On Nov. 16, in a packed press event at 30 Rock, our partners at NBCUniversal gave reporters a full view of their ongoing transformation surrounding advertising technology and measurement. The event was a follow up to the One22 event in February, where NBCU made a pledge to utilize iSpot as a currency in the upfronts.
Those promises made were promises delivered.
After a massive testing initiative, NBCU just announced the formation of The Currency Council, with more than ten leading advertisers including T-Mobile, General Motors, Pepsi, Marriott and Wayfair, across all the major holding companies, to accelerate transactions on iSpot’s Unified Measurement as a currency for cross-platform, broad-based demo buys starting in Q1 of 2023. That currency initiative also extends to advanced audiences purchased using the Open AP platform.
You can read about the new currency developments here: “NBCU Says Clients Using iSpot as Currency for Upfront Deals” (Broadcasting & Cable).
In addition, NBCU expanded its Measurement Framework Look Book, the market-leading research comparing currency offerings and capabilities. We encourage you to check it out (PDF).
NBCU’s announcement comes at a time when the entire industry is facing a wholesale reevaluation of currency, and a growing uncertainty about how well the legacy currency’s new system will even work.
All of this represents a great opportunity for the industry to reset how TV is bought, sold and measured, and iSpot is working diligently with our brand, agency and network partners to help seize this moment of change as a way to improve and evolve accuracy and accountability across TV and CTV.
As our hundreds of brand and agency clients know, the increasing complexity of measuring ad delivery and ROI expands well beyond the utility of currency.
However, integrating the unified ad measurement framework that we’ve developed over the last three years — the same platform hundreds of brands are already using to justify and optimize investments — represents an incredible set of opportunities to modernize and streamline how brands plan, buy, optimize and measure campaigns.
In the spirit of promises made and promises kept, here is a video of our CTO Anthony Skinner and NBCU executives from the kickoff early this year.
If you are interested in extending your unified measurement investment into currency transactions, contact currency@ispot.tv