NBC Sports Enlists Innovid for Tokyo Olympics Ad Management

NBC Sports is enlisting Innovid’s services to provide ad management solutions for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, which kick off July 23. This is the first time that the media company will allow third-party ad serving during the Olympic Games. “We're very thrilled to work with the team at NBC and the Olympics team in order to create a digital ceiling for the live Olympics,” Tal Chalozin, CTO and co-founder of Innovid, told Adweek. “The reason that sports is very different than almost everything else in streaming is that it is watched live. When you're watching live, there’s totally different technical challenges that every company encounters. Because of that, NBC did not allow for third-party ad serving during the Olympics; this is the first time that they are doing that.” The company will manage third-party ads across NBC's suite of connected TV apps, including NBC Sports and the Olympic Channel, using the Innovid-powered Olympics Ad Manager. New Olympics advertising suite That service will be integrated into a new Olympics advertising suite, which will also include NBCUniversal’s Olympics Ad Engine. That platform uses past Games’ spots and data to make suggestions on how new spots can be modified to achieve different marketing objectives. Americans Who Plan to Watch the Olympics Are Most Excited About Women’s Sports “We are committed to offering our viewers and partners alike the best possible ad experience and every can’t-miss moment across all screens,” Dan Lovinger, evp of ad sales for NBC Sports, said in a statement. “With Innovid supporting this year’s Olympic Games, we are thrilled to be doing just that, ensuring a pristine ad experience for consumers and a seamless process for our marketing partners.” Advertisers will have access to streamlined campaign management, which Innovid said will reduce manual workflows and provide full control to launch campaigns or execute creative swaps. The company is also providing Media Rating Council accreditation for OTT impressions, including the filtration of invalid traffic. “Think about it as a portal to get access to ad serving capabilities,” Chalozin said. “You can upload your creative, you can see the status of that. You can add any tracking elements needed, and that allows kind of the best of both worlds.” “A lot of big media companies that are more internet-based media companies—Youtube, Snapchat—have their own platform,” Chalozin added. “You go to all of those places in order to access your workflow campaign. They're built from the ground up on that platform. What we're doing here for the first time is essentially doing something like that for one of the biggest televised events ever. This Olympics Ad Manager brings the power of the internet to one of the biggest television events.” NBCUniversal has surpassed Rio's $1.2 billion advertising haul for the Tokyo Olympics, and said last month that its revenue is on par with the record $1.25 billion in sales it had announced in March 2020, shortly before the Games were postponed by a full year due to the pandemic. NBCUniversal Surpasses Rio’s $1.2 Billion Advertising Haul for Tokyo Olympics