Data and measurement company Inscape and local video advertising provider Locality said they are working together to provide marketers with unified linear TV and streaming measurement for national and local audiences.

The collaboration will enable advertisers to calculate incremental reach and other metrics for brands when planning and evaluating campaigns.

“Combining our access to premium local video at unduplicated scale with Inscape’s comprehensive local-level viewership data uniquely positions Locality to understand how ad campaigns perform across both linear and streaming distribution,” Locality president of streaming Keith Kazerman said. “This partnership enhances our ability to showcase our unique reach to partners and provide insights into how consumers engage with our local streaming and broadcast inventory in their optimal markets.”

Using Inscape’s unified source of data, Locality can perform cross-platform campaign planning at a brand and market level. This allows marketers to optimize budget allocations as consumers continue to lean into the growth of connected TV, the companies said.

“The solution this partnership brings to the $87 billion ad industry is access to unified data across locally targeted linear and streaming driving operational and budgetary efficiencies,” Vizio/Inscape VP of data licensing and strategy Ken Norcross said.

“Our data is a single-source solution that focuses on the content and the commercials and the habits and behaviors within the TV viewing experience, cohesively,” Norcross said. “This partnership with Locality allows us to demonstrate a comprehensive view of how consumers are engaging with TV and to create a better experience overall for advertisers.”

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement said it will incorporate The Attention Council as a working group within CIMM.

CIMM’s Attention Working Group will be chaired by Andy Brown. It expects to publish a study on the state of attention management and the use of new metrics across the media and advertising business.

Brown will also join CMM’s Steering Committee.

“There has been exceptional growth in the use and development of attention by the industry — from the proliferation of innovative new approaches to the steady increase in buy-side adoption,” CIMM managing director Jon Watts said. “We are pleased to welcome TAC into CIMM to support this work, cementing metrics like attention, emotion and quality as critical components of our program. As we continue to work closely with other organizations and expand internationally, this collaboration marks the next step in our unified effort to support improvements, best practices and innovations across the industry.” 

The Attention Council was started in 2019 by Adelaide, Amplified Intelligence, Avocet, Lumen and TVision and has focused on the areas of quality, ethics, research, education and currency.

“I am excited by the new integration,“ Brown said. “I have admired the ARF and CIMM’s approach to client engagement and willingness to pursue research initiatives to meet the ever-changing developments in the media and advertising landscape.” 

Well before Active International grew into a 600-person organization driving the media barter space, it was founder Arthur Wagner, struggling to make a buck. He had an office in Manhattan, standout sales skills and not much more.  

“I didn’t draw a salary for two years,” he said. “I didn’t have expense money. If you weren’t in New York, I couldn’t see you.”

The media barter world was filled with shady operators when Active launched 40 years ago, Wagner shared, and clients liked that the new player played it straight. 

“They became more than happy clients,” he said. “They became advocates, and they started to go and tell their friends, ‘Hey, if you need something like this done, this is the only place to do it.’ ”

Brooklyn Born

Wagner grew up in Brooklyn, went to Tilden High School, and did not attend college, outside of a half semester at Brooklyn College. He picked up odd jobs where he could, including selling household appliances and hearing aids. 

“I went out and I worked,” he said, “and it took me quite a while to be able to make a living.”

Wagner eventually found career-oriented work at a television rep firm, Kaiser Broadcasting, and learned the nuances of selling TV ad time. But he yearned to run his own business. After a decade at Kaiser, he founded Active. 

He had experience in ad sales. He had contacts in television. He had a gift for numbers, as noted by most everyone who has worked with Wagner. 

He even had a rent-free office. Wagner’s wife’s family was a “big deal in the music business,” he said, and they gave him an some space. 

Wagner built his client base one by one, and Active International, which invests in media assets today to secure media properties below market value in the future, began to take off. 

Jack Myers got to know Wagner when he took a job as a U.S. sales representative for a group of Canadian TV stations and Active International helped sell the stations’ media. He described Wagner as a mentor and an “incredible ally.”

“Arthur consistently demonstrates a visionary approach,” Myers said. “He has always stayed ahead of industry trends and built innovative strategies that in many ways redefined what barter was. He has navigated really complex business challenges with creative solutions that work for the benefit of everyone.”

One strategy that redefined media barter is the trade credit that many said Wagner established for the industry. “Arthur created the currency for that,” Active International president and CEO Bill Georges said. 

Wagner always brings stellar sales skills to a negotiation, his colleagues shared. “Arthur really is a salesman, an absolute sales guy at heart,” said Dean Wilson, global chief operating officer, Active International. “He lives and breathes sales and his passion and aptitude for sales is exceptional.”

Forty years after it launched, Active International has offices in Pearl River, New York; London; Paris; Dusseldorf; Madrid; Milan; Sydney; and other locales around the world. In Wagner’s Pearl River office, a Standard Directory of Advertisers dated to 1984 sits on a desk and reminds the founder of the company’s launch. 

The company’s hundreds of employees are like family to Wagner. “Arthur is incredibly loyal, and very family oriented,” said Georges. “Not only immediate family, but Active family — it’s clear how much he cares about both.”

Immediate family includes his wife Ellen, and children Irv and Dara, with both kids still at Active after long stints. 

All In

Wagner splits his time between homes in New City, New York, north of New York City, and Boca Raton. At age 84, his golf days are sadly over, but he remains an active poker player, where his knack for numbers serves him well — as do Wagner’s people skills. 

“Odds never take an off day, but people do,” he said. “People have good days, people have bad days. You can study them, you can play the people rather than your cards.” 

People may indeed take a day off, but Wagner is still turning up at work, leading Active International. He cannot imagine not being in the game. 

“Arthur loves sitting at the poker tables in Las Vegas, and sitting in his office in Pearl River is the same principle,” Myers said. “He just loves sitting at the table.” 

Spectrum Reach, the ad-sales arm of Charter Communications, said it a has deal with Amazon to become a local reseller of streaming Amazon Ads. 

The collaboration will enable Spectrum Reach to offer small, local business clients campaigns that include linear inventory and a broader range of streaming inventory, enabling advertisers to reach more households in their region.

Spectrum Reach said its streaming inventory reaches about 90% of viewers in its footprint. 

Amazon Ads inventory includes Prime Video, Freevee and Fire TV.

"Our work with Amazon Ads means local SMB advertisers can now access a modern solution to simplify media fragmentation and reach almost every household in their service areas, including both Spectrum customers and non-subscribers,” said David Kline, executive VP at Charter Communications and president of Spectrum Reach. "By bringing together Amazon Ads’ capabilities alongside our first-party data, we can offer small to medium-sized businesses the ability to more accurately measure and optimize their advertising spend.”

Roku said it launched Roku Ads Manager, a self-service platform designed to attract performance marketers who use social media and search and enable them to buy connected TV.

Performance marketers will be able to create campaigns using shoppable ads linked to the Shopify accounts and interactive ads using Ads Manager.

With big companies putting more of their ad dollars into digital, major media companies have been creating self-service buying tools to attract newer, smaller and direct-to-consumer marketers.

Roku has been competing for big advertisers’ budgets, but now has built Ads Manager for advertisers used to the way digital media is bought, targeted and reported. 

“We expect new entrants to be the primary user of this interface. We have had interest from advertisers of every kinds,”  Peter Hamilton, senior director of Ad Innovation at Roku, told Broadcasting+Cable.

There is no minimum budget for Roku Ads Manager users.

"Roku Ads Manager made it incredibly easy for Criquet Shirts to enter the CTV space,” said Hobson Brown, co-founder, Criquet Shirts, which participated in the beta.  “The platform’s intuitive setup and unique interactive ad formats allowed us to quickly create and launch campaigns, all while effectively reaching key geos and audiences on the big screen." 

While most new advertisers using Ads Manager are mid-sized or direct-to-consumer companies, “we are also seeing marketers and advertisers that have pretty substantial budgets for buying search and social. They are familiar with that style of buying and want to translate that to CTV and execute it with a system that is optimizing on their behalf,” he said.

“Digital natives are starting to move into CTV, in droves. A platform like this is certainly designed to help them develop their strategy here, Hamilton said. “We're looking for the growth hackers of CTV to teach us the future of this channel.”

Hamilton said that advertisers will have the opportunity to buy inventory directly from Roku on Roku-owned channels as well as inventory Roku gets from ad-supported apps on the platform. 

Buying direct means pricing is efficient, Hamilton said. 

“We have lots of different waterfalls in ways that we expose our supply to different kinds of platforms and advertisers,” he said. “What's powerful about this is direct access to Roku. That means there is a great amount of price efficiency that comes with it.”

Roku Ads Manager has been in beta for about a year, tested by several hundred advertisers, Hamilton said. 

“It's been fascinating learning from those advertisers and learning exactly what they need to be successful,” he said. “By opening up a solution like this, you have the opportunity to let marketers tell you what the product should be.”

During the beta test, Roku added features to Ads Manager, including an integration with Shopify that enables advertisers to make their ads shoppable and enable viewers to complete purchases using their Roku remote controls.

Ads Manager users can also include Action Ads” in their campaigns. Actions Ads enable viewers to press “OK” on their remotes and send themselves a text about the ad they just saw.  

Hamilton said that Action Ads are one of Roku’s most popuar ad formats. He added that adding interactivity increases brand recall, purchase intent and ultimately sales.

Roku has also built an AI Upscaler tool that takes creative that a marketer has been using on social media and makes it television quality, improving the definition and clarity of images.

“I would highly recommend that markers take creative that's working well for them in other places and bring it to CTV,” he said.

“One of the most exciting things about self-service is that an advertiser can roll out 10, 20, 50 different campaigns and creatives and figure out what’s really resonating with audiences and what's not,” Hamilton said. “And it's not going to take quarters to figure out what's performing better. You know, it in days.”

StackAdapt said it made a deal with Experian to integrate the data and analytics firm’s identity graph and syndicated audiences into the StackAdapt platform.

The collaboration is designed to boost the scale of campaigns, increase match rates for marketers and improve outcomes.

“This collaboration aligns with our commitment to providing future-proof marketing solutions that drive meaningful results,” StackAdapt senior VP of advertising technologies Michael Shang said. “With seamless and secure access to Experian’s identity solutions and audiences directly within the StackAdapt platform, our clients can now better reach and engage their most important audiences with precision and impact.”

The integration will allow marketers to upload and onboard their first-party data to achieve superior campaign outcomes, the companies said. 

Improving scale and match rates can benefit marketers in most industries. For political campaigns, candidates and other advertisers can leverage hashed email matches to connect with voters responsibly, reaching specific demographics with personalized messages. Hashed email matches are a way to match two parties who are using the same email address. 

Retail media networks also benefit from enhanced addressability, allowing them to gain insights and deliver highly relevant advertisements.

“Staying ahead in digital advertising demands both innovation and strategic alliances,” Experian chief business officer Chris Feo said. “Our collaboration with StackAdapt is a testament to our dedication to providing advertisers with powerful, data-driven insights. We have seen the benefit and success of brands who leverage the combination of Experian Consumer Sync Identity Graph and Consumer View audiences. Adding Experian’s data to the StackAdapt platform allows agencies and advertisers to drive exceptional precision and performance with personalized marketing across multiple channels.”

Measurement company VideoAmp said that $1 billion in media buys have already been guaranteed using its measurement as a currency this year.

VideoAmp is on track to reach $1.5 billion by the end of the year, the company added, and is growing at a rate of 651% year over year compared to the same point in 2023.

