NBCU to Drive Ad Sales Via TV Viewing, Consumer Data

Taking a page from the specificity of digital media, NBCU Universal says it will provide its client base with commercial inventory that better reaches their specific consumer groups via its new Audience Targeting Platform.

ATP will integrate set-top viewing data from several third-party sources with first- and third-party consumer data to identify top-performing, client-specific inventory in select categories across its portfolio of cable channels and NBC broadcast network, which feature the James Spader-starrer, The Black List (pictured).

By melding TV viewing data with other consumer information, NBCU believes it can more effectively allocate high value television inventory to optimize client media plans by combining the benefits of  targeting with the medium's audience scale.  This will enable marketers to go beyond conventional age and gender demographics in selecting audiences and move toward metrics tied closely to brand-specific KPIs.

“Marketers no longer have to choose between digital media’s data-driven targeting and television’s scale and unparalleled ability to communicate via great storytelling,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal.  “Now, we are unique in our ability to deliver on our promise of targeting nationally and insights-driven program selections across the entire NBCUniversal portfolio. Video content is more powerful in the presence of data.”

The ATP gambit follows the company’s launch last year of NBCU+ Powered by Comcast, which represented the first offering by the MSO and its programming arm to jointly deliver measurement and targeting solutions.