Condé Nast and Universal Music Group Partner to Combine Their Video Reach

This morning, Condé Nast announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group to launch Condé Nast Certified Video Plus (CNCV+), providing advertisers access to both audiences through one offering. Universal Music Group reaches 150 million monthly active users and ranks No. 1 in the entertainment-music category, according to Comscore data, while Condé Nast generates 1 billion global monthly video views. The two parties declined to name the exact size of their combined audience until the number could be de-duplicated. Condé Nast has over 62 million YouTube subscribers, according to Tubefilter. “Because there is so much fragmentation in the marketplace, advertisers want fewer, bigger partners,” Craig Kostelic, chief business officer, U.S. advertising revenue and head of global advertising solutions at Condé Nast. “Condé has an expert sales organization, so there is an opportunity to take the IP and assets of UMG and package those together.” The announcement comes amidst a trend toward consolidation in the media ecosystem, as publishers look to add scale and first-party data to better compete in a competitive digital advertising market. A rise in video consumption has also prompted other publishers, like Vice Media, to bulk up their video offerings, a pivot Condé Nast has shown signs of embracing as well. Condé Nast Unveils 500 Virtual and In-Person Events for 2021 Trustworthy scale While representatives from both companies have been in discussion for months, the decision to announce this partnership now stemmed from three primary reasons. First, both parties are betting on advertisers needing to reallocate ad spend following a disappointing Upfronts season. Given how disruptive streaming and over-the-top technology has been to the audience and ad revenue growth of major networks, Condé Nast and UMG believe the fluidity of the market will create opportunities for new players who can offer trustworthy scale. If agencies need new platforms to shift their budget, CNCV+ hopes to offer just that. “There's going to be a lot of fluctuation and volatility coming out of this year's Upfronts,” Kostelic said. “That is going to create opportunities for great content-and-audience bundlers who can work with advertisers and marketers to make it easy for them to place those dollars in high-performance places.” Second, as the media ecosystem rapidly consolidates to achieve overnight scale, the partnership combines two video audiences into one contract, making CNCV+, in theory, a more competitive choice for advertisers' budgets. And while unscrupulous scale might be easy to find, brand safety concerns are increasingly steering advertisers toward trustworthy sources of eyeballs, a designation that Kostelic says will set CNCV+ apart. Finally, as the era of the third-party cookie comes to a close, the scramble to bulk up first-party data banks has begun. By combining audiences, Condé Nast and UMG will be able to create richer pictures of their viewers by segmenting their audience in novel ways and adding additional touchpoints to gather information. Original content The worlds of Condé Nast and UMG are already intertwined, thanks to their musical overlap. A number of Condé’s most popular video series, such as Architectural Digest’s Open Door, frequently feature musicians, while other properties like Vogue or Pitchfork routinely cover the music industry. In a recent episode of Beauty Secrets, a video series from Vogue, UMG artist Olivia Rodrigo racked up 9 million views while discussing her makeup routine. As a result, by pairing together Condé Nast and UMG will be able to coordinate coverage and the advertising that runs against it. The duo will be able to sell inventory against these cultural moments, offering brand partners the opportunity to own these spikes in the zeitgeist, Kostelic said. The two companies plan to expand their collaboration in the coming months, too. While CNCV+ primarily serves to combine audience inventory, the next step in the partnership will involve creating original, collaborative content, taking the natural synergies of the pairing to its natural next level. “We’re proud to partner with Condé Nast for the launch of Condé Nast Video Plus and continue to build culturally significant content for fans around the world,” said Richard Yaffa, global head of Universal Music for brands.