“This is incredibly encouraging to see, and share, as our growth figures clearly indicate that there is a seismic industry shift underway,” VideoAmp chief commercial and growth officer Pete Bradbury said. “Advanced media measurement is here, and it’s here to stay. Our mission is to help clients plan, deliver and ultimately drive better outcomes, and we’re making good on that promise.”

The company said the gains were coming as more ad buyers and advertisers invest in data-driven, audience-based campaigns and use measurement from companies other than Nielsen.

“As an early adopter of big data, VideoAmp has made profound contributions to currency innovation, aiming to right-size the industry’s measurement capabilities to reflect total video viewership and support audience planning and buying,“ Omnicom Media Group North America chief investment officer Geoffery Calabrese said. “We applaud VideoAmp’s efforts to foster healthy competition in our marketplace and for enabling our clients to transact and measure against the audiences and KPIs that matter most to them.” 

In addition to OMG, VideoAmp said it works with buyers and sellers including A+E Networks, Allen Media Group, IPG Mediabrands, NBCUniversal, Paramount, RPA and Warner Bros. Discovery.

“At Warner Bros. Discovery, we’re committed to providing unmatched value to our clients with innovative solutions that drive exceptional results,” said David Porter, head of ad sales research, data and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery. “Integrating VideoAmp’s state-of-the-art measurement tools into our Olli platform has delivered extraordinary levels of growth, efficiency and execution to our partners’ cross-platform Data-Driven Video campaigns across WBD’s iconic portfolio of brands and programming.”

VideoAmp added that its work with OpenAP has expanded the overall market for advanced audience campaigns.

A stronger-than-expected U.S. advertising market and special events meant smaller declines in national TV ad revenues in the second quarter, according to media agency Magna, which boosted its full-year ad spending forecast for 2024.

National television/video revenues fell 1.1% in Q2. That included a 6.4% drop for linear networks and a 19.6% increase for ad-supported video-on-demand, connected TV and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST). 

For 2024, Magna forecasts that national TV will finish down 1.7%, an improvement from Magna’s earlier forecast of a 3% decline. Linear networks will be down 6.8% while AVOD, CTV and FAST will be up 19.3%.

Local TV is expected to be up 25.4% in 2024 including cyclical events, and down 3.9% excluding cyclical events.

For all media, Magna sees ad revenues including cyclical events as rising by 11.4% (the previous forecast was 10.7%) and up 8.9% excluding cyclical events (the earlier forecast was 8.2%). That would mark the strongest growth rate in 20 years.

Those cyclical events will bring in $10 billion in incremental ad sales in 2024. The election will add a record $9 billion to media owners. Magna estimates NBCUniversal’s ad sales during the Paris Olympic Games at $1.5 billion, including $1.1 billion for linear and $400 million for digital and streaming.

On the digital side, ad revenue rose 16% in the first half of 2024. Magna noted that Meta and Google credited AI tools with driving incremental spending.

For the full year, digital pure-play ad revenue is expected to be up 14.2% in 2024.

Magna also forecasts that the ad market will remain strong in 2025.

Overall, noncyclical ad spending will grow 6.3% to $291 billion in 2025, Magna said, while sales including cyclical events, like the Olympics and elections, will rise only 3.9%. 

National television sales will drop 2.7% while local television sales will underperform and decline 3.6% (excluding election spending) in 2025.

Digital pure players will again drive the market, growing 9.3% to $289 billion, while traditional media owners will erode by 1.5% to $102 billion.

Digital revenues are expected to be up 8.7% in 2025.

In 2026, the ad market should top $400 billion, the agency said.

FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad-tech company, said it would be integrating Samba TV automatic content recognition viewer data into FreeWheel’s Audience Manager, enabling the creation of targeted campaign across linear, streaming and on-demand programming.

FreeWheel clients will be able to create custom targeting segments based on TV consumption behaviors, content exposure, and demographics in as little as 24 hours, the companies said. 

The speed will limit signal loss and enable advertisers to quickly retarged viewers exposed to a competitor's ads or who have watched a big event, such as a presidential debate. 

“At FreeWheel, we are focused on connecting all parts of the TV advertising industry to make it work better,” said FreeWheel U.S. Chief Revenue Officer Katy Loria. “By partnering with Samba TV to add audience segments based on first-party ACR data for the first time into our Audience Manager platform, we are helping media buyers reach audiences that matter. With elections less than a month away, this new offering is a valuable asset for our clients who are looking to accurately re-target viewers in a privacy-centric way as early as the next day, such as after a debate or breaking news.”

FreeWheel clients are now able to activate audiences that use Samba TV data from 38 million U.S. TVs, including more than 1,000 prebuilt Samba TV audience segments. 

"Our partnership with FreeWheel allows advertisers the ability to combine high-quality, biddable media with real-time targeting precision across TV, streaming and digital platforms to connect with audiences who are consuming media in new and diverse ways," said Samba TV Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin. “This is a crucial strategy to reach the entire electorate efficiently in one of the most pivotal elections in history.

Samba TV’s data comes from smart TV made by 10 manufacturers in the U.S. and 24 globally.

“Direct Persuasion takes an audience-first, not publisher-first approach, to all of our voter contact efforts,” said Daria Grastara, CEO of Direct Persuasion, a digital agency focused on Republican politics. “Samba has always been our preferred partner to find audiences accurately, scale reach quickly, and utilize real-time behaviors of linear and streaming consumption as well as advertising exposure. Samba's new integration with FreeWheel now ensures we can pair Samba's audience-first approach with FreeWheel's publisher quality, scale, and diversity.”

“The team at Bully Pulpit International is constantly seeking innovative solutions to deliver precision-targeted messaging to voters at the most impactful moments,” said  Ivanka Farrell. Interactive Managing Director, Media, at Bully Pulpit an agency whose clients included the Biden-Harris campaign as well as McDonald’s and Goldman Sachs. “The integration of Samba TV's real-time audience targeting with FreeWheel’s advanced technology empowers us to harness the full potential of ACR data, allowing us to reach voters based on their actual TV viewership in near real-time. This partnership enables us to deliver the right message to the right audience exactly when it matters most, ensuring our campaigns are as effective and timely as possible.”

Michael Bologna, chief accelerator at BrightLine, delivered the closing keynote at the Advanced Advertising Summit. Under the title “What’s Working Now, and a Look into the Future,” Bologna spoke about how ad agencies, media companies and marketing brands must work closer together to ensure better advertising results. 

“When those three constituents work together, I do think advertisers are well served,” he said. “They’re not when one or more of those parties fall back.”

B+C senior content producer Jon Lafayette interviewed Bologna, who described BrightLine as “the standard for interactive advertising within connected television.”

Asked about Irwin Gotlieb’s assessment of the ad industry earlier in the day, which saw Gotlieb say, “Are these the best of times? Hell, no,” Bologna agreed with a lot of what his former boss shared, including the industry’s reluctance to work together on common issues. 

“I do think every last one of us had plenty of time to prepare for where we are today,” he added. “We brought it upon ourselves when we chose not to act.”

The ad industry is “very good about pointing out what’s wrong, what’s broken, what needs to be fixed, what we don’t like,” he added. “We’re not so good at making hard decisions about what we need to fix those.”

The Advanced Advertising Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. Advanced Ads happens September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events take place at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 5th. 

The discussion turned to streaming, and Bologna said there could, and should, be more consistency in terms of ad formats among those players. “Google, Netflix, Amazon, the user experience is fantastic,” he said. “But they all have different models when it comes to commercials, they all have different models when it comes to ad formats.”

“They’re not doing us a great service,” Bologna added. 

Bologna added that the streamers are a bit behind the curve in terms of addressable formats in advertising. If Disney and NBC can agree to use a common format, he noted, the big streamers, be it Amazon or Netflix, can too. 

As the keynote wrapped, he again urged agencies, media companies and advertising brands to work better with one other. 

“Everybody can’t win all the time,” Bologna said. “There has to be a bit of give and take.”

With its women’s sports franchises leading the way, E.W. Scripps generated higher volume in the upfront market.

In addition to its string of local TV stations, Scripps owns national networks including Ion, Bounce, Court TV and Scripps News.

Brian Norris, who oversees all ad sales at Scripps as chief revenue officer told B+C that market demand for live sports helped Scripps lock in a low-single-digit increase in volume, which was better than similar-sized companies without women’s sports did.

In a market marked by lower prices on a cost-per-thousand viewers basis, Scripps saw higher prices for sports (the gains weren’t quite NFL-sized), flat pricing for entertainment and higher prices to reach multicultural audiences.

“The upfront played out just the way we wanted it to,“ Norris said. “Probably a little better than we even anticipated.”

Scripps used its women’s sports franchises to bring new advertisers into its huddle. Advertisers were looking at women’s sports as a way to reach audiences that are balanced from a gender perspective and a multicultural perspective.

Almost 50% of Scripps’ WNBA audiences are multicultural, Norris added.

“They're getting the benefit of an incredibly diverse audience but also an audience that has the ability to spend against their products,” he said.

Norris said Scripps made deals with two dozen new advertisers in the upfront.

There were big advertisers in the automotive, alcohol, insurance, travel and telco. Norris said that 25% of its new advertisers were either small or medium-sized businesses or direct-to-consumer brands.

Norris said a focus of Scripps’s upfront was to “democratize this content for all advertisers.” The company formed a special team to interact with SMBs and its connected TV inventory is available on most programmatic platforms.

Buyers also wanted streaming CTV inventory, and sales grew 70% in the upfront, “That was largely driven by new business and sports,” Norris said. 

But women’s sports was the biggest deal for Scripps. 

The WNBA, enjoying record ratings, recently signed new rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon worth $2.2 billion over 11 years. Scripps has WNBA rights for one more season after the current season.

“What we've done for them is unlock new value for them in terms of unprecedented reach via our OTA network,“ Norris said.

Ion had its most-watched WNBA game every August 31, when the Chicago Sky faced the Indiana Fever with Caitlin Clark. It averaged 1.6 million viewers, peaking with 1.92 million.  

“Whether it’s over the top, over the air cable or streaming, we are giving the WNBA and the NWSL access to audiences representing growth to both groups,” he said. “And so we’re optimistic that we will that we will get a deal done with the WNBA.” 

Looking forward to the rest of the year, Norris said sports will continue to be a focus and advertisers will be attracted to CTV for its ability to target audiences.

“It’s clear to me and clear to Scripps that advertisers have choices more choices than they likely have ever had,” Norris said.

"What we want to do is provide value beyond just price. We want to provide value beyond just a commoditized offering,” he said. “ We do that with service, we do that with creativity and we do that by providing a product that is differentiated in the marketplace.”

Irwin Gotlieb, former chairman and CEO of GroupM, offered the opening keynote at the Advanced Advertising Summit. Interviewed by B+C senior content producer Jon Lafayette, Gotlieb stressed that the TV advertising world faces serious challenges. 

“Are these the best of times? Hell, no,” he said. 

With the streaming players joining linear networks in the advertising forum, Gotlieb spoke about the immense amount of content, driven by the streamers, facing consumers. “The stuff that is produced is not readily discoverable — the streamers don’t run the promo schedules that the linear [networks] do,” he said. “How do you get to the point of knowing what you want to watch?”

He also noted the challenge of different measurement systems on linear and non-linear. “If you don’t have proper measurement you don’t have the basis for doing transactions,” he said. 

Gotlieb assessed the state of the streamers, including Paramount Plus, Max and Hulu, but suggested taking Netflix and Prime Video out of the equation. “How many of them are making serious money?” he asked, noting how they are more likely to report finally stopping “hemorrhaging capital.”

