Cadent said it launched Performance TV, designed to increase the effectiveness of campaign by combining the reach of traditional linear TV with the targeting of digital video, including connected TV.

Yamaha Motor Sports used Cadent Performance TV to attribute store visits and drive conversion to its omnichannel advertising.

“Purchasing a motorcycle is a unique experience, and a fulfilling one once accomplished. Since it requires specific efforts on behalf of the buyer, we connected with Cadent to align the campaign goals toward reaching in-market consumers, while efficiently driving qualified audiences to a ‘contact a dealership’ form on Yamaha’s website,” said Carlos Hernandez, VP of communications strategy at Generator Media + Analytics, media agency for Yamaha Motorsports. 

“Our digital campaign successfully drove an increase in conversion volume by 44% week over week, and by 48% after the 30-day post-campaign attribution window. Upon data collection, Cadent optimized the campaign in-flight and improved cost-per-conversion efficiency by 80%,” Hernandez said.

Cadent said Performance TV is built by combining three capabilities of its Aperture platform.

The Aperture Viewer Graph and Data Marketplace links linear TV households and anonymous device impressions. Aperture’s real-time performance optimization technology facilitates in-flight adjustments based on cost-per-action and return on ad spending.

Performance TV advertisers can use the Aperture MX supply-side platform to access premium inventory and avoid made-for-advertising supply. 

“Measuring omnichannel campaigns remains a challenge for linear and CTV advertisers, yet proof of performance is more crucial now than ever. It is time to get advertisers back to what they do best: building strategies to drive better outcomes for their business,” Marcy Pentoney, senior VP, product at Cadent, said. “Cadent Performance TV connects premium digital, linear, and CTV inventory with precise targeting and measurement to help our clients achieve their goals.” 

Cadent has agreed to buy AdTheorent for $3.21 a share in cash or about $324 million.

AdTheorent uses machine learning to deliver value for programmatic advertisers. Combined,  the companies said they will become one of the largest independent omnichannel audience activation platforms for buyers and sellers of advertising.

“Together, Cadent and AdTheorent will enable our customers to drive performance across all strategic audiences, no matter where they consume media or where they are in the sales funnel,” said Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent. “We will connect the worlds of programmatic and TV, providing solutions across our partner ecosystem that will drive next-generation omnichannel reach and performance results.”

When the deal closes, the combined company will work for about 1,000 advertisers. 

“AdTheorent’s customer-focused culture, award-winning technology and commitment to innovation has helped our team build a strong brand that is a recognized leader in performance-first programmatic advertising,” said James Lawson, CEO of AdTheorent. “In Cadent, we’ve found a partner with a shared commitment to delivering measurable results for customers, and a complementary vision for the future of omnichannel advertising. In an increasingly competitive and evolving adtech sector, we are excited to bring together our teams, technology, and solutions to drive continued value to our customers and our employees.”

Novacap, the private equity firm that acquired Cadent last year, provided strategic services and funding for the AdTheorent acquisition.

"Novacap accelerates growth companies through strategic investments. We’re pleased to empower the Cadent and AdTheorent teams to further their vision of building a leading omnichannel audience platform, by providing the foundational resources necessary to complete a transaction of this scale,” said Samuel Nasso, partner at Novacap, and chairman of the board of Cadent.

Cadent said it launched Aperture MX, a marketplace that delivers audiences and content across connected TV, online video, display, digital out-of-home, mobile app and desktop advertising.

MX, an addition to the Cadent Aperture Platform, is designed to increase transparency by creating a direct link between publishers and advertisers, making it easier to activate and optimize cross-screen campaigns.

Publishers generate more revenue through Cadent’s relationships with buyers.

Aperture MX went live in North America with an exclusive group of publishers earlier this year. Cadent expects the platform to expand to more than 100 publishers by the end of the year, representing 150 billion requests..

Initial launch partners for Aperture MX include Allen Media Group and Basis Technologies. 

“There is a clear market need to streamline and automate the buying and selling of TV, video, and digital media,” said Nick Troiano, CEO at Cadent, which was acquired in August by Novacap. “Aperture MX responds to these challenges by bridging the gap between advertisers and publishers with purpose-built, data-driven solutions.”

