Dive Brief:
- General Motors (GM) is the first brand to integrate with NBCUnified, the first-party data and identity platform that NBCUniversal (NBCU) launched earlier this year, per a press release shared with Marketing Dive.
- The tie-up, forged through GM's media agency Carat, brings together the automaker’s consumer automotive profiles with NBCUnified's data on media consumption preferences. It also uses a clean room solution powered by Carat's M1 platform.
- GM's integration with NBCU demonstrates how brand marketers are working more closely with publishers and media partners to utilize first-party data for tracking and targeting purposes in a changing privacy landscape.
Dive Insight:
GM’s first-of-its-kind integration with NBCUnified shows how marketers are making more concrete moves to address imperatives around first-party data with the looming deprecation of cookies. Though Google’s planned cookie phaseout was delayed again in July, companies like GM are still rethinking their outreach strategies, with partnerships that can combine multiple data sources in a privacy-minded fashion seeing traction.
"Leaning into more sophisticated addressable media opportunities, like the one we’re announcing here with NBCU and Carat, gives us a leading-edge in connecting with consumers today,” said Heather Stewart, general director of global media and marketing services at GM, in a press statement.
NBCUnified brings together the conglomerate's array of consumer touchpoints across movies, entertainment, news, sports, e-commerce, subscriptions, theme parks and more. NBCU's first-party data on media consumption encompasses over 200 million consumers and 80 million households, per the release.
Along with combining GM's consumer automotive data with NBCU's media consumption data, the deal is built with privacy in mind. The partnership allows GM to activate against high-performing audiences with a clean room environment powered by M1, Carat's proprietary data and identity platform. Clean rooms are increasingly becoming part of advertisers' data-sharing solutions. Similarly, Omnicom Media Group in March became the first agency to integrate with NBCU’s own clean room, the Audience Insight Hub.
Launched at the beginning of the year, NBCUnified lives within NBCU's One Platform and is comprised of NBCU ID, a data marketplace and partner integrations. Carat parent Dentsu International in March become the first agency partner of NBCUnified, and the latest deal is a fruit of that deal.
NBCUnified also serves as the backbone for NBCU's efforts to modernize measurement throughout the ad industry. NBCU in June added emotional impact to its audience measurement framework, months after elevating partners like iSpot.tv and Comscore and boosting its capabilities around data.