Gotlieb mentioned GroupM gearing up for addressable ads back around 2008 to illustrate the in-fighting that’s long been part of the industry. “We literally faced resistance everywhere,” he said, amidst a prevailing sense of, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

“Here we are in 2024,” Gotlieb added, “ill-prepared.”

The Advanced Advertising Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. Advanced Ads happens September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events take place at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 5th. 

Gotlieb was not entirely pessimistic about the industry. “Television is the most efficient and effective marketing tool that has ever been developed,” he said. Streaming, for its part, “should be the overall answer to the long-term health of the business but for the fact that the industry isn’t prepared for it.”

Gotlieb said the TV players have to focus on raising the tide so all entrants gain, more than stealing a viewer or two from the competition. “If the ecosystem isn’t healthy, nobody in the ecosystem will do particularly well,” he said. 

The technology is out there to fix the issues, he said, but the fix is complicated. 

“It’s not the technology that’s missing,” Gotlieb said. “It’s the industry cooperation.”

AMC Networks said it is putting pep in its programmatic sales to pharmaceutical marketers by collaborating with PulsePoint.

Pulsepoint is a marketing technology company focused on health decision making and operates a demand side platform.

The collaboration enables PulsePoint clients to purchase live linear inventory from AMC programmatically. via PulsePoint’s DSP.

“Programmatic has been the preferred way to buy digital inventory for years. Now that we are able to combine this superior approach with the power of linear television, we are delivering conversion rates that are four or five times that of traditional linear campaigns, with significant boosts in incremental, unduplicated reach from conventional ad buys,” said Evan Adlman, executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations. “We are thrilled that PulsePoint is our first healthcare-specific partner, now able to offer our clinically relevant household reach to its dynamic base of clients.”

(Adlman will be speaking at the Advanced Advertising Summit in New York on Monday)

AMC has been an early mover in advanced advertising, making most of its linear inventory addressable and available to marketers  via programmatic technology.

“PulsePoint is excited to be the first healthcare-focused marketing platform  to run programmatic linear addressable campaigns,” said Andrew Stark, chief client officer. “Our  brand partners rely on us for innovation and marketing outcomes. This partnership with AMC Networks opens up an exciting new way to  achieve this with linear TV.”

In this charged presidential election cycle, digital ad sellers are seeing more demand for political advertising and are leaning in to make more inventory available to candidates.

According to a study by IAB, 89% of ad sellers, including publishers, platforms and ad tech, that offer political ads increased their political inventory, while 86% of them said they’ve experience in increase in demand.

Prices for political ads are, up according to 84% of the sellers.

The political ad market has changed since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and VP Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.

Since Harris entered the race, 91% of ad sellers have seen an increase in political ad demand at the national level and 75% of sellers said they saw increased demand at the local level. 

Nearly all sellers have seen an increase in political advertisers that want to use customer audience segments when buying ads.

IAB said political advertisers were looking to segment audiences by political affiliation, particular interests, geography, race, ethnicity and age.

IAB said that 83% of the ad sellers said they had policies in place to detect misinformation and  78% attempted to prevent ads featuring misinformation.

Fubo said it is launching a new connected TV ad format called Triple Play on its home screen.

When a subscriber logs onto Fubo, they see an interactive home screen. With the Triple Play module, the advertiser gets a branded banner, a custom content carousel showcasing curated live and on-demand programming, plus clickable branded content video within the programming playlist.  The branded video can include a QR code

The advertiser also gets a rotation of midroll spots that will appear within the programming on the curated playlist.

Fubo said the format will be up and running in a few days and that a retailer–which the streamed declined to identify–has signed up to be the first Triple Play for a back-to-school campaign.

“Traditional 15- and 30-second ad spots have long been staples in TV advertising but CTV has made it possible to expand standard TV ad formats to command more attention and engagement,” Dina Roman, senior VP, global ad sales and operations at Fubo, said. “By offering premium bespoke ad opportunities, we are creating even more ways brands can authentically reach their target audiences. We can’t wait to debut The Triple Play with our inaugural brand sponsor.”

WPP’s GroupM media investment unit named Richard Hartell CEO of its EssenceMediacom U.S. agency, effective immediately.

Hartell most recently had been Global CEO of Media Future Group, the GroupM unit dedicated to the Google account. He will continue as WPPs’s global client lead for Google.

“Richard is a bright, capable and proven leader at GroupM,” said Sharb Farjami, CEO of GroupM North America. 

“He successfully led one of our most significant client relationships and has an unbeaten track record for driving success for the world’s leading brands over the years,” Farjami said.”His strategic skillset, industry expertise, and deep existing relationships with our clients make him a natural fit to lead EssenceMediacom U.S. into the future. We’re excited for Richard to continue his success at the agency, delivering the best of what GroupM has to offer.”

EssenceMediacom is one of the winners of the Advanced Advertising Innovation Awards, which will be presented during the Advanced Advertising Summit in New York on September 9. 

Hartell joined Essence in 2021 as global chief client officer for the Google account. 

“Richard’s track record with Media Futures Group makes him a great fit to lead EssenceMediacom in the U.S.,” said Nick Lawson, Global CEO of EssenceMediacom. “His dedication to the transformation and growth of our clients and our talent is unmatched. Richard’s tenacity and humanity is a winning combination.”

Hartell will remain on the Global EssenceMediacom leadership team and join the GroupM North America leadership team, reporting the Sharb Farjami, CEO of GroupM North America.

Before EssenceMediacom, Hartell spent nearly 20 years at Publicis Media, where he held the positions of Global Chief Strategy Officer and President of Strategy & Transformation. He also held various leadership positions at Starcom and Spark Foundry.

“Leading media for Google, at such a progressive agency as EssenceMediacom, has been

the highlight of my career,” said Hartell. “I couldn’t be more excited to continue this journey as we shape the next era of media within one of the world’s largest media agencies. This agency is home to the best talent in the business and we’re well-positioned to lead the way on how modern marketing through media, data and technology can make advertising work better for everyone.”

A data-driven campaign created by Samsung Ads and Davis Elen Advertising for the Southern California Toyota Dealers Association won the best overall trophy at the Advanced Advertising Innovation Awards.

The awards, for campaigns that take advantage of data and technology to produce outstanding results, will be presented at the Advanced Advertising Summit in New York on September 9, part of the NYC TV Week slate of events sponsored by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV.

In addition to Best Overall Campaign, Advanced Advertising Innovation Awards were given for the Best Use of Data, Best Definition of a Target Audience, Best Use of Multiple Platforms and Best Use of Branded Content. 

Here are the winners and a description of the excellent campaigns.

TelevisaUnivision and Indeed

The Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for Best Use of Data goes to TelevisaUnivision, which worked with media agency EssenceMediacom on a campaign for job site Indeed.

The campaign used the TelevisaUnivision Clean Room (powered by Snowflake) to find Spanish-language audiences and provide precise incremental lift measurement for new job seeker account creation without exposing personally identifiable information. 

Indeed targeted two groups: job seekers in the adult 18-49 demographic and small and medium-sized businesses, with existing Indeed customers filtered out.

The user population for both audiences exceeded 10 million households once matching was complete, providing a sizable audience pool to determine campaign impact.

By creating test and control groups, Indeed ensured reliable incrementality measurement and a clear determination of the campaign’s causal effect on conversions, directly linked to ad exposure.

To measure Indeed’s audiences in collaboration with TelevisaUnivision Household Graph, Indeed customer email addresses were safely and securely matched within TelevisaUnivision Clean Room to verify ad exposure. 

The campaign both achieved its objectives and set a new standard for reaching and engaging multicultural audiences — driving an incremental lift of 8% in job-seeker accounts and  33% in small- and midsized business accounts.

Due to the campaign’s success, Indeed has committed to running an additional SMB campaign with TelevisaUnivision, with conversations ongoing to extend the arrangement.

LG Ad Solutions and Wells Fargo

A campaign for Wells Fargo created by OMD and LG Ad Solutions won the Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for Best Definition of a Target Audience.

Wells Fargo was looking to promote its credit cards and turned to LG Ad Solutions to provide unduplicated reach at optimal frequency and maximize return on advertising spending.

A highlight of the campaign was Wells Fargo becoming the first bank to advertise on the LG TV Home Screen.

For financial services brands seeking to captivate a highly relevant audience of credit card users in a competitive landscape, precise targeting and personalized advertising experiences that seamlessly integrate into the viewing experience are key.  Wells Fargo targeted different audience groups for separate credit card products.

The Autograph No-Fee Credit Card campaign focused on capturing affluent consumers with a propensity for credit card usage. The Active Cash Credit Card campaign focused on engaging credit-savvy consumers who meet a specific spending threshold, encompassing both credit card revolvers and transactors in hopes of driving ad recall and brand perception. 

To complement its in-market linear buy, Wells Fargo tapped into LG Ad Solutions’ Smart TV audience, leveraging its LG CTV Content Network across LG Channels O&O and premium partner inventory to extend reach and maintain frequency. Innovative ad formats, such as LG Home Screen Native Ads featuring QR codes, Carousel Ads with benefit information and limited-time offers, and LG Native Home Screen Roadblocks were employed.

The campaigns had impressive results.

The Active Cash Credit Card campaign achieved a 17.2% incremental unique household reach rate with CTV over linear TV, maintaining a monthly average frequency of 5.65 times and a 3.1 percentage-point increase in aided awareness. 

The Autograph No-Fee Credit Card campaign reached 4.9 million unique households and achieved a 3.4 percentage-point increase in aided awareness, as well as a 2.8 percentage-point increase in brand favorability, measured in partnership with Dynata.

Spectrum Reach and the N.C. 911 Board

A campaign submitted by Spectrum Reach for the North Carolina 911 Board won the Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for best use of multiple platforms.

The board faced a shortage of qualified 911 operators and worked with Spectrum Reach to develop a statewide multiplatform advertising strategy aimed at recruiting qualified candidates for open positions.

Spectrum Reach helped the client define qualified and interested 911 operator candidates based on profile information from Zippia Careers and Scarborough USA+. Prospects were identified as 25-to-49-year-old woman with a household income between $20,000 and $75,000 with a high-school diploma or some college education. That unique target was processed through Audience App, a Spectrum Reach Proprietary AI-based targeting tool to recommend the networks that would specifically appeal to this multi-layered target.

Spectrum Reach’s campaign made use of TV, streaming online video, display, search and social media to drive awareness of job opportunities and convince qualified applicants to apply.

TV, streaming TV and social media built awareness. Display and online video influenced prospects who researched the career opportunity. Finally, search reached consumers when they were ready to commit by driving customers to the 911 website.

This multiplatform campaign was highly successful, generating a 32% increase in overall site traffic and a 45% jump in time spent on the site. There were 32% new users and 20 times more visits to the 911 Telecommunicator careers page, which rose to 37,000 from just 1,800 the prior year.

In recognition of the campaign's innovative strategies and significant impact in 911 operator recruitment, North Carolina 911 was invited to present at the National Conference of all the 911 Centers across the United States, where they shared experiences, insights, and best practices with counterparts from every state.

“What’s important to the North Carolina 911 Board is that our multiscreen media campaign drives outcomes,” said L.V. Pokey Harris, executive director, North Carolina 911 Board. “The campaign exceeded expectations on every KPI.”

EssenceMediacom and Ally

The Side Hustlers Season 1 campaign created by EssenceMediacom for Ally took the Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for Best Use of Branded Content.

Side Hustlers is a long-form original series created for Ally and EssenceMediacom in collaboration with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Roku to build brand trust and interest in account signups. Side Hustlers was the No.1 title on The Roku Channel during its opening weekend for both reach and engagement.

