NBCU's Latest Tool Lets Advertisers Target Viewers Across Its Entire Streaming Audience

CTV may be the biggest growth area in digital advertising right now, but it’s also one of the most fragmented. A marketer buying NBCUniversal inventory might want to target women between the ages of 18 and 34 who are currently looking to buy a car. But this lucrative audience is watching across a multitude of streaming properties, including NBCU's Peacock, and competitors Hulu and YouTube. NBCU is introducing Peacock Audience Extension to solve this problem, which will allow advertisers to target NBCU’s audiences across all streaming properties, some 182 million viewers per month—per the company. Previously, targeting was not possible across all streamers. “When you target an advanced audience, it doesn’t help you to target any one property,” said Ryan McConville, NBCU's EVP of advertising platforms and operations. The tool, announced today, will be showcased at NBCU’s developer conference One22 on March 22, which focuses on the company’s advertising technology. The event is the first in a series of NBCU’s upfront events, culminating in an in-person event at Radio City Music Hall and a Peacock-centered presentation at the NewFronts, both in May. Tech-focused One22 is in its second year. Last year NBCU used the event to introduce a proprietary identifier and data clean room technology. Ad tech is increasingly important as Peacock grows its streaming audiences. Currently a third of NBCU’s total video consumption is on streaming platforms, which the company projected to grow to 50% in the next 18 months, according to Laura Molen, president of advertising and partnerships. NBCU launched a new first-party identity platform, NBCUnified, in January and appointed former Merkle executive John Lee to the newly created chief data officer role in July 2021. The tool also represents more precision—in addition to greater scale—as NBCU has been beefing up its first-party data offering, according to McConville. Having greater access to media companies’ first-party data is important as marketers adjust to a world with less third-party tracking, said Ashley Karim-Kincey, VP of media at creative agency Dagger. NBCUniversal Will Return to Radio City Music Hall for In-Person, May Upfront “This announcement is a natural progression from what NBC is known for—being a reach mammoth with premium content—but it’s not necessarily unique or even surprising,” she said. “What’s most exciting about this tool is the potential to span across channels.” Solving some, but not all, of CTV’s ad tech woes The extension’s ability to target audiences around NBCU content on third parties like Hulu, virtual multichannel video programming distributors such as Sling and YouTube saves time for advertisers, said Shailin Dhar, CEO of measurement ad tech firm Method Media intelligence. Now marketers don’t need to build separate audiences on NBC and one of these third parties. “There is an operational efficiency you have,” Dhar said. “To use one less platform, [have] one less fee breakdown … is a good thing.” But targeting is not the biggest challenge in CTV, Dhar said. Marketers need to know if viewers actually watched the ad—and the industry is lurching toward solving the measurement problem in CTV. Current tech may help an ad reach the perfect viewer, but if the viewer stops watching before it plays, the best targeting solutions in the world are for naught, Dhar said. “Any new targeting mechanism is like saying, ‘We have a new spicy mustard but you still don’t have bread to hold your sandwich together,’” Dhar said. “It doesn’t really matter … if we don’t have clarity as to how many ads were really served to a user’s device.” NBCU is currently working on developing a measurement solution through a plethora of different tech vendors. The company picked iSpot.tv as its first alternative measurement partner in January. The audience extension data can be made available to NBCU's measurement partners via its Audience Insight Hub, which ensures a privacy safe environment, according to the company. Karim-Kincey said that, while the new tool is promising, media buyers need to answer certain questions before recommending it to brands. Karim-Kincey still has questions: “What exclusive audience reporting will be accessible with this tool given tighter privacy regulations? Will this opportunity be available to all brands or just at certain spend levels? Are there any limitations on geographical targetability or even channel selection?” NBCUniversal Creates Cookie-Free, First-Party Identity Platform for Marketers