Today is an exciting day at iSpot — and for the industry. We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of 605, a next-generation TV measurement platform with some truly great technologies, a unique suite of data, significant marketplace adoption and immensely talented people.
You can read more about the deal in our press coverage and in the reactions in social media from our partners across the industry. But in this special moment, I want to explain why we made iSpot’s largest acquisition to date, and offer more about why we — and our customers — are so excited.
When we first started iSpot in 2012, the information systems underlying TV advertising were slow, antiquated and bewildering. There were huge knowledge gaps. Brands didn’t know where their ads ran until six weeks after the fact, and they never really knew exactly who was watching, or for how long, and what actions were taken as a result of their investment.
At the same time, the digital transformation swept across other industries, making everything real-time,and transparent. Insights were immediate and actionable. It was then, in an old office building in Bellevue, Washington, that we made it our mission to modernize the information marketplace for TV advertising — to help people make better decisions, cut waste, provide better ad experiences and earn greater profits while better servicing their customers.
Fast-forward to today, and iSpot is now a trusted, always-on platform of choice for brands representing more than half of TV dollars in circulation. We are an essential partner to the platforms and publishers delivering ads and programming across America.
Our focus on closing information gaps continues, and our commitment to developing solutions for the future remains the source of our passion as an organization.
Today, as we invest heavily in the development of new cross-platform currencies, we are mindful that what the marketplace requires are answers to age old questions:
- What are we getting for our money?
- Where should we invest?
- How do I reach my audiences?
- How can we make better decisions?
- How do we plan for the future?
- Who can I trust to help me accomplish my goals?
It’s with these questions in mind that we approach all product and company decisions, and it is these criteria that we used in evaluating our acquisition of 605.
Here’s what the 605 acquisition means to iSpot:
Talented people with integrity
First of all, the deal with 605 makes sense because we are aligned in our mission to use big data and best-of-breed technologies to provide truly independent measurement, so advertisers can verify, justify and optimize TV investments. I can’t emphasize enough how the talent of the 605 team, and their commitment to providing measurement products with integrity, is of the utmost importance.
Our product teams and engineers are excited to collaborate under a bigger umbrella. And as we expand our managed services, we’re pumped to add more data science support to our customers and partners in NYC and beyond.
And though we share a common vision, we have so much complimentary technical expertise and infrastructure that as a single company, we’ll be able to accelerate our pace of innovation and deliver even greater capabilities for buyers, sellers and platforms alike.
Proving the value of TV and streaming investments
While iSpot has developed a sophisticated system for measuring business outcomes derived from verified impressions across TV and streaming, 605 has built a next-generation attribution solution for proving the value delivered by TV across a broad set of syndicated KPIs, including location, CPG, auto, credit card transactions, survey, search and more. Together, we believe we now have the most comprehensive suite of solutions for connecting on target TV audience exposures with key performance indicators including web visits, store visits, purchases and more. This empowers marketers to understand ROI and ROAS.
Using AI for understanding audiences and predicting where to find them
iSpot is expanding its ability to measure audience segments with 605’s advanced audiences platform which powers measurement for very granular and bespoke audiences. Furthermore, 605’s planning toolset will expand our customers’ ability to forecast where audience segments will be, calculate the costs for engaging them, and predict the ROAS for cross-platform investments. Using machine learning and AI from both organizations will provide our customers with next-generation technologies for removing guess work and leg work while ushering in a more seamless workflow for brands, agencies and platforms for the purposes of establishing new currencies and optimizing cross-platform campaigns.
Bigger data from a single spine
iSpot was the first to commercialize ACR data in 2015 when we invested in combining screen-level, household-level data into a proprietary ad catalog. In doing so, we ushered in a new era of accountability, transparency and verification for real-time, second-by-second advertising on TV. 605 for its part has built an incredible platform for utilizing tens of millions of set-top devices and household data alongside ACR. Over the next year, we will work to integrate a combined TV-data footprint of over 80 million TV devices into one powerful big-data spine. This, in conjunction with a myriad of other data sets — person-level panels for de-duplication and co-viewing, secure ID integrations and more — will become the engine for powering better measurement, better cross-platform currencies and the pool of insights needed for best-in-class data-science initiatives.
A complete end-to-end solution
We work hard to provide solutions for all phases of TV and streaming advertising from creative testing and brand impact of advertising to media measurement to outcomes, and the addition of 605 will bolster our ability to offer the most comprehensive suite of solutions to deliver transparency and accountability for TV.
Lastly- these investments into incredible technology, great people and expanded data sources are yet more evidence of our commitment to our customers and partners and a deeply held belief that modern trusted measurement will be critical for everyone in the marketplace to find success.