What Happened
Viacom, owner of cable channels including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV, claims that 80% of its upfront deals this year will offer marketers access to its audience data in some way. Aiming to make that data a central part of its upfront deals to appeal to marketers, Viacom says it is rolling out five new products designed to simplify and expand the reach of buying target audiences, allowing ad-buyers to automate targeting based on buying intent and more granular data points. For example, Vantage Instant Audience enables marketers to tap into audience segments already identified by Viacom, while another product, Vantage Target Discover, aims to help marketers find potential customers through Viacom’s behavioral data.
What Brands Need To Do
As more and more brand advertisers start to look beyond basic demographic information, audience data is essential for advertisers seeking to identify and reach their target their audience in the increasingly fractionalized media space. Similarly to Viacom, NBCUniversal also launched new targeting tools last month to help marketers tap into its audience database and target them across multiple platforms. As more audience data becomes available, TV advertisers should take advantage of the new targeting tools that the networks are offering and leverage them to create and implement more effective brand campaigns.
Source: AdWeek