The show also received high marks for its presentation of women and the way it showcased how companies can integrate social impact and financial education into their marketing strategies, promoting inclusivity and empowerment.

Premiering in March 2024, the competition series focused on women entrepreneurs and addresses the financial challenges they face when starting businesses. The show was hosted by Emma Grede and Ashley Graham and featured Ally’s Jack Howard, who provided financial coaching to the contestants.

The goal was to increase favorability and consideration of Ally services. The show’s strong viewership generated increases in brand metrics including awareness, favorability and intent that topped Ally’s campaign norms.

Brand trust saw a 105% lift, recommendations rose 116%, and likelihood to open an Ally account jumped 89%.

“Consumers are really smart. It’s not just about integrating your brand, because they’ll see right through it,” said Bridget Sponsky, executive director of brand and sponsorship marketing at Ally. “Delivering that added value, from an authenticity perspective, is absolutely critical.”

“We saw that people wanted to learn more about Ally because of the show, with searches for Ally spiking the highest they’d been in the previous twelve months in the first week after the show’s premiere,” Sponsky said.

Samsung Ads and Southern California Toyota Dealers

Samsung Ads’ campaign for Southern California Toyota used data-driven strategies to optimize audience targeting, enhance viewer engagement and maximize return on investment.

The campaign, designed to build awareness for Toyota’s new line of vehicles, including electric vehicles, aimed to build incremental reach and high video completion rates by integrating linear TV and digital media.

Target audiences included first-time car buyers, lapsed customers and current customers in the Southern California DMA.

The campaign used Samsung Ads ACR technology and leveraged insights into viewer preferences and viewing habits to deliver relevant creative. It also made use of Samsung’s Smart TV home screen, which features the first ad unit viewers see when they turn on their set.

The campaign delivered 108% of its target goal, delivering 42.1 million impressions and a CTV video completion rate of 95.8%--which was 0.8% higher than Toyota’s CTV benchmarks.

Combining linear and streaming ads resulted in 59.7% incremental reach.

“Working with Samsung Ads has given us incredible insights into the ever-changing landscape of Connected TV and how crucial complementary, unduplicated reach is, especially when reaching regional audiences,” said John Papadopoulos, partner and head of media at Davis Elen Advertising. “Our clients rely on us to offer innovative and non-traditional strategies to drive results, and partners like Samsung Ads help us ensure that our own creative strategies are as effective as possible.”

The WNBA is not just generating big ratings. Viewers are paying attention to the games, shoulder programming and the sponsors that support them, according to new data from TVision.

The Caitlin Clark effect has been well known. College basketball’s all-time scoring leader, now a rookie for the Indiana Fever continues to draw viewers.

TVision found that with Clark in the lineup, viewers are paying more attention to Fever games than other WNBA games.

After analyzing viewer attention across 70 WNBA games across multiple TV networks between May 14 and July 21,, TVision found that its Attention to Visible Index–which measures how well viewers pay attention while in the room–for all WNBA games in the time-period was 101.  

Fever games scored a 107 in the index. This means that Indiana Fever Games delivered approximately 6% more attention for advertisers than typical WNBA games.  

The average performing television program scores a 100 on the Index. 

TVision also found that regardless of which teams were playing WNBA games on NBA TV and the E.W. Scripps Co.’s Ion network scored 107 on the index, with games on ESPN also outperforming the average with a 103 index.

That’s good for advertisers on Ion. 

TVision's Ad Attention metric measures the proportion of viewers who pay attention to at least two seconds of an ad. The average linear Ad Attention is 55%, but WNBA games on Ion delivered 62% Ad Attention, in the time period, TVision said.

TVision said that studies show that every 1% of attention correlates to a 1% increase in brand recall, suggesting WNBA games on Ion are a significant opportunity for advertisers to reach engaged viewers.

“More viewers are tuning in, and more importantly, those viewers are paying attention,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. “We have always thought, from the beginning of our relationship with the WNBA, that our broadcasts on Ion, including our studio shows, are great opportunities for advertisers to reach growing and highly engaged audiences.”

Vizio said it worked with the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group to build a voice-activated ad that promotes the new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice across multiple screens and platforms.

In the Beetlejuice films, saying “Beetlejuice” three times summons the title character.

On Vizio, saying “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” into the remote control launches an experience designed to raise awareness of the new film and produce ticket sales.

After encountering a home screen prompt, viewers who say the magic words are taken to a movie collection portal featuring an auto-play sound-on video preview of the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film, a sequel to the 1988 movie. 

Vizio viewers can also click to watch an extended trailer and purchase opening weekend tickets.

The film is also being promoted on the Vizio Mobile App and through push notifications, social media and email.

Vizio said Warner Bros. is the first advertiser to take advantage of Vizio’s voice-activation capabilities. 

“Streaming now accounts for the lion’s share of TV viewing time and it’s enabling new, engaging ways for brands to connect with consumers that truly enhance the at-home entertainment experience,” said Sean Booker, Head of Media & Entertainment, National Advertising Sales, at Vizio. “And with viewers increasingly relying on their Smart TV to power their streaming experience, the Home Screen has become the most efficient vehicle for brands to drive both mass reach and lower funnel outcomes.”

The promotion will run through September 6, when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premieres in theaters.

NBCUniversal's record-setting sales of advertising during the Paris Summer Olympics gave the overall ad market a boost in June, according to the latest figures from ad tracking company Guideline.

Even though the Olympics were on for only five days in July, ad spending was up 14% from a year ago, with spending on the Paris Games accounting for 43% of the increase. 

Excluding Olympic spending, overall ad spending would have been up 8%, which Guideline says marks the 15th consecutive month of ad market growth.

For national TV, spending was up 10% in July including the Olympics. Excluding the Olympics, national TV would have been down 7% for the month.

Digital also got a boost from the Olympics, with spending up 18% in July, compared to 15% without Paris.

NBCU has said that Olympic ad revenue hit record levels. Its last estimate was that spending was $1.2 billion, exceeding the COVID-delayed 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, but because of high ratings, NBC was able to sell inventory it had reserved for make-goods had viewership fallen short of estimates.

Guideline said it expects the Olympics to have an even larger impact in August. The Olympics concluded on August 11.

Guideline draws its ad spending data directly from computer invoices from the major media-buying agencies.

With more marketers moving advertising dollars to streaming, BrightLine, a pioneer in interactive commercials, has produced a study to show that the new more immersive formats enabled by streaming produce positive results.

In a report outlining the study, BrightLine seeks to answer the question: “As platforms push remaining viewers toward streaming and advertisers follow, how can advertisers utilize streaming to stand out and break through?”

Spoiler alert: the answer at the end of the study is, “If you’re only going to choose one streaming ad format: choose interactive. A single impression of interactive media drives more impact than a single impression of a standard video spot.”

Brightline’s interactive ad formats have been adopted and adapted by media companies including The Walt Disney Co., NBCUniversal, Paramount Plus, Roku and Vizio.

BrightLine worked with MediaScience on the study, which was designed to compare single exposures to standard video ads with interactive video ads. The study also looked at what happens when standard ads are paired with interactive ads and how much multiple exposures to an interactive ad can move the needle.

A single exposure to an interactive ad led to brand recall scores that were 36% higher than a single exposure to a standard video ad, the study found. Aided recall got a smaller boost and message recall was about the same.

When viewers see both a standard commercial and an interactive video ad, unaided recall jumps 58%, aided recall increases 22% and message recall gains 47%.

A second exposure to the interactive video increases recall by double digits, the study found.

“When combined with standard video, the pairing adds an incremental impact and lifts memory recall even higher than either format individually,” the study concluded. “Similarly, two exposures to interactive media have an incremental impact, suggesting that the more you utilize interactive ads, the more that your brand will stay top of mind.”

Toyota returns as the presenting sponsor of the 2024 Paris Summer Paralympics, NBCUniversal said.

Following record-breaking ad sales for the Paris Olympics, NBCU said, ad sales for the Paralympic Games were up 60% from Tokyo, with a record number of advertisers participating.

“Coming off of our highly successful Paris Olympic Games, we are thrilled to continue bringing world-class athletic competition to audiences across the country with the 2024 Paralympic Games,” said Dan Lovinger, President, Olympic & Paralympic Partnerships, NBCUniversal.

“With the lights of Paris shining the biggest spotlight on Paralympic athletes, we are partnering with brands like Toyota, whose passion for innovation and commitment to empowering all people truly embodies the Paralympic spirit,“ Lovinger said. “Toyota's dedication to supporting these incredible moments both enhances the viewer experience and strengthens the bond between our audience and these inspiring athletes,” Lovinger said. “Our unprecedented roster of advertisers for Paris 2024 is further validation of the growth and overall health of the Paralympic movement.”  

NBCUniversal is giving more advertisers access to Paralympic games by offering inventory programmatically.

“Toyota is proud to return as the presenting sponsor of NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024,” said Mike Tripp, group VP of Toyota Marketing.  “We are excited to watch our Team Toyota athletes, and this incredible gathering of elite competitors come together in Paris to strive for gold.” 

NBCUniversal plans to present more than 140 hours of television coverage across NBC, USA Network and CNBC starting August 28. 

This year’s Paralympic Games will include a breathtaking Opening Ceremony set to take place on the Champs-Élysées at the Place de la Concorde.

Coverage will also include the most streaming hours ever for a Paralympic event, with about 1,500 hours of coverage across all 22 Paralympic sports set to be streamed on Peacock throughout the duration of the 12-day event.

NBCUniversal will be bringing back Gold Zone and Multiview — two of the most popular features of Peacock’s coverage of the Paris Olympics — for the Paralympic Games.

The television industry’s shift to streaming could be seen in the upfront advertising market, where gains in streaming were enough to more than offset declines in traditional broadcasting and cable.

Bottom line: Commitments to buy primetime advertising in the 2024-25 TV season rose 8% to $29.5 billion, according to a preliminary estimate by Media Dynamics. That figure includes the relatively new entrants into the TV market, such as Netflix and Amazon.

The increases came as media buyers were able to wrest lower prices on a cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) basis.

As expected, linear ad commitments were down 3.7% to $18.4 billion. 

For the broadcast networks, volume fell 3.5% to $9.3 billion. 

For the cable networks, volume dropped 4.8% to $9.1 billion, a smaller drop than one might have expected considering that Warner Bros. Discovery just took a $9 billion writedown on its cable networks business.

Strong demand for sports kept linear ad volume from falling more, Media Dynamics said.

Streaming volume jumped 35% to $11.1 billion, topping either broadcasting or cable for the first time.

Pricing fell across the board. For primetime on broadcast, CPMs dropped 5.6% to $45.35. On cable, the decline was 6.8% to $20.60. 

It was the second year in a role that upfront prices fell, the first time that’s happened. 

Streaming CPMs dropped 16.7% to $29.50.

Media Dynamics said that with streaming replacing traditional TV, advertisers were determined to reduce pricing for streaming to levels more comparable to TV.  The were helped by a big increase in supply of streaming inventory with Amazon Prime Video entering the ad market in a big way and the proliferation of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels.

The upfront includes more than just primetime, Media Dynamics noted. Adding in the other dayparts, advertisers are expected to spend $45 billion to $50 billion in the upfront, leaving $10 billion to $12 billion for the scatter market, in which advertising time is bought just before it is expected to air, usually without ratings guarantees.

As most of the major media companies declared that they were done with their upfront sales, they cited increases in streaming and digital and strong demand for sports.

Led by Mirriad, an ad tech firm specializing in virtual product placement, a group of content companies have formed The Diverse Media Alliance.

