Accenture will run — with support from Nielsen and comScore — OpenAP, a new TV ad sales targeting consortium formally unveiled today by partners Fox Networks, Turner, and Viacom.
“This is a historical day for all of us,” Turner’s Donna Speciale told a gathering of advertisers in New York. “You’ve been asking us to come together…We heard you.”
The initiative is designed to make it easier for advertisers to target messages to specific kinds of TV viewers, much like they do with digital ads. Networks historically just guaranteed to reach broad audiences based on a few demographic characteristics.
Networks and independent companies including Nielsen and comScore have amassed more detailed data about TV viewers. But advertisers have struggled to compare information from different providers, and were unsure about trustworthiness.
Fox’s Joe Marchese calls the united effort “a baby step in the right direction….Dora can finally play with Bart with adult supervision from Anderson Cooper.”
Speciale also hit on what’s sure to be a big theme in the upfront ad sales season at a time when several advertisers have complained about digital platforms, notably YouTube, whose alogrithms attached ads to content from extremists and hate groups.
“Our brands are trusted,” she says. “Our content is premium and global” and provides “a safe environment for all your messages.”
Accenture Managing Director Farshad Family vowed to serve as a “credible independent third party that provides the transparency, consistency, scalability and security to make this a success.”
Nielsen says it supports OpenAP’s “ambitions to create a clearinghouse for audience-based buying on linear television. Nielsen’s audience segments built on our household, person level and buyergraphic ratings data are the most widely used for National audience based buying across linear television today. We are confident that they will play the same role in OpenAP”
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