NBCUniversal updates audience targeting and transaction models

Tuesday, February 25th, 2020
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NBCUniversal Hits The Marketplace With New One Platform Capabilities & Transaction Solutions Ahead Of The Upfront

NEW YORK, NY — Today, NBCUniversal announced new One Platform technology solutions and unveiled its all-audiences transaction model ahead of the 2020-21 upfront season. From proprietary technology capabilities to best-in-class partnerships, NBCUniversal is doubling down on the future of advertising in service of marketers and consumers alike, all while reinventing how the company transacts in the marketplace.

“One Platform represents the transformation of our business and our roadmap for the future of advertising,” said Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “We’re combining storytelling with scale, technology with trust, and innovation with insight—all in service of our viewers and our partners.”

NBCUniversal’s One Platform gives marketers the power to reach all audiences everywhere they are across the full NBCUniversal ecosystem, and enables every impression to be data-informed. From broad reach to advanced audiences, new optimization and targeting solutions are now available across all screens as NBCUniversal continues to push the industry forward, helping advertisers hit their KPIs and creating real impact for their businesses. With new planning and delivery systems, buying and trafficking linear and digital buys becomes as simple as turning on the TV.

Investing In Technology, Investing In The Future

NBCUniversal is making significant capital investments in new technology capabilities that deliver flexibility, efficiency, and effectiveness to marketers and a better ad experience for consumers. Underpinning NBCUniversal’s new all-audience transaction model for the upcoming upfront season is a combination of both proprietary technology development and best-in-class partnerships across several key areas, including:

  • Optimization: NBCUniversal is expanding its AdSmart suite of advanced advertising products, building on its proprietary audience graph, linear audience optimizer, and programmatic linear API. The company is now expanding its linear optimization solution to include Nielsen demo target audiences and leveraging market-leading technology and data science from 4C Insights to introduce a first-to-market cross-platform optimizer for unduplicated audience reach across linear and digital. With these new optimization capabilities, advertisers will be able to easily and efficiently target all audiences across all screens, leveraging the unequaled value and impact of NBCUniversal’s full portfolio of premium video content to help brands reach key audiences at scale.
  • Planning & Delivery: NBCUniversal is partnering with leading ad tech companies to simplify and streamline the planning and delivery process for marketers. With Operative, NBCUniversal is unifying planning to deliver partners the strongest and clearest proposals and ensure efficiency across every investment. With Comcast-owned FreeWheel, NBCUniversal is unifying and optimizing scheduling and trafficking of campaigns across linear, addressable and digital platforms concurrently, enabling more effective decisioning, pacing and delivery at scale.
  • Measurement: With NBCUniversal’s One Platform now enabling every impression to be data-informed, measurement is more critical than ever before when it comes to proving the impact of media investments. NBCUniversal will be expanding CFlight cross-platform impression measurement to include OTT co-viewing, out-of-home measurement (OOH) as well as short-form video. In addition, NBCU is developing in-campaign and post-campaign measurement dashboards to provide marketers with timely and consistent insights into how each impression across platforms drives impact for their business.

Four Ways To Transact

NBCUniversal’s One Platform transaction model opens the door for marketers to choose the best solution for their business, offering guarantees across all audiences, including:

  • Broad Reach Audiences: Marketers looking to take advantage of NBCUniversal’s unparalleled scale and reach will find a perfect solution in broad reach audiences, a new standard for network and daypart buys across NBCU’s premium video. The A18-49 demo was introduced in 1962 when the U.S was half the population size and only three networks existed. Today, NBCUniversal reaches an incredible 211 million adults aged 18+ every single month. This broad, scaled audience is critical for brands across a variety of categories, including: direct-to-consumer brands; automotive companies, consumer packaged goods; movie studios; travel and leisure; and more. With NBCU’s new planning and delivery tools, marketers can now use NBCUniversal’s full breadth and depth to reach the biggest audience with the most effective and efficient campaign.
  • Demo Target Audiences: Marketers looking to transact on Nielsen age and gender demographics will now be able to access the full NBCUniversal video platform in a single campaign, with the flexibility to buy across one screen or all screens. NBCUniversal’s AdSmart now includes two new capabilities for Nielsen demo-based buys: data-driven national TV campaigns optimized to reach a single demo across the company’s linear portfolio, and data-driven cross-platform campaigns optimized for unduplicated reach across the company’s linear, digital video and OTT footprint. The new cross-platform optimizer, in partnership with 4C Insights, will enable advertisers to take advantage of the unparalleled scale of NBCUniversal to reach their preferred demos wherever they are, no matter the screen.
  • Advanced Target Audiences: Marketers looking to reach custom consumer segments will continue to have access to advanced audience targeting powered by AdSmart, from data-driven national TV campaigns optimized to reach advanced target audiences across the company’s linear portfolio, to precision digital campaigns with dynamic delivery, to advanced target consumers across the company’s premium short-form and long-form video. As part of the partnership with 4C Insights, NBCUniversal will also offer cross-platform campaigns optimized for unduplicated reach of advanced target audiences. This new cross-platform offering is an important expansion to NBCUniversal’s solution for marketers to reach the exact audiences that will help them drive business impact.
  • Sponsorship & Live Events: Marketers looking to tap into the biggest cultural moments can use NBCUniversal’s full ecosystem to reach audiences across all platforms, from the Red Carpet to the Tokyo Olympics to the 2020 Presidential Election. From traditional audience demographic guarantees to unique integrations, NBCUniversal allows brands to become a part of moments that move audiences and inspire action.

NBCUniversal’s One Platform, first announced at CES in January, establishes a new industry standard for buying and selling premium video. The One Platform structure allows advertisers to leverage the full power of NBCUniversal’s extensive content and expansive scale.