The group, which includes Bomesi, Canela Media, LatiNation, Ntertain’s Neon16, and The Shade Room, aims to build a more equitable media ecosystem and help brands scale and track their diverse media campaigns and commitments.

Despite pledges made in 2020 to invest more in diverse media, spending on diverse owned media remains low and DEI initiatives have faced setbacks, the group noted.

"At Mirriad, we are deeply intentional in our commitment to driving the inclusive media monetization movement, especially in these critical times when many are stepping back from their DEIB initiatives,” Maria Teresa Hernandez, senior VP of brand partnerships and head of supplier diversity at Mirriad, said.

“This only fuels our mission further,” Hernandez said. “Through The Diverse Media Alliance, we are forging ahead with full steam, dedicated to innovation, research, and accountability. We believe in the power of unity within communities of color and are determined to uplift and amplify diverse voices, ensuring that the stories that matter are heard and celebrated. Our resolve to transform the media landscape is stronger than ever."

The alliance is dedicated to three pillars: ad innovation to drive cultural relevance, research to document the value of diverse media and social responsibility.

The group said it offers tangible benefits to both advertisers and suppliers in the media industry. Advertisers gain access to new, culturally relevant inventory in diverse-owned media, improving engagement with diverse audiences and refining advertising strategies through innovative insights and VPP research.

Suppliers can establish a new revenue stream by using AI to unlock their media inventory, ensuring continued relevance through ongoing innovation and enhancing their visibility and credibility in the competitive advertising landscape. 

"We believe in defining DEI as more than just checking a box. Creating new and authentic ways to engage with multicultural audiences at scale drives sales. The publishers in this partnership directly engage with endemic diverse audiences by delivering content that matters to them. Our relationship with each visitor to our platforms transales to multigenerational consumer loyalty for those brands and agencies courageous enough to stand up against anti-diversity initiatives by including us in their media buys." said DéVon Christopher Johnson, CoFounder of Bomesi and founder/CEO BleuLife Media Group.

“Canela Media is dedicated to driving growth and scale through innovation, supported by our investments in technology, data solutions, and content. Our partnership with Mirriad allows us to offer cutting-edge solutions like Virtual Product Placement, reflecting our commitment to connecting advertisers with U.S. Hispanic audiences authentically in meaningful and brand-safe ways,” said  said Andrés Rincón, senior VP of sales at Canela Media.

“By collaborating with The Diverse Media Alliance, we are not just participating in the conversation but leading it—elevating diverse-owned media and creating a more equitable media ecosystem," Rincón said.

With sports being such a hot item for television advertisers, media agency Dentsu said it is working with Sports Innovation Lab to target addressable sports audiences for its clients.

Sports Innovation Lab creates audience segments for all NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WLBA, MLS and NWSL teams and major sports betting platforms based on deterministic transaction-based data.

The Sports Innovation Lab data has been linked to Merkury, Dentsu’s global data, identity and insights platform.

“Merkury’s more than 10,000 consumer data attributes combined with the data-driven fan intelligence from Sports Innovation Lab, generate the most advanced and precise sports audiences in the industry,” Gerry Bavaro, chief strategy officer for Merkury at Dentsu, said. “Through the partnership, our clients can confidently develop custom audiences, enabling personalized, real-time experiences for sports enthusiasts across channels while adhering to the highest standards of consumer data protection.”

In this year’s upfront, advertiser demand was highest for sports programming and advanced advertising, including addressable advertising.

Some examples of the types of audiences Dentsu clients will be able to reach now that Merkury is integrated with Sports Innovation Lab include Fans of Women’s Sports, eSports Gamers Fans, Heaving International OTT Viewers & Subscribers Youth Sports Parents and NBA Official Merchandise Buyers.

Merkury clients can customize their own audiences from an expansive database with an unrivaled level of specificity. 

The can also develop sports-related insights and target addressable sports audiences among the 268 million reachable U.S. adults in Merkury’s database.

“This is an amazing opportunity for Dentsu clients to gain direct access to purchase-based sports data that can be leveraged for planning, insights, and activation,” Jennifer Pelino, chief commercial officer and president, Data Cloud, at Sports Innovation Lab, said. “Sports audience data has historically posed a challenge for brand advertisers because it is limited or bundled as part of media publishers’ promotions and sponsorship deals. Now brands can use this data to meaningfully enhance their advertising strategies during key events like the NFL season or the holiday shopping rush, driving increased engagement and ROI. The potential for more powerful business outcomes is significant.”

FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad-tech company, said it named Kris Magel had of global agency partnerships.

An ad agency veteran, Magel most recently had been with Samba TV as head of agency and publisher solutions.

Magel will report to FreeWheel U.S. chief revenue officer Katy Loria to identify and capitalize on revenue-growth opportunities.

“With decades of experience across many sectors of the industry, Kris will drive greater collaboration and synergies between our publishers and our agency partners that are so critical to our work today,” Loria said. “Kris’ energy to create new cross-media solutions — as demonstrated throughout his career scaling critical partnerships, fostering client satisfaction and leading strategic growth initiatives — will help uncover strategic opportunities that will drive FreeWheel and the TV advertising ecosystem forward.”

Before Samba TV, Magel was president, media clients at dentsu and president and chief investment officer for IPG’s Initiative agency.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join Mark McKee and Katy Loria’s all-star team, representing a leading end-to-end advanced advertising solution and one of the most premium advertising environments available,” Magel said.

Viamedia, an advertising sales rep for independent cable operators, said it is integrating its Parrot ad-decisioning system into Minerva’s platform, giving Viamedia clients more access to programmatic buyers.

Working with MInerva will also streamline ad insertion and improve inventory management. Parrot enables MVPDs and broadcasters to sell advertisers schedules that run on both connected TV and linear channels within a single order.

“Minerva is a leader in Free Advertising Streaming TV (FAST) ad delivery and content navigation, together we’re elevating the capabilities of Parrot ADS to fundamentally transform the advertising landscape,” said Viamedia CEO David Solomon. “This collaboration propels us to the forefront of industry innovation, dramatically boosting efficiency and creating expansive revenue opportunities. This signals a new benchmark for service excellence in programmatic TV advertising. It’s a significant leap forward, affirming our commitment to driving the future of advertising technology.”

CDE Lightband, a municipal power and broadband provider in Clarksville, Tennessee, recently worked with Viamedia and Minerva in to test and help launch Parrot. 

“Viamedia’s Parrot ADS solution, fully integrated with our Minerva-powered Cloud TV services, will allow us to transform how we manage and deliver advertisements,” said Christy Batts, chief broadband officer at CDE Lightband. “We anticipate this turnkey service will enhance our operational efficiency and generate incremental revenue by delivering more relevant and valuable ad impressions.”

Netflix said that it closed its upfront with sales that were up 150% from the year before.

The streaming leader entered the advertising business just last year and got off to a halting start, slowing building the number of subscribers to its ad-supported tier and seeking prices higher than a saturated market would bear. Top sales execs left.

The year’s upfront built on a small base–the company previously said advertising wouldn’t be a "primary revenue driver" in 2025–but Netflix’ president of ad sales Amy Reinhard said the company’s upfront results were “in line with our expectations.”

Reinhard said that marketers in the consumer packaged goods, tech & entertainment, auto, quick-service restaurant and retail business all made commitments. 

She also said that Netflix drew sponsors tied to some of its most popular shows.

For example, L’Oreal, Pure Leaf, Amazon Audible, Puig, Booking.com, Stella Artois and Hilton have signed on as international on-screen title sponsors for Season 3 of Bridgerton.

When Emily In Paris returns, LVMN, Coty, Gucci, Kaiku Caffee Latte, Aeromexico, L’Oreal, Google and Rakuten will be on board.

Netflix also has deals lined up for Squid Game, Wednesday, Outer Banks, Happy Gilmore 2, Ginny  & Georgia and Love is Blind.

“Our advertising clients remain excited about our highly engaged audience and the variety and quality of our programming,” Reinhard said.

Reinhard said that Netflix is offering advertisers new ways to buy ads on the streamer.

Marketers can set up private marketplace programmatic deals directly with Netflix through The Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360 or Xandr–the Microsoft unit that had been Netflix’s exclusive partner when it started selling ads.

Google’s Campaign Manager and Innovid can be employed for impression verification joining DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, which monitor campaigns for fraud and viewability.

“we’ve been executing multiple programmatic campaigns with advertisers such as Expedia, Ford, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz, Novartis, and American Eagle,” Reinhard said.

The programmatic private marketplace buys are currently available in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.  

Netflix also said it has launched measurement a relationship with Barb's Advance Campaign Hub in the UK and in the fall with offer campaign performance metrics from NielsenOne, Lucid (or Cint), EDO, NCSolutions, Kantar, and Affinity Solutions for all buy types.

“Over the last few months, we’ve hit great milestones for our ads business including closing another successful upfront market, building and implementing an expanded programmatic suite, enhancing our global measurement capabilities, and securing impactful global ad campaigns,” Reinhard said. “We’ll continue to improve the Netflix ads plan to ensure our members are delighted by the experience while simultaneously creating solutions that deliver results for our marketers, putting brands at the center of the best shows and films in the world, to a highly valuable and engaged audience.”

tvScientific said it was granted a patent for its technology that optimizes television ad campaign outcomes.

The company’s patented technology uses artificial intelligence to automatically optimize TV advertising to meet the outcome goals set by advertisers, including cost per sale, cost per app install, cost per website visitor and cost per call.

“For as long as TV has been around, the best advertisers could hope to achieve is delivering ads to TV audiences based on reach and frequency KPIs, targeted by indexes that approximate audience demographics based on what shows the audiences watched, as determined by a relatively minuscule panel of TV viewers,” tvScientific co-founder and CEO Jason Fairchild said.

“This archaic system, in place since the 1950s, has resulted in a TV advertising marketplace that is dominated by just a couple hundred national advertisers (85% of the $63.1 billion TV market) and has resulted in stagnant growth for years,” Fairchild said. “Meanwhile, digital advertising in the U.S. has grown to $269 billion, led by companies that have built their ad businesses on delivering measurable outcomes to advertisers. These outcome-based ad markets, led by Google and Facebook, have exploded and now claim up to 9 million advertisers.”

The tvScientific system ingests signals from internal and external datasets and uses advanced machine learning algorithms to determine which sets of signals are driving success for a given campaign. The system then dynamically optimizes that campaign toward what drives those outcomes and away from what doesn’t, delivering an improved return on investment for its users.

This newly granted patent follows tvScientific’s earlier patents.

Media platform Infillion said it launched IDVx, a new technology for creating a variety of interactive ad formats for connected TV, desktop and mobile video.

Infillion said the IDVx ads are scalable and measurable and provide high-performance creative that can be sold efficiently on a programmatic basis.

IDVx ad formats include carousels that enable advertisers to showcase multiple products, polls and quizzes to engage viewers, units with hotspots that viewers can click to get more info about product features and shoppability, enabling viewers to make purchases.

IDVx optimizes campaigns to drive higher brand lift and purchase intent, achieving a 2% interaction rate and a 90%-plus video completion rate benchmark, Infillion said.

“As linear TV viewership wanes, advertisers are looking for a high-performing alternative that delivers measurable outcomes and ROI,” Infillion chief marketing officer and chief revenue officer Laurel Rossi said. “Infillion’s TrueX pioneered the focus on attention and interactivity for video ads more than 12 years ago. We know the difference between engagement and fly-by, inadvertent clicks. Advertisers have wanted a scalable performance-driven, creative experience. We’re now able to meet that demand with IDVx, which combines Infillion’s immersive creative capabilities and MediaMath’s programmatic technology.”

