CANNES – When most people consider a data-management platform (DMP), they see data and technology. Damian Garbaccio of Nielsen, which Sony Crackle recently chose to power its addressable advertising capabilities, sees “connective tissue” between data and measurement assets.

Garbaccio, EVP, Advertiser Direct & Marketing Cloud, is working with Sony Crackle and much of its connected TV inventory to better monetize it with addressable programmatic targeting. Nielsen and other data are used to transact on media that’s owned and operated or exclusively operated by Crackle.

“What we see the DMP as really is connective tissue between data assets and measurement assets, with the brands being directly in the middle,” Garbaccio says in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “If you want that connective tissue to work and to be valuable for the brand, you need the best data that exists. Transaction-based data, census-based, owned and operated exclusively through Nielsen, and you need to be able to then activate and measure that.”

Advertisers will now be able to reach specific audiences across Sony Crackle content as well as the Sony Crackle Plus Network, including Funimation and Sony Pictures Television Mobile Games. With Nielsen AI, Sony Pictures Television will be able to optimize addressable audiences based on real-time changes in consumer behavior on behalf of its clients, according to a news release announcing the deal between Sony and Nielsen Marketing Cloud.

The Nielsen DMP “allows you to see the data but then also see it as the campaigns run, and get closed-loop feedback. That feedback allows you then to measure and optimize those campaigns. So it’s really an end-to-end cycle that really our DMP allows us to do,” says Garbaccio.

His way of simplifying the semantics of what constitutes connected-TV or OTT viewing is to view it simply as media. “It’s a new, different type of media just like mobile was, back in the day display, and even linear TV. We’re not there yet, but I want a world of when you create audiences, whether with first or third party data, and push them out for targeting or activation.”

It should be viewed as “one centralized ID that can be across all media. So we see connected TV or over the top television as no different,” Garbaccio adds. “It’s just right now is very early, the scale is not there like it is potentially in linear TV or even mobile. But we think that it’s going to be there and you need that underlying ID and that technology in order to make any of those things happen.”

This video is part of a series produced by Beet.TV at Cannes Lions 2018 about advertising accountability presented by Mediaocean. Please find more videos from this series here.