TV measurement and attribution firm TVSquared and Blockgraph, which securely connects data providers and users, said they are working together to provide omni-channel TV measurement and attribution capabilities.
Since the onset of COVID-19, it's been more important than ever for marketers to be able to figure out how effective their advertising spending is. Historically, the process of securely combining data sets about viewership with outcomes information has been filled with friction and expense.
Working together, TVSquared and Blockgraph said they aim to make the process simpler and more manageable without sacrificing control over the data and protecting privacy and security.
Jo Kinsella, president of TVSquared said the combination had the potential to be industry changing because it allows for cross-platform measurement of audiences and attribution outcomes at scale.
“By combining the best-in-class measurement and attribution platform that TVSquared has built with the best-in-class next-generation identity platform that we’ve built unlocks a tremendous amount of value for brands that are looking to measure their audience across platforms,” added Jason Manningham, CEO of Blockgraph.
Blockgraph was formed in May as an independent entity owned by Comcast, Charter and ViacomCBS. Its technology, incubated within Comcast’s Freewheel unit, lets its clients safely aggregate and share anonymized data.
Among the data available to TVSquared clients is viewing data from Blockgraph’s corporate owners.
“It stands to reason that our co-owners, and some of the TVSquared client base, are really excited about this offering and this solution,” Manningham said. “We envision and intend for them to be the first adopters of this capability set we’re bringing to the market.”
Kinsella said that TVSquared would be offering these capabilities to clients on a self service platform with 24-7 access to performance data.
“You’re not waiting for a study. This isn’t a report. It’s a dashboard that you log into where you can see what was delivered from an impression standpoint and then how it performed, did somebody take an action,” she said. “You can tie that down to the household, or you can tie that down to an individual. This really is understanding the end-to-end customer journey.”
The cost of the service will depend on how many data sets a client want to match, how much the client is spending on media and some other factors. “It’s reassuringly expensive,” Kinsella said, adding that the value created is significantly greater than the cost.
“We’re really about driving value and not adding a technology tax to the ecosystem, Manningham added. “This is about collaborating as an industry to get adoption of this simplified model for cross-platform measurement and audiences and answering the question, ‘Did my TV work?'”
That’s been the holy grail in the TV business.
“What Blockgraph and TVSquared are saying is we can do this and we can bring that to everyone," Kinsella said. “This is about making sure that the industry can adopt this new approach to authenticated audience and measurement so that all sides of the trade win. This is helping to create a marketplace for digitizing television.”
