What Are Data Companies Contributing to the Television Market? Overview Part 3 - Clients

This is the third in a series of articles examining and comparing the various data solutions for television measurement being offered by data companies in the industry. Previous articles explored the range of data offerings used in television and the marketing efforts to integrate the data into television analytics. Now, in Part Three, we ask about clients. Who currently uses which of these data offerings?

My take: While there are many large companies contracting data services and implementing data strategies using the companies outlined below, it is essentially for individual, siloed efforts and not a more cooperative type of industry wide adoption at this time. The feedback I have received from the previous two articles in this series is that there is still too much confusion in the industry because of overlapping claims. By examining which clients use which service, we may begin to see which service is best used for each type of media.  Some solutions may work best for agencies, some more for networks and some work best as secondary, supportive tools for other data processors and vendors. Ideally, one or two solutions will emerge as standardize-able industry solutions. Time (and industry cooperation) will tell.

Question 3: What types of clients use your data? Please include specific clients if that is allowable under your agreement with them.

Mainak Mazumdar Chief Science Officer,Simulmedia: We do not license or sell our data as a standalone offering. Rather, our data is used internally by Simulmedia’s VAMOS platform to plan, optimize, and report on our delivered TV campaigns. To our clients, our offering is audience-targeted TV advertising campaigns that drive business outcomes.

Frank Foster, SVP General Manager, TiVo Research and Analytics (TRA): Our clients include leaders in CPG, pharmaceuticals, insurance, finance, and tech. We also work with DMPs, DSPs, SSPs, agencies, and broadcast/cable networks. *We respect our clients’ privacy, but many of the presentations we’ve done with clients are available from the ARF and elsewhere if you want to cite those. 

Bill Feininger, President FourthWall Media: We’ve announced several clients including: Simulmedia for programmatic television buying, Nielsen Catalina Solutions for ROI and targeted ad placement, Rentrak for television audience measurement, Starcom Mediavest for television audience attribution and AOL/Adap.tv for audience ad targeting, 

Charles Buchwalter, President and CEO Symphony Advanced Media: Our clients represent the largest advertisers (in particular, CPG, technology, mobile manufacturers), agencies across all of the major holding companies, and media companies (network and cable broadcasters, as well as the largest digital publishers).

Kelly Abcarian, Senior Vice President, Watch Product Architecture, Nielsen: Nielsen’s client base includes, but is not limited to: Advertisers, Agencies, Broadcast Networks, Cable Networks, Cable Representatives, Cable System Operators, Data Processors, Data Modelers, Government Agencies, Hispanic (Spanish Language) Networks, Hispanic Agencies, Industry Organizations, Internet Companies, Investment Researchers, Local Advertising Agencies, Local Stations, Local Station Representatives, Media Buyers, Placed-Based Networks, Press, Public Broadcasters, Publishers, Regional Cable Networks, Sports Leagues & Teams, Syndicators/Producers, Talent Agents, Universities/Colleges.

Eric Schmitt, Executive Vice President, Communications, TV and Media. Allant: Allant’s clients include the largest TV distributors, network programmers, broadcasters, agencies and advertisers.  The Audience Interconnect® will facilitate hundreds of campaigns totaling more than $200 million in 2015 TV media spend, and we expect robust growth in 2016.  The agencies and F1000 advertisers we support including leading brands in automotive, consumer packaged goods, financial services, telecom and the political category.   Comcast and Charter have been longtime anchor clients, and we support household addressable campaigns at other leading distributors including Dish and other MVPDs.  We have experience with a wide variety of set top box and viewership data, and designed and built the industry’s largest set top box data repository. 

Cathy Hetzel, Rentrak Corporate President: Our national linear television system has 110 national U.S. network clients including CBS, Fox, CW, A&E, Scripps, and Discovery. Rentrak’s clients also include over 160 agencies including each of the five major U.S. agency holding companies, including WPP, Publicis, Omnicom/MediaGroup, IPG, and Dentsu Aegis Network, as well as numerous advertisers. We are the established leader in the ad verticals of automobiles, political, and consumer packaged goods. On the Local side, Rentrak has clients from the biggest TV station groups – CBS, Fox, Tribune, Sinclair, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Raycom Media, Bonten Media Group, and many others. Overall, more than 465 local U.S. TV stations from 70 station groups in 160 markets. Rentrak’s Video on Demand service has more than 226 U.S. clients and is the industry’s currency in STB Video on Demand audience measurement with 100% market share. We receive On Demand viewing data from more than 55 of the top multichannel video programming distributors, including Comcast, Charter, Cox, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and DIRECTV. We are also the recognized industry currency for addressable and interactive television.

Leslie Wood, Nielsen Catalina Solutions: We are currently focusing on two groups – direct to advertisers and digital providers, portals and publishers. They tend to be the people who pay for our data. We also sell to media companies and they use our data to create buys. An advertiser, if they buy their data, the agency automatically is included. 

Joan FitzGerald Senior Vice President, Television and Cross Media Service, comScore: comScore clients cross the spectrum of publishers, media brands, advertisers, advertising agencies as well as telecommunications and MVPDs and investment firms.  comScore clients include all major media brands – ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, A&E Networks, CBS, Fox, and NBC Universal to name a few – and all major advertising agency holding companies.  In addition, comScore advertiser clients cross the spectrum of verticals – CPG, financial services, retail, and more.