Ampersand said it reached a deal to use data from Experian to create audience segments that will enable advertisers in multiple categories to target consumers with multi-screen campaigns through its And platform.
Owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, Ampersand has access to large amounts of viewing information from 40 million households and TV ad inventory across an 85 million home footprint. It has been stepping up its technology game as the advertising business has become increasingly digital with media plans combining linear TV, addressable TV, digital video, CTV and TV Everywhere.
Last year it set up the And platform, which allows clients to buy multi-screen ad campaigns either through a managed service or, more recently, on a self-serve basis. It also started adding consumer data, first for political advertisers from L2 and then for auto marketers with Polk data from IHS Markit.
The Experian integration is pivotal to our audience-based multi-screen TV planning and buying because Experian allows us to go beyond specific categories,” said Kalyan Lanka, VP, product, Ampersand.
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The data from Experian’s ConsumerView database -- which is separate from its credit database -- can be used to create segments based on psychographics and behavioral preferences, Lanka said, and the additional data will increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of clients’ ad campaigns.
“We can now understand with a greater degree of precision where these consumer segments are consuming content across multiple screens, which helps us improve or ability to plan and buy TV, and on the back end report insights on how campaigns performed against that audience segment, which give you further opportunities to optimize and improve campaigns,” Lanka said.
The data Ampersand is getting from Experian is not exclusive, but the segments created by combining the data with Ampersand’s viewing information are, he said.
For Experian, the advanced and connected TV markets are priority areas, said Aimee Irwin, VP of strategy, marketing services, Experian.
Experian decided to do this deal because “Ampersand is a leader within the TV advertising ecosystem, and their technology combined with our data, can help streamline the ad-buying process and help marketers tell a consistent story and connect with consumers across digital, linear, addressable or Connected TV,” Irwin said.
Experian expects that its business with advertising and media companies is likely to grow. “We’re starting to see more and more marketers view audiences as an amalgamation of behaviors across digital devices rather than as a siloed view into channel-specific actions. And that’s our focus behind the scenes. We’re connecting hundreds of digital and offline touchpoints to build audiences that can be activated across all digital and offline campaigns,” said Irwin.
She noted that the marketing and media business continues to evolve. “Connected TV has only become a very important channel for brands and consumers within the last three years," Irwin noted. “And it’s only a matter of time before the next ‘big thing’ emerges. To that end, we’re constantly working with brands, agencies and media publishers to help them understand where people are consuming information and how to reach them with relevant messages.”
The Experian-based audience segments will be available through the And platform to all Ampersand clients, not just those using its self-service capabilities.
About 20 advertisers and agencies are using a beta version self-serve version of the platform.
The platform also allows marketers to upload first party data and use that as it builds cross platform campaigns.
All that data puts TV at parity with digital, said Meredith Miller, VP, marketing at Ampersand.
“This platform and this particular integration of these data sets get advertisers closer to having a simplified way of buying across all their media investments,” Miller said.
“Streaming is on the rise and it’s going to continue to grow, but the reality is linear is still the majority of TV viewing and advertisers need the ability to access the same unique and custom targeted audience segments on linear as they would on streaming or across digital,” she said.
