How Clypd Accelerates Xandr's Position in Advanced TV

Demonstrating its commitment to TV advertising, Xandr acquired clypd, a data-driven sell-side TV platform of choice for more than 100 broadcast and cable networks that also boasts both a private and an open marketplace.  Clypd will complement Xandr’s recent product launches, including Xandr Monetize and its premium marketplace, Community.  This will help accelerate converged buying across addressable, digital, data-driven linear and OTT.

The clypd acquisition allows Xandr to significantly expand its inventory for Community through a new agreement with SpotX, which will act as its exclusive third-party supply-side platform for 2020.  The move will permit advertisers working with Community to tap directly into the SpotX platform.
The net result of this acquisition is that clypd adds broadcast and cable TV network inventory tracking to Xandr's digital and addressable footprint, effectively enabling greater convergence of cross-platform media.

Synergies and Connections
Clypd integrated Nielsen television ratings data into its platform in 2016.  There were two key benefits: Agencies could execute on custom audience segmentations and clypd could scale and streamline advanced TV audience contracts through the full lifecycle of a TV buy.

Now, with clypd's integration into Xandr's platform, there will be greater convergence within the full sales cycle between addressable TV, data-driven linear TV, mobile and over-the-top channels on streaming video services.  This will also streamline messaging to consumers to ensure that they are receiving relevant, seamless and, therefore, more compelling advertising.  This is in addition to Xandr's own first-party viewership insights.

This all feeds nicely into Community's premium marketplace, which is powered by Xandr, and includes inventory from a range of top networks: WarnerMedia's CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, B/R Live, Otter Media and Warner Bros., as well as A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Bloomberg, Cheddar, Vudu, VICE, Hearst Magazines, Newsy, Philo, Tubi and Xumo.  Marketers can use clypd's self-serve platform to define campaign targets, discover available inventory and measure campaign performance, which will complement Xandr Monetize on the publisher side.

Expansion and Authority
In its purchase of clypd, Xandr also gets the brain trust that has been focused on data-driven buying and selling for years.  Chief relationship officer Mark Mitchell, for example, has been building relationships with TV networks.  "When we started clypd, a ton of effort went into convincing sales leaders that the industry needed to begin to change," Mitchell says.  "We're now at the point where everyone sees the benefit of selling advanced audiences and market adoption is underway."

Chief research officer Pete Doe, in addition to his work at clypd, also chairs the ATSG (Advanced Target Standards Group), a consortium of TV networks, agencies and organizations that share their expertise to accelerate the use of advanced targets in the buying and selling of TV advertising.  The group forms guidelines to help buyers and sellers manage advanced audience deals and first-party data, and has established a set of calculation principles.  This ensures consistent and transparent advanced audience protocols, establishes advanced audience definitions and offers perspectives on data quality for advanced TV data sets and attribution.

Brands, agencies and media companies alike have to be agile to keep pace with emerging media trends today.  Xandr's acquisition of clypd not only helps to keep Xandr nimble, but it also enables the company to better consolidate its marketplace strengths for the future, whether through data, improving the buy/sell cycle, or contributing insight on industry guidelines.  Stay tuned for what's next.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Championing Television Targeting Through the ATSG

Sometimes the best way to advance initiatives is to band together a group of frenemies and form a consortium. In the case of ATSG, (Advanced Target Standards Group), Discovery, ESPN, Fox, Turner and Viacom shared their expertise to accelerate the use of advanced targets in the buying and selling of TV advertising.

The group was formed in 2016 when data -driven linear deals were fairly new. At the time, “all the participants recognized that there was a need for standard approaches and consistency in defining and measuring advanced audiences,” explained Pete Doe, Chief Research Officer, clypd who also leads the ATSG. “Since then we’ve grown to include representation from more media owners, agencies and CIMM.”

Since their inception, the group has deliverables in the following areas –

• Guidelines to help buyers and sellers manage advanced audience deals and first party data.
• Calculation Principles ensuring consistent and transparent advanced audience definitions and calculations.
• Pre-defined Advanced Audience Definitions.
• Perspectives on data quality for advanced TV data sets and Attribution.

The need for such a group is evident when you compare linear TV to digital. “Linear inventory is finite while digital is effectively infinite, so that leads to very different demand and supply and monetization,” noted Doe. But another key difference is measurement where linear TV with its human-based panel is a counterpoint to digital which is device driven with inferences about humans being drawn from observed online activity and big data matching.

“Typically, the assumption is that a served digital ad is seen by one person, but with television, co-viewing is common. As OTT continues to grow, measurement needs to reflect that more than one person is watching the IP-delivered content on the big screen. The best of both worlds has to be a hybrid measurement of big data sources reflecting device activity, informed by representative panel measurements of people,” concluded Doe.

The next steps for ATSG are to expand their membership to include other parts of the media ecosystem while continuing to work on cross-platform target definition consistency and guidelines on the reliability of advanced audience campaign delivery.

This article first appeared in Cynopsis.