Aperture MX promises advertisers verified audiences, direct connections to unique supply  and full transparency into bidding activity.

“The media industry is rapidly changing, and we recognize the need for streamlined advertising solutions,” Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, said. “We are thrilled to be a part of Cadent Aperture MX and provide our advertising partners with another way to buy media from our library of premium movies, TV shows and local news.”  

“TV advertisers will be more willing to direct spend to digital devices if the industry can automate this process and make it easier for brands to understand the effectiveness of ad dollars in this medium,” added Tim Smith, senior VP of corporate development, Basis Technologies. “Basis Technologies is driving this evolution as one of the first programmatic advertising partners leveraging Cadent’s Aperture MX. As Cadent has been a forerunner in curating video ad spend for brands, we align with its vision of an interconnected TV advertising ecosystem that brings marketers and publishers closer together.”

Cadent said it expects Aperture MX to be in international markets in 2024.

Ad-tech platform Cadent agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Novacap. Cadent had been owned by Lee Equity Partners.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Novacap principal Samuel Nasso will become chairman of Cadent, while Cadent’s management team, led by CEO Nick Troiano, remains in place.

Troiano told Broadcasting+Cable that Novacap had been looking to make an acquisition in ad tech and approached Cadent.

“It was opportunistic because it’s a tough M&A market,” Troiano said. “No IPOs. Macro conditions are challenging. So they came to us, and it was a great mix.”

With the ad market in a big of a slump, there have been relatively few ad tech deals recently. One exception is Madhive, which drew a $300 million investment from Goldman Sachs in June.

Novacap will be able to provide Cadent with financing to allow it to pursue a strategy of growth by acquisition.

“They’ve got substantial capital behind us for acquisitions. It’s a great time to be an acquirer,” Troiano said.

“We are at the beginning of a fundamental shift in TV advertising, and with strategic investments and acquisitions we believe Cadent will continue to propel forward as an innovator in the converged marketplace,” Nasso said.

Cadent has transformed itself from a company that served the linear TV ad market to a converged television platform, partly through acquisitions that gave it an identity graph, a demand-side platform and a supply-side platform.

“We’ve moved pretty substantially into the CTV world. We’re growing on average 15% to 20% year over year,“ Troiano said. “We expect to continue to do so in 2023 and I think if the market does rebound, we expect to be in a great position to continue to grow and take advantage of that.”

Cadent’s tech stack is fairly complete at this point, so Troiano said acquisitions could come in three areas.

One is the aggregation of additional audience reach. A second is automation, which could make the company more efficient. The third area is attribution, or showing advertisers their ad dollars are working.

Cadent’s roster of customers includes global agency holding companies and media-buying agencies, more than 70 of the top 100 advertisers and scaled global publishers and content distributors.

“Our success is based on people. We have a fantastic management team and we're all staying on board,” Troiano said. “We’ve been doing pretty well. I think people are galvanized about the opportunity to grow.” 

Novacap, based in Montreal, has more than $6 million (Canadian) invested. It previously bought four companies in the telecom, media and technology space, including Static Media. 

"Cadent, as a pioneer in converged TV advertising, embodies the kind of innovative, growth-focused company we aim to partner with,” said Pascal Tremblay, managing partner in TMT and CEO at Novacap. “Our extensive capabilities in accelerating high-growth technology companies make us an ideal partner to support Cadent.” 

Evercore served as lead financial adviser with Stifel as co-adviser. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as the legal adviser to Cadent and Lee Equity Partners.

RBC Capital Markets, TD Securities and Scotiabank acted as financial advisers and provided financing to Novacap and Baker Botts LLP acted as legal adviser to the firm.

Advanced TV company Cadent said it made a deal to integrate data from Tunnl into the Cadent Aperture Audience Data Marketplace.

The combination will enable advertisers to better target brand reputation, public affairs and corporate advocacy campaigns.

“As the TV ecosystem becomes increasingly fragmented and complex, marketers need solutions to reach their target audience across screens and devices,” said Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent. “Through our partnership with Tunnl, we further our mission in helping brands engage the right consumers in a scalable, privacy-compliant manner.”

