most consumers can be found.
“This is just the start and we look forward to collectively helping advertisers make their media investments work harder and smarter to achieve the business outcomes that matter most to them,” said “said Ross McCray, CEO of VideoAmp in a prepared statement.
Dentsu and VideoAmp have been working together since 2021, when the two joined forces to test audience-measurement technologies on properties at Paramount Global.
Such pacts have become increasingly common as advertiser, TV networks and media agencies scramble to determine how to count consumers who are increasingly split along a variety of different media outlets and viewing behaviors. Nielsen has reigned for decades because many top advertisers have called for a neutral third party to count consumers attracted to a particular media property. But the TV companies have railed against Nielsen’s pace in finding a new solution, even as linear TV viewers migrate to broadband streaming.
