More than a quarter after a newly-public Innovid acquired TVSquared for $160 million, the companies are busy aligning their tech to offer customers a best-of-both play.
TVSquared helps brands learn how TV advertising is driving traffic to their websites.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, company president Jo Kinsella, who also took on leadership of measurement across the combined entity, explains how things are shaping up.
Platform expansion
TVSquared Sells To Innovid For $160M, Kinsella to Lead Measurement
“We always said that TVSquared needed a bigger boat – we got that with Innovid and couldn’t be happier,” Kinsella says.
“Innovid takes care and serves ads for 40% of the top 200 advertisers. They they literally serve a billion ads a day. We’re now taking that gigantic CTV universe – 95 million households – and we’re putting that second-by-second into our platform.
“So you’ll have CTV plus linear … in a single unified platform.”
Best of both
The deal was widely seen as creating a single company with strengths on both the buy and sell side. Innovid’ she offering now spans:
- Connected TV Advertising
- Ad Serving
- Creative Management
- Advertising Measurement
- Identity Resolution
- Publisher Solutions
TVSquared is now part of the @innovid family! Together, we’re transforming the industry – powering independent, cross-platform measurement across the TV and digital universe. Transformation is here today. #CTV #ConvergedTV https://t.co/eh04GUIYNJ pic.twitter.com/p993lukpNA
— TVSquared by Innovid (@tvsquared) February 7, 2022
Measuring up
TVSquared’s integration into Innovid also means a bigger platform for its special sauce – showing brands the true effect of their ad spend.
“More and more of the brands that we now work with are asking us, ‘Who did I reach? Did it work? Should I spend there again?’,” Kinsella says.
“(If) you’re watching a show on Peacock, on a Roku device, on a Samsung TV – we see it.”
Unify TV
TVSquared’s star had been rising just as the traditional TV measurement business was facing a crisis.
Nielsen, predominantly panel-based, lost its MRC accreditation through lockdown, when ad buyers were nevertheless looking to count the impact of ads on a cross-platform basis.
Now multiple currencies and measurement firms are emerging, gaining test contracts with broadcast and video platforms.
“I think Nielsen will still have a seat,” says TVSquared’s Kinsella. “There’s a seat at the table for them.
“And I think there will be multiple players. I think the most important thing … is that the industry has finally realised that measurement as it was being done no longer serves this industry with the proliferation of CTV, with it at what $22 billion in spend. So let’s figure out a way to really unify television.”