Also: Cadent Enables Programmatic Bidding Across Multiple Devices

Tunnel builds its audience data using monthly, national surveys paired with a library of consumer information going back 20 years.

The Tunnl data will also be available via the Cadent Aperture Viewer Graph, enabling advertisers to reach Tunnl’s audience across linear and OTT to drive incremental reach. 

“This integration closely connects Cadent Aperture Platform users with Tunnl’s audiences at a time when OTT and CTV are increasingly important ways for advertisers to reach their buyers,” says Tunnl CEO Sara Fagen  “We see significant opportunity for advertisers to benefit from Tunnl’s partnership with Cadent as we continue to focus on connecting audiences with people’s TV viewership habits.” ■

Despite the huge amount of attention given to connected TV, realistically, we’re still years away from the true year of CTV. While CTV has seen record growth over the last two-plus years, there’s still a very sizable viewership on linear television; only 2% of respondents to TiVo’s Q4 2021 Video Trends Report reported canceling their pay TV service in the last six months, down considerably from the last survey. 

So, if cable and streaming will continue to coexist for the long term, advertisers shouldn’t feel like they have to choose between the two mediums. Bridging the linear and digital ecosystems can bring tremendous benefits to how advertisers tap into quality inventory, reach audiences across screens and measure and attribute their outcomes. 

Upfront buying vs. RTB trading 

Just as linear and CTV are converging, upfront buying and real-time bidding  (RTB) don’t exist in silos. Advertisers securing upfront inventory can still make future ad buys via real-time bidding and retain control over when they buy and how much they pay. For example, a small direct-to-consumer company seeking to drive sales of a specific product will have different goals and budget constraints than an established pharmaceutical business looking to increase brand awareness. Accordingly, each advertiser’s media mix will be reliant on these factors and more.   

This strategy is central to the future of TV buying, as advertisers will require the flexibility to reach their digital audiences with more transparency into how TV ads perform. 

Like-for-like inventory in CTV

Linear TV is still bought the way it historically has been — via Nielsen demographics and network/daypart. How do advertisers find the same like-for-like network inventory in CTV while tapping into the mass audience linear offers?

Matching technology now exists that identifies a unique identifier and then maps it to the CTV app owner or publisher to give advertisers advantages in both pre-bid and in reporting. When the impression can be confirmed as having served on a cable network publisher in a CTV/OTT environment, the unique identifier is matched to its corresponding cable network. Advertisers can then avoid bidding on an impression if this match wasn’t made and can access the combined impressions delivered at the network level. For example, if an impression is delivered on linear cable network "Discovery" and a CTV impression is delivered on a unique identifier determined to also be Discovery, these impressions are reported together. 

There are also capabilities available that allow advertisers to essentially bring together connected devices and households using cookie-less graphs. Using these graphs, advertisers can build audiences with data from across both linear and CTV to create single, anonymized, targetable IDs. The result is audiences that are curated for cross-screen TV. In this way, advertisers can connect with both TV viewers and cord-cutters and cord-nevers by adding CTV to linear TV media plans, boosting efficiency and minimizing ad spend waste.

CTV reporting to match linear results in cross-screen campaigns

The new way advertisers can think about CTV is as an extension of traditional TV supply, so their advertising remains fluid regardless of where, how and when their audience is watching. While media reports of ratings declines and finite supply in linear might scare advertisers away, these are mostly exaggerated scenarios. The reality is, many viewers are consuming TV across a variety of formats and will continue to do so. 

To get an understanding of how to measure both traditional and digital TV advertising in a streamlined way, advertisers can apply post-log data showing when TV ads are running to CTV. Centralizing ad performance data, including channel, daypart, network and more, from across all TV formats in one place allows advertisers to use and then apply data and insights from one TV channel to another. The ability to monitor performance and audience trends in near-real-time can help in optimizing campaigns across every screen and channel. Retaining ownership of this data is vital for use in other marketing activations via third-party applications.

CTV advertisers can also align GRP with CTV through indexed audiences, enhancing demo-based ad buys with behavioral and purchase data for advanced targeting. Data-driven audience technology can unearth the networks and dayparts that best apply to high-value audiences, helping advertisers optimize frequency, cut media waste and boost the reach of linear campaigns.

