NBCU, Holler Partner On Digital Messaging Ad Opportunities

NBCUniversal today announced a new partnership with conversational media company, Holler, to drive new marketing and advertising experiences for brands within messaging. The new agreement combines NBCUniversal’s IP, talent and sales expertise with Holler’s first-to-market Suggestion AI technology and content to give marketers “highly relevant ways to engage with consumers and within the larger peer-to-peer messaging space.”

“At NBCUniversal, we have a longstanding commitment to investing in partnerships that connect our clients and audiences in meaningful ways,” said Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer, NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships. “Holler is a unique partner, dedicated to content innovation in the rapidly growing digital messaging space, and we’re thrilled to extend our consumer reach and capabilities through this partnership.”

To kick off the partnership, NBCUniversal and Holler will partner to create shareable stickers within Venmo’s P2P payment platform, that link brands to the tentpole moments and trends that shape culture — from local to national, the red carpet to the sports arena and more. Powered by Holler’s Suggestion AI technology that suggests contextually relevant content in real time, users will be served “highly relevant stickers that align with their payment notes in Venmo, adding a unique flair to their payment experience,” NBCU said.

NBCU and Holler said that in addition to opening up new advertising and marketing opportunities for brands, “the partnership provides a reciprocity of services and opportunities for scale. The new agreement will leverage Holler’s ad operations and creative studio, and scale its sales reach by tapping into NBCUniversal’s local-to-national sales expertise and One Platform resources.”

With Holler, NBCU said, it is expanding its social monetization offerings and digital ecosystem for partners across the country, in regional markets and in local communities.

“From our first conversations, it was clear that NBCUniversal understood the huge potential of Conversational Media as a channel to meaningfully connect with audiences,” said Travis Montaque, Holler founder-CEO. “By enabling NBCU’s advertising partners to extend their programs into the Holler experience, we are able to help people chat by providing them popular IP in contextually relevant moments, and we’re excited to continue to bring even more Conversational Media experiences to life with NBCU over time.”