Dive Brief:
- Last year comScore acquired Rentrak along with its set-top box data on TV viewing – a deal finalized last month. Now the combined multiplatform ad targeting company has its first client for those service: Viacom.
- The deal with Viacom will allow advertisers to target audiences on Viacom properties across linear TV, digital, video-on-demand and over-the-top services.
- ComScore's deal with Rentrak was an effort to compete more directly with Nielsen by adding TV to it its digital measurement, a move that looks to be vindicated by the Viacom deal.
Dive Insight:
"This partnership with comScore marks a fundamental watershed moment in the business of television," Bryson Gordon, SVP of data strategy for Viacom, said in a statement. "This revolution in targeting, currency and measurement is the equivalent of shifting from black and white to color."
Gordon explained that through the partnership the two will be able to deliver "what partners crave," or "the most comprehensive view of the consumer and the most effective way to reach them."
Viacom’s data targeting service is called Vantage and the deal brings in comScore’s measurement tools across multiple marketing channels.
Since the announcement of the comScore-Rentrak merger, industry insiders warned it would pit them in direct competition with Nielsen. As consumers' TV and video-viewing habits become more fragmented, these two players will face demands from an industry searching for better tools and metrics to track, measure and serve content and ads across multiple devices.
ComScore CEO Serge Matta said in a statement, "We are excited to partner with Viacom on a deal that we believe will transform the way that advertising will be bought and sold. Viacom's expertise in data strategy makes them an ideal first partner to leverage our cross-platform metrics and advanced demographics as a more powerful currency on which to transact."