Based on a beta test, digital research company Cint found IDVx campaigns resulted in a 7% increase in product awareness, an 8% lift in product familiarity, and a 6% lift in purchase consideration.

IDVx is Infillion’s first new product since it acquired MediaMath in 2023.

FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company, said it is offering tools that will enable advertisers to use connected TV as a performance marketing channel through its Beeswax demand-side platform.

The tools use FreeWheel’s Identity Network to accurately and precisely target, optimize and measure campaigns.

“The shift in CTV viewership brings new ad opportunities, but also presents challenges: CTV buyers primarily lean on IP addresses to reach households, however, IPs are not a stable identifier,“ FreeWheel general manager Mark McKee said. “This makes it difficult for buyers to accurately target and measure users at the household level. That being said, measurable results and the ability to optimize effectively remain nonnegotiables for performance marketers. With that in mind, we created an advanced set of results-driven, efficient,and transparent tools for performance marketers to accurately achieve their campaign goals while maximizing their budgets.”

The new tools enable advertisers to reach conversion goals, optimize efficiently and prove campaign effectiveness, FreeWheel said.

Within FreeWheel’s performance suite is a machine-learning powered cost-per-acquisition bidding strategy that’s based on each buyer’s campaign goals and data. 

Agency Optimal Media used the CPA bidding strategy and saw 40% more conversions with a 32% decrease in cost per acquisition in a campaign for a national auto manufacturer.

“At Optimal, we are committed to utilizing cutting-edge technologies to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our clients’ media spend, and our partnership with FreeWheel has allowed for remarkable success for a national automotive manufacturer,” Optimal VP, client strategy Paula Thompson said. “Together, we have driven increased conversions while simultaneously reducing the cost per acquisition.”

The U.S. Joint Industry Council, set up by the TV business to modernize and evaluate media measurement, has certified iSpot.tv as a company with data that can be used as currency in media-buying transactions.

iSpot’s certification is wider-ranging than the certifications received in April by Comscore and VideoAmp.

The JIC found that iSpot Data Connect produces data that can be used for transactions across all currency classifications it evaluated, including Personified Demos, Total Households and Audiences across both Average Commercial Minute and Exact Spot measurement.

iSpot, VideoAmp and Comscore are among the measurement companies that have been challenging Nielsen, which has long dominated the TV-ratings business.

The industry has complained about Nielsen’s cost and accuracy. The shift to streaming intensified demand for more granular measurement and the opportunity for alternatives to Nielsen and alternative currencies seemed to grow.

iSpot CEO Sean Muller said that his company held back during the JIC’s last round of certifications until its new methodology was in place.

For its new methodology, dubbed iSpot Data Connect, the company has created an identity spine by mapping out every household and every person in the United States for both streaming and linear viewing of ads and the results those ads produce.

“Everything that we do is now mapped to a household or to a person, either explicitly or using machine learning,” Muller said.

That’s very different from taking a data set, extrapolating to the universe and then building reach and frequency curve from that extrapolation. 

“You've got to have the whole universe first at a person and household level in order to create reach and frequency curves that will be consistent and accurate over time,” he said.

The new methodology means iSpot is uniquely positioned as the TV business shifts to streaming and marketers want to compare the reach and results of their video investments across linear, streaming, digital and social, whether they’ve been bought based on demos or on advanced audiences.

iSpot is also offering to provide the exact viewership of each commercial, as opposed to the average of all the spots within a show. That can be crucial for big-ticket sports advertisers, because iSpot has shown that advertisers can get short-changed when spots at the end of a lopsided game get significantly lower viewership than spots that run earlier, while the “average hour” ratings — and price tags — are the same.

“All of these marketers are under pressure to prove that these massive Investments in video are delivering business results,” Muller said. “It's just such a swirl. So for us for us, the North Star is is helping them make sense of the swirls and make better decisions by bringing it all together.”

Seeking Currency for Streaming

The definition of currency is changing as the video industry moves to streaming, Muller said.

Before the upfront market, there was a lot of clamor for using currencies other than Nielsen, which is developing its own new metrics based on big data in addition to its panel of Nielsen families.

“Our experience was the agencies were still buying traditional linear the way they always have and perhaps that will continue for traditional linear,” Muller said. “The deals that are being made in the streaming world are completely different. They're not using Nielsen. 

“Most of those deals are made today on publisher logs, but verified by a third party,” he continued.  “So as more sports and other programming transition to streaming, I think that’s when you’re going to see a lot of the legacy currency just completely change. It’s more about the verification and the outcomes than it is about the actual counting of the impressions because in streaming counting of the impression is a little bit more straightforward, but you still need verification.”

With iSpot’s news methodology, an advertiser can compare its buys on NBC and TikTok to see how much of their audiences are duplicated and how much of each publisher’s impressions are incremental.

“Now imagine being able to do that against any set of publisher sets, whether it's linear streaming or digital social,“ Muller said. “That’s the power of all this.” 

iSpot’s certification follows completion of the JIC’s data-evaluation phase, in which JIC members conducted more than 270 tests to ensure the data produced met the baseline requirements around transparency, completeness, methodology checks and data stability. Certification was then awarded following a majority vote by the Full Committee. 

“If we are to meet the needs of advertisers who are racing to keep pace with today’s streaming-first viewer, we must continue to innovate, build and deliver more modern and accurate measurement solutions,“ said Travis Scoles, executive VP of advanced advertising at Paramount Global and chair of the U.S. Joint Industry Committee’s board of directors. “The results from the JIC’s data evaluation show that iSpot is helping drive the industry forward as it has reached the baseline level of transactional readiness as a currency.

“We applaud iSpot, as well as all of our measurement partners, for their commitment and tireless effort building for the future,” Scoles said.

iSpot said its data spine is interoperable with all of the industry’s major identification systems, including Experian, Epsilon, LiveRamp, Roku and Disney.

A Pricey, Tough Problem

“This stuff is not easy,“ Muller said. “It takes a lot of money. To be able to run a query against every household in person in the U.S., and do that in real time and do that quickly, is a massive problem. This is why most companies don't do that. It's too much data for them.” 

iSpot received a $325 million investment from Goldman Sachs in 2022. Last year, iSpot acquired measurement company 605, which Muller said brought with its audience data from Charter Communications and expertise in handling advanced audiences.

Muller said that the JIC certification is another step in gaining trust as the industry transitions from linear to digital.

“We've already built a lot of trust with advertisers and and publishers,” he said.

The Media Rating Council has already accredited iSpot’s ad catalog and airings data. iSpot is now in the process of getting the MRC to accredit iSpot Data Connect, Muller said.

BranchLab, an ad-tech start up with a prescription to help pharmaceutical marketers meet increasingly restrictive privacy regulations, said it named Errol Taylor to its board of advisors.

Taylor is the former head of the BioPharma Practice at Milbank who understands the evolving landscape of healthcare advertising.

Taylor is coming on board as 10 states have passed regulations making it harder to use patient information to target advertising. 

“This is moving through state legislatures. We don’t think it’s going to stop and it’s impacting pharmaceutical companies’ ability to reach their customers, their patients,” Taylor told Broadcasting+Cable.

Taylor said he thinks BranchLab’s ID-less approach to targeting ads is an effective answer to the problem. 

“I think not only will it provide value to the pharmaceutical companies, but also to the patients,” he said.

Michael Parkes, who was president of measurement company VideoAmp before becoming co-founder, president and chief revenue officer of BranchLab,  said the company’s ID-less solution builds on anonymized health data. 

“We build predictive audience models from that data that statistically represent the patient population and then apply that to publisher data to find high-indexing inventory,” Parkes said.

“We're also working directly with the publisher first-party data, so we're able to get around the deprecation of third-party IDs as well, which is another trend that's impacting the health audience space,” he said.

Additionally, BranchLab uses cleanroom technology to maintain strict privacy controls.

The result is an approach that maintains compliance with federal, state and industry regulations, Parkes said. 

“You still have to drive media performance,” he said. “So we're able to do both.”

Parkes said BrandLab's approach is already being used in the market and that the company has relationships with a number of media companies, as well as some marketers.

PROGRAMMATIC PARTNERS

BranchLab also has partnerships with OpenX and Magnite to integrate its data into those programmatic platforms.

So far, he said, campaigns using the BranchLab approach have produced results at least as good as the legacy ID-based targeting methods.

“I think you can get strong media performance with the tools that we have, Parkes said. “So it’s really rethinking the entire end-to-end process and we’ve come up with a different way of doing it.”

BranchLab’s is pitching its solution to media companies, media buyers and brands, which are ultimately the ones paying to target campaigns.

“We have been working across the board to make sure that there's transparency, there's confidence and trust in the methodology so people can feel good that this is a solution that not only addresses the needs from a privacy and compliance standpoint but also future proofs for what could be coming in the future,” he said.

BranchLab solution’s financial arrangement is similar to other data fees.

“Advertisers are used to paying for audience targeting and they don't want it to go away. They just need a solution,” he said.

While BranchLab’s approach is ID-less, Parkes said that publishers that have created first-party identity systems will have an advantage as third-party identifiers become less reliable.

BranchLab  was started in February by CEO Josh Walsh, co-founder of AdTheorent; Parkes and Chief Technology Officer Chris Cagle, former executive VP, technology, AdTheorent

The company is backed by a seed round of funding led by Newark Venture Partners. Venture capital firm Aperiam also was part of the seed round of funding

Healthcare generated ad spending of about $23.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach almost $34 billion by 2032, according to IMARC Group, BranchLab said.

That’s a big market, but ultimately, BranchLab’s approach could be used in other industries.

“The base technology could be a platform for something much more than just in the pharma space, absolutely,” said Taylor.

But Parkes said that for now, the company is focused on drugs.

“I think how the privacy landscape  plays out in the next couple of years may change that, but for now we're only focused on pharma, he said.

“Our belief is that this is it sets a precedent for more states to follow but I think everyone on the the advertiser and the publisher side are already thinking about about how to future-proof this their setup,” Parkes said.

Paramount Global said that it sold $1 billion in commitment to buy streaming advertising in the upfront market.

Speaking on Paramount’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday, Chris McCarthy, one of the company’s three CEOs, said he was pleased with the upfront results,
“particularly in the context of the evolution of the ad market and the scale of new entrants.”

McCarthy said that linear volume trends were “in line” with last year, and pricing on a cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) basis were up on a bended basis, with sports and broadcast showing strength.

(Paramount took a $6 billion write down on its cable business and 2Q ad revenue for its traditional TV business was down 11%)

While a flood of new streaming inventory was expected to depress pricing, McCarthy called the digital marketplace healthy for Paramount.

Also Read: Paramount Pitches Performance of Programming, Ad Tech (Upfronts)

With our mix of pay and free, we offer the most efficient reach across premium video,” he said.

On the earnings call, McCarthy said that Paramount would be implementing its plan to cut costs by $500 million, partly by reducing its work force by 15% by the end of the year.

He added that Paramount is in active discussion about potential strategic partnerships in streaming.

The company is also looking to sell off some assets.

“While we have strong brands and businesses, we must reshape our portfolio to best compete in the future,” McCarthy said. “The assets under consideration are undeniably strong with exciting futures ahead, but will be better served on their own or as the centrepiece of another business.”

Ad-tech platform Nexxen said it was working with music video streamer Vevo to expand Vevo’s footprint with programmatic ad buyers.