Linear television isn’t going anywhere and the digital-only ecosystem isn’t quite ready for primetime. Bringing together these ecosystems so they can work in harmony is how advertisers can reach and engage their audiences everywhere they are watching without sacrificing viewer experience. ■

Cadent said it has added a new feature to its Cadent Aperture Platform that enables programmatic guaranteed bidding for publishers’ addressable and connected TV inventory across set-top boxes, smart TVs, mobile devices and desktop applications. 

Buyers will be able to use a self-service automated platform to build campaigns, avoiding manual processes, Cadent said, while publishers see increased demand and improved monetization.

“Streamlining the process of ad enablement using Cadent Aperture Platform – supported by a user-friendly self-service marketplace – allows both the supply and demand-sides of TV advertising to take advantage of the next generation of solutions within the advanced TV landscape,” said Eoin Townsend, chief product officer, Cadent. “We are constantly looking to evolve our solutions to manage inventory in the most efficient, effective way possible. Aperture continues to unify the needs of ad buyers and publishers in an open, accessible marketplace, now with greater flexibility and sophistication.”

Cadent said the new feature works across all inventory types including programmatic linear TV, as well as On Demand and linear TV via private marketplace.

The Aperture platform allows inventory owners to place addressable ads using historical data, associate audience segments with households, forecast available inventory and manage delivers of directly sold addressable TV campaign against programmatic guaranteed demand. ■ 

Ad-tech company Cadent said it has expanded its work with Octillion, enabling local and mid-market advertisers to measure the direct sales impact of advertising based on in-store sales lift from homes exposed to over-the-top and connected TV commercials.

Combining Cadent’s Aperture cookieless audience mapping technology with Octillion’s attribution capabilities provides clients with a holistic look at consumer purchasing behavior, the companies said.

“The past 18 months began a record shift from linear TV viewing to OTT/CTV. As the market continues to see explosive growth, marketers are seeking better ways to leverage these channels as well as understand how they are driving business outcomes including retail store sales, web traffic, and foot traffic,” said Octillion CEO Gabe Greenberg.

One Octillion client is Big Sandy Superstores. The company onboarded its customer relationship management files into Octillion’s self-service platform and selected the campaigns being monitored by Cadent.

“We have gone from zero accountable partners to over 50% – anyone that could not provide attributable media had their spend reduced or cut,” said Robert VanHoose, CEO of Big Sandy Superstores. “Today, OTT with Octillion and Facebook are our largest spend, compared to circulars and broadcast TV just two years ago. Octillion’s level of focus and detail has allowed us to reduce our overall marketing spend as a percentage of sales to almost half and we can prove it with their full suite of attribution tools.”

“OTT and CTV viewership continue to grow, as audiences become more and more fragmented. This means that it is becoming increasingly important for marketers to be able to demonstrate results from campaign activations,” Jamie Power, chief data officer and COO of advanced TV at Cadent said. “Through the use of Aperture Platform, we can offer Octillion’s clients a clearer picture of their ad conversion, minimizing wasted ad spend and strengthening the power of this impactful advertising medium.”

Cadent, the advanced TV platform company, said it expanded its relationship with Tegna’s Premion OTT advertising unit, under which Premion will use Cadent's Viewer Graph to activate cross-screen campaigns against custom audience segments.

Cadent’s advanced TV platform will provide Premion with audience tools and services including first-party data onboarding, audience building, insights, analytics, reporting, and campaign deployment.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Also Read: Cadent Teams With Liberty on Addressable in Europe

“True audience-based targeting tied to real-world business outcomes is critical for marketers today,” said Tom Cox, president of Premion. “Our agreement with Cadent allows us to better understand the value of our audiences so that we can provide best-in-class solutions to advertisers.”

Premion will use Cadent’s proprietary, location-based, syndicated audience data as its primary dataset for targeting. In addition, Premion will have access to other third-party behavioral datasets from leading data partners within Cadent’s Data Marketplace to help advertisers build a fully comprehensive view of their audiences.

