Omnicom, NBCUniversal Pioneer Program-Level At-Scale Reporting

The media services branch of Omnicom Group INC, Omnicom Media Group (OMG), and NBCUniversal have partnered to provide program-level at-scale reporting for the network’s streaming platforms. This first-to-market capability makes use of NBCUniversal’s privacy-conscious clean room technology, NBCUnified Access (formerly known as Audience Insights Hub). It gives five advertisers visibility into where their ads are delivered and whether the content is consistent with their brand. Media buys for CTV do not yet have access to this information, which is crucial for spending decisions.

Omnicom Media Group’s call for new standards

OMG has made a request for additional guidelines pertaining to social, retail, programmatic, and CTV media. By using this capacity, NBCUniversal is meeting important objectives outlined in the CTV guidelines that OMG’s Council of Accountability and Standards in Advertising (CASA) released in 2021. The informal cooperation between OMG agencies, media partners, and clients proposed these new guidelines. It is dedicated to improving transparency and quality control for advertisers across social, SSP, retail, and CTV platforms. By partnering with top streaming companies like NBCUniversal, CASA is enabling capabilities that will increase category growth by improving the ROI and security of CTV as an investment for marketers.

What is CASA?

The goal of CASA is to empower buyers through the definition of key advertising rights and the advancement of the capabilities of corresponding media owners. This will improve buyer control, seller transparency, and brand safety for advertisers across expanding media channels. It also holds partners responsible, and this week’s release is the outcome of talks with CASA participants that lasted three years.

New proposed rubrics for at-scale reporting

CASA is driving breakthroughs in seller transparency and advertiser control across social, SSP, retail, and CTV channels, as highlighted in several OMG reports published during Advertising Week. A first set of rubrics covering the rights of advertisers and the remedies of social media companies covers social media advertising. According to OMG, the CASA program has collaborated with eight social media networks.

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Additionally, OMG announced a proposed set of guidelines for supply side platforms (SSP) in programmatic advertising buys. OMG developed these guidelines in response to a recent analysis from the Association of National Advertisers. It detailed the $13 billion worth of “Made-for-Advertising” or MFA websites

For retail media, OMG released a third set of suggested guidelines. They created it for addressing the meaningful ways that upper funnel channels like CTV can boost sales.

The CTV industry has received a fourth set of guidelines, and the council is now interacting with seven streaming networks and six OEMs/devices. 90% of all CTV is purchased programmatically through them. One or more pillars are fully activated at this point, and two or more pillars will activate soon.

Here’s what they said

Kelly Metz, OMG Managing Director for Advanced TV said,

Connected Television is rapidly becoming the primary channel for consuming long-form video, surpassing time spent watching traditional broadcast and cable television – yet its growth as an advertising medium has been hampered by its inability to provide the same level of control, transparency and safety for brands as its traditional counterparts. For that reason, NBCUniversal’s program level reporting capability is a game changer. Not only will it have transformative impact on planning and buying across NBCUniversal’s streaming properties – it also marks a watershed moment for the category by  changing the CTV investment conversation from buying the audience for the platform to buying  the audience for the content.

Dominick Vangeli, NBCUniversal SVP/General Manager for Advanced Advertising & Partnerships stated,

The future of streaming depends on media owners standing behind the value of their content. And at NBCUniversal we fully stand behind our content and believe that brand safety and quality are inextricably linked, which is why we are creating this new capability in partnership with OMG.

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