“Vevo is the bridge at the center of the advertising landscape, connecting marketers with pop culture through streaming music television,” said Rob Christensen, executive VP, global sales at Vevo. “With Nexxen’s unique tech offerings and incremental demand, we’re opening up Vevo's sought-after ad inventory to new buyers, while continuing to drive our programmatic business forward.”

Collaborating with Nexxen is designed to enable Vevo to monetize its inventory of content more effectively by connecting with demand on the Nexxen supply side platform via self-service tools and comprehensive deal capabilities, the companies said.

“We’re thrilled to be able to count Vevo – an incredibly well-known music video network – among our premium publishing partners,” said John Rogers, VP, Business Development, at Nexxen. “Not only can our teams help Vevo elevate the value of their inventory, this new partnership also expands our audience reach and enhances the scale of our quality owned and operated content.”

Streaming network ReachTV said it is working with tech company Transmit to create new advertising formats during live sports events.

Transmit’s technology lets Reach create new in-stream ad inventory, optimize traditional ad breaks and develop more effective ad pods.

It will also help generate revenue while being less disruptive to the viewer’s ad experience, the companies said.

“Partnering with Transmit creates new opportunities for brands to integrate directly into ReachTV’s live broadcasts,”  ReachTV CEO Lynnwood Bibbens said. “With the fast-approaching return of football and basketball, we are developing exciting ways for advertisers to reach the millions of travelers who watch our live sports broadcasts every day.”

ReachTV is seen in more than 750 venues, 2,400 airport gates and 500,000 hotel rooms in North America.

“By providing real-time management and customization of ad experiences through our platform, ReachTV is now empowered to optimize their holistic ad strategy while also elevating the viewer experience,” Transmit CEO Seth Hittman said. “This partnership marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of video advertising, offering substantial benefits to publishers, advertisers and viewers alike.”

Effectv, Comcast Advertising’s sales unit, said it has added capabilities aimed at helping political advertisers reach voters with multiscreen campaigns.

“With it being a critical election year, we want to make sure that advertisers have the most effective tools and solutions at hand to reach voters and that they are able to more easily run successful end-to-end multiscreen campaigns in one place,” Effectv VP of political sales Chris Vail said. “These new capabilities, coupled with the unique audience data we offer, which allows advertisers to reach specific voters across screens, platforms, and devices, on a regional and local level, will be the key to reaching voters with relevant and personalized ad experiences ahead of November 5.”

The additional capabilities include additional audience segments based on party affiliations and donor activities; net campaigns; building tools to plan, activate and measure campaigns; and enhanced campaign reporting and insights that allow streaming buyers to assess delivery on a geographical basis to the ZIP code level.

Effectv is also working with Dynata to provide insights into how viewers are responding to ads and whether they’re building awareness, recall and intent.

Political advertisers with Effectv can use addressable TV advertising as part of a full-funnel marketing solution to discover, reach, engage and connect with new and existing voters. 

The company says one in three households may be missed without an addressable advertising component in a campaign.

EffecTV TV recently expanded its Audience Addressable product, which uses Comcast data to deliver campaign’s down to the household level across a variety of screens and platforms.

Alliant said it made a deal with ad-tech company Madhive giving Madhive’s clients access to Alliant’s target audiences optimized for connected TV.

Madhive’s clients include broadcasters, agencies, brands and publishers.  Broadcasters and programmers that activate Alliant Audiences will be able to deliver their brand and agency clients’ ads to the right demo footprint.

“Scale remains one of the most important elements in CTV advertising, which is why we have prioritized that when building out our people-based audience solutions,” said Matt Frattaroli, senior VP, Digital Platform & Agency Partnerships, at Alliant.

“Madhive’s broadcaster partners want to connect their brand and agency clients with the level of reach they expect, so we’ve worked diligently to package that level of performance-driving scale and precision,” he said. 

The Madhive Data Marketplace allows advertisers to connect directly to over 15,000 audience segments. The marketplace offers access high-quality audiences at efficient costs, resulting in higher match rates and broader audience reach for marketers. 

“Madhive’s data marketplace features direct partnerships with a strategic list of trusted data providers, enabling advertisers to reach more than 90 million households monthly with hyperlocal precision down to the zip code or congressional district,” said Luc Dumont, senior VP of business development at Madhive. “Alliant has long-provided privacy-compliant, data-rich audiences that drive results across channels, which makes them an excellent partner to further expand our offering.”

Non-political local ad spending is expected to increase 5.5% to $171 billion in 2025, according to a new forecast by BIA Advisory Services.

For the first time, digital spending will eclipse spending on traditional advertising in local markets, with digital accounting for 52% of the ad dollars, BIA forecasts.

When including political advertising, local ad spending is expected to be down 1.3% in 2025, compared to BIA’s revised forecast for 2024.

BIA raised its 2024 forecast to $173.7 billion as it increased its estimate for political ad spending by $560 million to $11.7 billion.

Local television continues to get the largest share of the spending. At the same time, the firm projects that connected TV/over-the-top (OTT) will receive much of the additional political ad dollars added to the mix. 

“With macroeconomic conditions impacting 2024 local advertising spending, it has been slower than anticipated, and we've adjusted this year’s forecast,” BIA Advisory Services VP of forecasting and analysis Nicole Ovadia said. 

In terms of 2025: “We’re taking a nuanced view to shape our expectations,“ Ovadia said. “If the Fed adjusts interest rates as indicated, post-Q1 2025 or early Q2, and inflation cools and the labor market settles out, we anticipate some economic relief by midyear. This will boost consumer confidence and, subsequently, increase media ad spend. While we’re optimistic, we're also being cautious with our projections at this early stage.”

For 2025, BIA sees local PC/laptop advertising growing 13%, CTV/OTT up 9.1%, out-of-home up 5.9% and TV digital up 5.4%.

“In previous forecast rounds, we reported robust growth in CTV/OTT, but different factors have led us to moderate expectations around the speed of that growth,” BIA managing director Rick Ducey said. “One factor is that while streaming viewing is growing, there’s less available ad minutes in streaming versus linear TV. However, this channel continues to present valuable opportunities for advertisers due to how it combines the power of premium TV with the precision of digital audience targeting. Political and issue campaigns are tapping into this capability, and it will be interesting to unpack the use cases and outcomes.”

TelevisaUnivision said it completed its upfront advertising sales, with a record number of advertisers making commitments to the big Spanish-language broadcaster.

The demand from a larger number of clients contributed to a single-digit increase in dollar volume and higher prices on a cost per thousand viewers (CPM) basis, according to people familiar with the situation.

Also Read: Latin Culture Is Key at TelevisaUnivision Upfront

TelevisaUnivision’s goal has been to convince marketers not advertising to the large Hispanic market to start running commercials in Spanish-language media.

“We are proud of the historic number of advertisers committing to the Hispanic audience in this year’s upfront marketplace, underscoring TelevisaUnivision’s distinguished leadership in serving this critical, diverse and dynamic consumer  base across all platforms,” Donna Speciale, president of U.S. advertising and marketing at TelevisaUnivision, said.

“From linear and streaming to social and digital, more brands than ever have leaned in to leverage our strengthened capabilities, embracing culture and language as drivers of their future relevance and success,” Speciale said. 

Several of the large English-language media companies — NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Co. and Fox — have also said they have wrapped up their upfronts. In what was expected to be a difficult market, the media companies said they’ve seen higher volume, with gains coming in sports, streaming and digital inventory.

Sports was also a driver for TelevisaUnivision, sources said, with strong demand for its portfolio of soccer leagues and tournaments.

TelevisaUnivision’s ViX streaming service also chalked up double-digit increases in commitments compared to a year ago.

With most traditional ratings undercounting Hispanic consumers, TelevisaUnivision has been pushing new, big-data-based measuring systems. That new data was used as currency by advertisers representing about 40% of TelevisaUnivision’s volume, sources said.

With more people watching connected TV and more ad dollars spilling into ad-supported streaming, more research is being done into how consumers react to commercials. 

A new study by Wurl based on more than 1 million transitions from FAST channel content to ad breaks, found that 4% of viewers are lost per minute, which means during a two minute ad break, a channel loses 8% of its audience.

“Wurl’s data shows what you would expect,” The report states. “Viewers frequently change channels during ad breaks when the content and ads are not aligned, with a portion not returning after the ad break.”

In traditional TV, a commercial runs regardless of how many people are watching. In streaming, ads can’t be served to viewers who are no longer available, so there’s a lost opportunity.

At the same time, if the commercial is not a good fit with the content, the result could be a negative association for the brand.

The report contends that the percentage of viewers avoiding commercials can be reduced when the ads are a better match for the content being watched.

“Viewers are more engaged when content and ads align Improving the congruence between ad creatives and programming can significantly increase ad acceptance and brand recall. Contextual targeting, which ensures the delivery of the right ad at the right time, leverages the storytelling power of CTV by priming viewers, the report said.

Wurl ran a test to see if creating higher emotional resonance between ads and content correlated to a lower rate of viewer loss.

It used an algorithm that gave streaming content and ad creative an “emotional score” and then calculated the correlation between those scores.

Wurl found that the closer the correlation was to 1, the closer the emotions matched. Scenes and ads with a score of 1.0 resulted in nearly a 50% reduction in user loss compared to a score of 0.4. Ads with a cosine similarity of 0.75 or higher significantly improved user retention. 

“The data is fairly clear on this point: ensuring your ads match the tone of the content around them makes viewers less likely to switch away,” the report said. “For advertisers looking to ensure audiences are aware of their ad and engaged in the content, finding the right context is critical.”

The report said that the CTV world continues to evolve and that advertisers will have to be agile to adapt to the changing environment.

“New and innovative solutions are emerging to deal with some of the headaches marketers have faced when trying to buy programmatically on CTV,” the report concluded. “With new approaches to metadata, context analysis, and audience targeting, we’re entering a new era where brands can harness CTV's full potential to create impactful and effective advertising campaigns that drive real business results.”

Nielsen said it agreed to collaborate with Innovid to bring together Nielsen’s Nielsen One measurement product with Innovid’s cross-media ad-serving platform.

The companies said the combination would simplify buying convergent advertising by providing seamless workflow and better measurement across platforms.

“We’re excited to collaborate with Innovid to explore how combining our unique capabilities can make a greater positive impact on the future of audience measurement,“ Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said. “Nielsen’s work to capture all the ways that people engage with content and ads is essential so that advertisers, creators and the industry know what’s being watched and we continue to innovate on top of our leading measurement approach to better serve the changing industry.” 

The companies said they will be digesting the technical integration of their systems in the coming months.

“Nielsen’s robust industry footprint and methodology continue to make it the go-to standard for media trading and measurement,” Zvika Netter, CEO and co-founder of Innovid, added. “By joining forces and combining our technology, data, and scale, we will help build a better, more transparent, and accessible TV ecosystem for every advertiser. “ 

Walmart was the most effective convergent TV advertiser in the second quarter according to EDO, a measurement firm specializing in predicting how well commercials perform.

Walmart’s ads were 144% more effective than the average for the retail category, EDO said.

Following Walmart in convergent TV ad performance were Target, Old Navy, Kohl’s and T.J. Maxx.

On average, department store streaming TV ads were 19% more effective than their convergent average, which includes both linear and streaming commercials.

But different stores followed different strategies and got different results.

Target’s linear TV ads outperformed its own convergent TV average by 7.5%, EDO found.

On the other hand at Marshalls, streaming TV outperformed its convergent TV average by 43%.