“For years, Cadent and Premion have partnered to bring incredible, innovative OTT solutions to market,” said Tim Jenkins, executive VP, head of audience & identity solutions, Cadent. “Through this new agreement, we can enable Premion’s advertisers to unlock even greater value from their OTT campaigns by helping them unify disparate media audiences and get a more complete picture of how to best reach their target households.”

Advanced TV company Cadent said it is expanding it is working with Liberty Global to extend its addressable advertising management platform in Europe.

Cadent and Liberty began working together in 2019 in the U.K. It recently expanded its automated addressable linear and VOD advertising platform into Ireland and now plans to move into Liberty’s European markets starting in 2021.

“As the leading independent advanced TV platform, Cadent is focused on bringing proven, scalable and sophisticated data and advertising solutions to platform operators, broadcasters and advertisers,” said Keith Kryszczun, senior VP of global platform sales at Cadent. “This expansion reaffirms our commitment to innovation through our technology partnership with Liberty Global, which has brought demonstrable success to the TV industry and our respective partners over the years.”

Cadent’s platform lets advertisers combine the scale and brand-building engagement of live and on-demand television, with the targeting and attribution capabilities of digital advertising.

“This integration delivers another big part of Liberty Global’s continued commitment to linear and on demand addressable advertising to support our content partners and provide a better viewing experience for our customers,” said Pieter Vervoort, VP product, entertainment, Liberty Global. “Cadent is providing a sophisticated solution that shows a clear way forward for TV platforms and broadcasters.”

Cadent’s technology enables advertisers to target households by using anonymized data in a GDPR-compliant manner. As cookies are phased out, Cadent said its technology lets advertisers reach strategic audiences in a safe environment.

Cadent said that independent media agency Empower has become the first customer of Cadent’s upgraded advanced TV platform, which enables advertisers to assemble and activate campaigns across channels, with more control and transparency. 

Empower will use Cadent’s platform and viewer graph for its planning platform, called EMerge, which uses digital targeting and measurement to the TV world to create opportunities to target consumers throughout all phases of their path to making a purchase.

Also Read: Cadent Acquires 4Info to Bolster Ad Targeting

Cadent’s viewer graph enables the orchestration of TV ads across linear television, set top box and IP-based addressable and OTT formats.

Also Read: Catalina to Use Cadent TV Graph for Cross-Platform Ads

"The ability to leverage Cadent Advanced TV platform to build and optimize audiences within one buying system will provide more relevant, thoughtfully orchestrated cross-channel experiences to our clients’ audiences across screens,” said Jim Price, CEO at Empower. “Cadent’s technology will play a critical role in how Empower’s consumer journey work comes to life in the important space of linear and addressable TV.”

Other features of Cadent’s upgraded platform include being able to reach audiences faster and more accurately, maximization of reach across devices and IQ Score, Cadent’s indexed reporting system, which helps brands understand the effectiveness and efficiency of campaigns in flight and post flight.

“This suite of solutions helps advertisers leverage their data across screens so that they’re constantly learning from their campaigns and improving the way they connect with viewers,” said Jamie Power, chief data officer at Cadent. “As a partner to marketers and agencies, Cadent is proud to play a central role in building the foundation of next-generation TV.”

Cadent self-service tools will provide Empower account teams with insights on pacing, media delivery and outcome-based reporting for their clients.

"Jim and Empower are bringing more accountability to TV and gaining a full understanding of audiences – where they’re watching, what they’re buying and the devices they’re using – and offering a smarter way to reach audiences and deliver on a message,” said Cadent CEO Nick Troiano. “We’re proud to partner with Empower to better serve brand marketers.”

Cadent said it expanded its relationship with Acxiom, whose advertiser clients will be able to  activate campaigns using Acxiom data on the Cadent Advanced TV Platform.

The arrangement will allow advertisers to buy target audience segments more efficiently and get real time pre-campaign insights across linear networks, addressable TV, CTV and OTT.

“Acxiom is always searching for new and creative ways to connect marketers with their audiences. TV, as one of the most emotionally resonant and effective mediums for marketers, is a natural fit for our abilities as it becomes more data-driven and embraces digital paradigms,” said John Baudino, senior VP, data & identity at Acxiom. “We’re proud to partner with Cadent to better serve marketers as they seek to use data to reach the right customers through techniques such as data-driven linear television.” 

