NBCU Expands Programmatic to Live Events and Sports, Adds Creative Targeting

NBCUniversal might be a legacy media company, but it wants the experience of buying ads against its vast media library to be more like using a computer: a single place where brands can fill all their needs. That’s the pitch at NBCU’s One22 ad tech-focused event this morning, where the company is announcing several updates to make the process of buying NBCU inventory more automated, more targeted and measurable. Among them: the full slate of NBCU content—including live sports—can now be purchased programmatically, advertisers can tailor their creative assets based on audience data, and NBCU has several certified new measurement partners. One22, held at 30 Rock's Studio 8H in New York, is NBCU’s second annual developer conference. It kicks off a series of upfront events for the company, culminating in its upfront week presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday, May 16. “The framing for a lot of our product and technology is around One Platform,” said evp of ad platforms and operations Ryan McConville, referring to NBCU’s solution for cross-selling linear and digital inventory in a single place. “It’s all [on] a single ad server, [yet] here are over 300 endpoints where a user can actually view NBC content.” Automating ad buying NBCU is opening more options for ad buyers, who want more technology in the buying process, by expanding its programmatic offerings on the buy and sell sides. While much of NBCU's content is already available programmatically, now advertisers have access to linear channels and live premium events, including NFL games, soccer games, WWE and, theoretically, even the Super Bowl, said McConville. (However, given the $7 million price tag for Super Bowl spots, it’s likely many brands would prefer the direct route). Dentsu Named First Agency Partner for NBCU’s First-Party Identity Platform There will not just be more inventory available programmatically, but more ways to buy it, as NBCU is now integrating with a slew of demand-side platforms including Adobe, Amazon, Xandr and Beeswax, as well as Peacock's private marketplace. In addition, through partnerships with Salesforce and Mediaocean, advertisers can now submit a single request for proposal for linear and digital buys and speed up the fulfillment process. Integrating tech and commerce into creative NBCU is rolling out several new technologies focused on advertisers' creative assets. A tool called the Harmonizer, available on Peacock in April, lets advertisers tailor creative assets based on audience signals. For example, advertisers can tailor creative to a viewer who recently signed up for Peacock, welcoming them to the service with a product discount, said Josh Feldman, CMO of advertising and partnerships. Or if a delivery service wants to activate late night cravings, they can use the Harmonizer to target viewers of late night shows when they're tuned in during the afternoon (a more advanced form of targeting than simply advertising in the late-night show itself), Feldman said. Another tool, Sequential Storytelling, helps push customers toward a purchase. Advertisers can tell a story over time, across multiple channels, using targeted audience groups. For example, a hotel brand can identify a cohort of travel enthusiasts with NBCU’s data platform, and then show a viewer an ad of a beach as they watch Bravo’s Top Chef. When they’re watching a red carpet fashion on E! the next day, the brand could show a second ad with more details, perhaps showing the interior of the guest rooms, Feldman suggested. And if these tools do work in convincing a customer to buy a product, NBCU has a tool for that too. The company announced a future enhancement to its commerce tool through integrating with parent company Comcast. Once the tool is rolled out, a Comcast customer can click the shop button on the TV ad, and then buy the product without leaving the TV platform, as Comcast already has their credit card and address information. “It is the most frictionless [process],” Feldman said. More measurement partners and targeting options As media buyers decide how to handle the challenges of measuring viewership in the convergent TV landscape, NBCU is adding more measurement partners, joining iSpot.tv, the company’s first certified measurement partner announced in January. NBCU has certified Comscore and Conviva for audience measurement, and certified DoubleVerify, MOAT, Integral Ad Science, FreeWheel and Innovid for ad verification. (One company notably absent from that list: Nielsen.) However, NBCU will only be transacting against iSpot.tv in its upcoming upfront negotiations. The company also announced it's integrating its own first-party data and identity platform with OpenAP's OpenID, a cross-publisher framework intended to help solve the problem of unduplicated reach. Last week, NBCU made several other tech announcements ahead of the One22 event, including naming Dentsu its first agency partner for its first-party data and identity platform, and bringing on Omnicom Media Group as the first media buying agency to integrate with its data clean room solution, NBCU Audience Insights Hub. The company also unveiled the Peacock Audience Extension, which allows targeting across all of NBCU’s streaming platforms. 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