“With a short window to engage consumers during the pivotal back-to-school season, retailers need to know whether their ads are making an impact, and they need to know while there’s still time to adjust their campaigns,” said Laura Grover, EDO’s senior , Head of Client Solutions. “By measuring and optimizing for predictive outcomes like brand searches and website visits, Department store brands can put themselves in the best possible position to generate a strong return on investment from their high-volume back-to-school campaigns.”

Women over 65 years of age were most likely to engage with department store ads in the second quarter, followed by 18 to 24 year old men and women 65 plus.

The hardest to engage with were men and women in the 25 to 44 year old demographic.

Consumer engaged with department store ads most on Thursdays, followed by Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to the EDO report.

Viamedia made a deal to become the exclusive programmatic ad sales rep firm for the streaming news service News of the World, also known as NOW TV.

As part of the arrangement, Viamedia will improve inventory management and revenue generation for News of the World, while providing improved targeting capabilities and broader reach to News of the World’s advertisers, the companies said.

“Securing exclusive programmatic ad rights for News of the World represents a significant step forward for Viamedia in the streaming media landscape,” Viamedia CEO David Solomon said.

Viamedia, which has mainly worked with cable operators last month announced it was selling programmatic ads for Willow by Cricbuzz, which streams cricket matches.

“Our extensive expertise in ad sales propels us to the forefront of digital advertising innovation, ensuring unmatched success for our partners,” Solomon said. “By leveraging programmatic technology, we are enhancing the accuracy and reach of advertising campaigns and unlocking new revenue opportunities, driving industry-wide innovation and expanding our influence in the programmatic streaming sector.”

NOW TV is a streaming TV service launched by Comcast’s Sky TV.

The Walt Disney Co. said it has completed its upfront advertising sales, generating record commitments with sports and streaming, in particular, showing growth.

Overall dollar volume was up 5% from last year, with more than 40% of upfront commitments going towards addressable inventory, including streaming and digital.

Disney Advertising said it benefited from the expansion of ad-supported Disney Plus, as well as from women’s sports sponsorships, multicultural partnerships and investments from independent buying agencies.

Streaming and sports were both up by double digits, the company said.

Also Read: Disney’s Rita Ferro Is Banking on Sports, Streaming, Tech (Upfronts)

“Disney’s unrivaled storytelling paired with our unparalleled ad technology and data capabilities delivers the outcomes our partners continue to push us on, and we continue to raise the bar,” Disney president, global advertising Rita Ferro said. “Our growth in the number of marketers we work with and the increased investments in advertising innovation demonstrates Disney’s differentiator. As we double down on our commitment to world-class storytelling, automation, and new ad products, demonstrating growth for partners underpins our focus for the future.”

Also Read: Disney Upfront Welcomes Back Bob Iger — and Jimmy Kimmel

Streaming ad volume was up 10% across Hulu and Disney Plus, the company said. Advertisers took advantage of the Disney Streaming Entertainment package, which offers inventory across the company’s streaming apps.

Data and targeted advertising were in demand from advertisers looking to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their campaigns.

Use of Disney’s first-party data was up 181% from a year ago, with nearly 60% of all data-enabled deals using Disney’s data.

Performance marketing deals were up 19%.

Categories that performed well for the 2024-25 upfront include international auto, beverages, food, personal care; financial services; healthcare and travel — specifically hotels and vacation rentals; and restaurants — led by quick-service restaurants. 

Earlier, NBCUniversal and Fox also reported strong upfront results in what was expected to be a difficult market.

Comcast Advertising said it made a deal with Comscore that will enable the measurement firm’s clients to use Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication product to increase the accuracy of their measurement and attribution calculations.

The agreement builds on the existing data partnership between Comcast and Comscore and comes as advertisers have expressed concerns that signal loss is making cross-platform measurement more difficult.

“Our clients are facing many challenges, especially in understanding the true impact of their advertising due to signal loss and privacy regulations,” Comscore chief commercial officer Steve Bagdasarian said. “We’re excited to expand our longtime partnership with Comcast Advertising to enhance identity resolution capabilities. This will give our clients increased confidence in cross-platform measurement and attribution, helping them create more informed media strategies to reach their most valuable audiences.” 

Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication service, announced earlier this year, uses data from 32 million U.S. households in a private-protected manner to understand the reach, frequency and outcomes of campaigns across linear and streaming TV and provide stronger identity resolution for marketers and programmers.

“Signal loss and data quality are greatly impacting the ability for advertisers to understand how they are reaching their target audiences, and how their media campaigns are performing,” Comcast Advertising VP and general manager, data Carmela Fournier said.

“Since Comcast Advertising’s solution is based on deterministic household signals across millions of households, we are able to offer reliable, privacy-forward signal authentication at scale,” Fournier said. “We’re excited to further our partnership with Comscore as they become one of the first measurement companies to tap into this service to provide clients a better understanding of their campaign performance and drive improved business results, while upholding the highest standards of consumer privacy.” 

Comscore had been able to use to Comcast set-top viewing data for audience measurement since the two companies struck a deal in 2020.

Comcast’s ad-sales unit began using Comscore data to sell local ads since 2022.

Comcast also licenses set-top data to Nielsen. Nielsen and Comcast renewed and expanded their relationship last year.

Fox said it has completed its upfront, managing increases in dollar volume for its linear and digital properties in what was expected to be a difficult market for legacy networks.

“Our focused portfolio of market-leading properties in sports, news, entertainment and streaming delivered year-over-year growth in both linear and digital advertising commitments as well as growth in overall portfolio pricing in this year’s upfront,” Fox president, advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships Jeff Collins said in a statement.

“Notably, we saw rapidly accelerating double-digit volume growth on Tubi, which is testament to its incredible momentum in the streaming marketplace,” Collins added. 

Demand was strong enough that Fox elected to sell more inventory in the upfront than in past years, rather than take a chance on pricing in the scatter market, which has been weak the past few years, sources familiar with the situation said.

This was the first upfront for Collins, who succeeded Marianne Gambelli as head of Fox ad sales earlier this year.

Fortunately for Collins, Fox’s portfolio does not include cable entertainment networks. With cord-cutting reducing viewership and programmers moving original programming from their cable networks to their streaming platforms, demand was down.

What ad buyers wanted was live programming — sports and news — and Fox has tons of that.

Buyers said demand was up for NFL games, where Fox generates the highest ratings on Sunday afternoons/ Fox also has college football, with its Saturday-afternoon games being joined by a package of Friday-night games this season.

In February Fox will air the Super Bowl, the biggest advertising event of the year. Buyers said Fox was hoping to be substantially sold out by the beginning of September, with prices ranging as high as $7.2 million for a 30-second spot.

Broadcast primetime volume on Fox was surprisingly strong, especially compared to cable’s problems.

Also Read: Fox Shares Fall Premiere Dates, Including Rookie Shows ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’ and ‘Universal Basic Guys’

With the recent wild political news, viewing of Fox News Channel was way up in July, which fueled ad demand. Fox has sold election packages for advertisers that are not shy about having their commercials appear in political coverage. Other advertisers have opted to either wait to start their flights after the election is over or to appear in the more lifestyle-oriented programming running on Fox News.

Fox’s Tubi streaming platform managed to score increased ad commitments despite heightened competition in streaming caused by the entrance of Amazon Prime Video into the market, individuals familiar with the situation said..

While a flood of inventory from Prime Video threatened to depress price in the market, Tubi’s volume continued to increase commensurate with its continuing double-digit viewership growth.

Also on the digital side, Fox’s new offering that lets advertisers buy audiences across Fox properties saw significant growth, according to Collins. OneFox “delivered a 3 times increase in volume over last year,” he said.

Earlier this month, NBCUniversal said it had finished its upfront, registering an increase in volume across broadcast, cable and streaming.

NBCU said that sports was a strong seller, along with Peacock and its digital platforms. 

Buyers said that advertisers were looking for flexibility from the networks. 

“It’s not like the old days when we had to rush to get our money down on programming,” one media agency executive said.  “With so many options out there, there are new ways to reach customers.” 

While the supply of entertainment inventory was high, ad dollars were chasing sports. 

The lack of urgency meant the framework for deals was reached weeks ago, but both sides had time to iron out details — which should work out better for the advertisers.

Despite an increase in programmatic buying, the upfront will remain an important part of the TV buying process.

“The legacy media networks still want to count their dollars and get that down in May and June, so I don’t think it will go away completely,” the agency executives said. “But people are more active throughout the year because they want more flexibility and there are more options.”

iSpot.tv, one of the measurement companies wrestling with Nielsen, now says it’s dancing with TikTok.

An integration with the short-form social video giant will enable brands to see how the reach of campaigns on TikTok compares with linear TV in the U.S., using iSpot’s Unified Measurement Platform, the companies said.

The deal could make it easier for TikTok to compete for TV and connected TV ad budgets, with brands better able to use familiar third-party metrics to evaluate the popular platform. 

Also Read: LinkedIn Names iSpot to Measure New CTV Offering

“In the dynamic video landscape, brands need to extend their reach beyond traditional channels,“ TikTok global head of marketing science Jose Ruiz said. “TikTok’s commitment to providing diverse measurement tools enables advertisers to understand and leverage cross-media engagement, driving meaningful results.“

With the integration, iSpot users will be able to gauge TikTok campaign performance, determine the brand-level reach and value of TikTok and optimize media plans and buys across CTV and linear.

iSpot also verifies impression delivery via TikTok for advertisers.

Before making its announcement, iSpot analyzed 21 campaigns and found that on average 58% of TikTok impressions reach an audience of viewers who were not exposed to the TV portion of the campaign.

“Marketers and brands that aren’t considering TikTok as integral to their cross-platform marketing campaigns are clearly missing out on an opportunity to extend their reach and drive results,” iSpot.tv executive VP, media partnerships Stu Schwartzapfel said. “We’re thrilled TikTok leaned into our leading Unified Measurement to uncover, understand and ultimately capitalize on consumers who are not reached by linear TV.”

NBCUniversal said it has already garnered record Olympic advertising revenue for the Paris Summer Olympics.

Only four days into the competition, NBCU said it has surpassed the record $1.25 billion in revenue generated during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The company said more advertisers are participating in the Paris Olympics than were involved in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games and the Tokyo Games combined. 

It said 70% of the advertisers in the 2024 games are first-timers, with those new sponsors spending a total of nearly $500 million.

Digital ad revenue is more than doubling the take from Tokyo in 2021, NBCU added.

Also Read: NBCU Plans Commercial-Free Hour During Olympic Opening Ceremonies

NBCU continues to sell advertising as ratings meet expectations, enabling the company to release inventory reserved for make-good ads and a continuing stream of programmatic sales.

“We are proud to have secured the highest Olympic and Paralympic advertising in the history of the Games, and are grateful to our advertisers for their partnership,” Mark Marshall, chairman, global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, said. “Together, we have innovated the advertising experience with authentic and inspirational creative that is leaving a lasting impact on consumers.”

Comscore said it now measures YouTube audiences across all digital devices in the U.S.

The new capability adds data about YouTube viewing on connected TVs to Comscore’s Video Metrix Multi-Platform product, enabling advertisers to better evaluate ad campaigns that incorporate YouTube.

Comscore's expanded YouTube CTV measurement includes a direct integration with YouTube, the company said. 

“Comscore is solving for the convergent shift in cross-platform audiences and continues to lead in digital and video measurement that incorporates person-level insights and deduplicates video audiences across digital,” Comcscore chief commercial officer Steve Bagdasarian said. “Bringing YouTube CTV to Comscore’s Video Metrix Multi-Platform suite will give publishers complete reporting of its reach across all video platforms.” 

Comscore said total YouTube audiences will be available in more countries in 2025, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain and the U.K.