The deal comes as marketers scramble to understand audience identity and activate data quickly across video screens.

Acxiom data  will be integrated with Cadent’s Viewer Intelligence Graph, allowing national advertisers to de-duplicate and map audience segments and maximize reach, the companies said.

“As viewer behavior continues to evolve and audiences fragment, it becomes more important than ever for marketers to get a complete view of their customers before and during campaign activation,” said Tim Jenkins, executive VP, head of audience & identity solutions at Cadent. “We’re excited to announce the expansion of our partnership with Acxiom, bringing our data expertise and technology together for the marketplace.”

Cadent said Catalina, which provides shopper intelligence and personalized digital media for packaged-good brands and retailers, will use the Cadent Platform to include linear TV, advanced TV and OTT programming in its BuyerVision managed service.

As part of the expanded relationship between the two companies, Cadent will offer its clients Catalina’s purchase-based audience and cross-screen measurement services. 

The agreement will help brands, retailers and agencies engage and connect with even hard to reach shoppers, the companies said.

“The value of this partnership – using data and analytics to gain a better understanding of the shopper journey, what they’re watching and the device they’re using – is incalculable to marketers today,” said Kevin Hunter, executive VP and chief commercial officer at Catalina. “We’re thrilled to partner with Cadent and bring next generation TV to our brand, agency and retail partners.”

Catalina will be able to offer advertisers a better understanding of shopper behaviors, customize their audience segments and optimize media in real time to deliver personalized messages and creative via TV or digital services.

“Data-driven orchestration is how advertisers will best find and engage their TV audiences today and in the future,” Eoin Townsend, chief product officer at Cadent said. “This partnership is the fusion of Catalina’s insight-rich, best-in-class data with Cadent’s end-to-end platform allowing marketers to reach their audiences more effectively and efficiently.”

Advanced TV platform company Cadent said it is working with data science company Optimus Analytics to help advertisers create custom audience segments faster and get information campaign performance in real time.

Optimus Analytics’ on-demand data creation and audience modeling technology allows segments to be built or updated within a matter of hours in response to real-world triggers, the companies said. That lets advertisers adapt in real time at a time when the media environment is constantly changing.

"Advertisers today require hyper-responsive technology and the ability to optimize campaigns on the fly," said Katie Casavant, president of Optimus Analytics. "We're thrilled to partner with Cadent and respond to the industry's clear need for speed and more sophisticated, accurate audience targeting capabilities."

The integration connects Cadent's Viewer Intelligence Graph directly to Optimus' on-demand predictive modeling and audience scaling platform.

Cadent and Optimus are powered by cookieless, CCPA and GDPR-compliant technology.

"With this partnership, Cadent and Optimus aim to simplify and clarify identity for television advertisers," said Tim Jenkins, executive VP, head of audience & identity solutions, at Cadent. "Cadent's Platform and Optimus's data creation and modeling technology provide advertisers with unmatched speed and accuracy to target their relevant audiences across TV screens."

Ad-tech specialist Cadent has tapped Eoin Townsend to the post of chief product officer.

He comes on board soon after the company consolidated its brands – Cross MediaWorks, Cadent Network, Cadent Technology, and one2oneMedia – under a single brand – Cadent. That followed a move in 2016 to merge the teams of BlackArrow and Cadent Network.

Cadent says it now has relationships with more than 200 MVPDs and broadcast station groups, and a national addressable TV platform that spans 65 million homes.

RELATED: Cadent Adding Addressable Linear to TV Ad Dashboard

Townsend most recently was with Collective, leading the product technology and marketing teams in support of the multiscreen ad company’s programmatic advertising offering.

Before that he was the chief strategy officer at MediaMath, and is also late of DoubleVerify, Google’s DoubleClick, and FloNetwork.

“The evolution of TV promises a more data-driven future, and it’s going to take a combination of technology services and experience to do it right,” Townsend said in a statement. “Cadent’s offering of advanced TV, data-driven linear, indexed and a platform that ties it all together is unique in the industry.”

RELATED: Cadent Technology Joins RDK