VideoAmp, the measurement firm intent on dislodging Nielsen from its longtime perch as the default viewership tracker, signaled its ambitions Tuesday at an event bringing together a range of advertising stakeholders.
Billed as the “Vampfronts,” after the upfront advertising season’s annual spree of NewFronts and upfronts, the presentation unfolded in the stylish Lower Manhattan confines of the Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology. VideoAmp, which has raised hundreds of millions in venture and private equity funding, is among the most prominent rivals to Nielsen, along with with iSpot and Comscore. While Nielsen remains dominant, TV and streaming players have increasingly looked to supplement its numbers with other metrics as they look to demonstrate to clients the effectiveness of their ad buys.
Unlike most presentations this time of year, VideoAmp’s brought together a range of perspectives, convening one-on-one conversations onstage with a brand marketer, a media agency chief product officer and a network sales exec. The prevailing message throughout: The video business needs more choice. “The Multi-Currency World Has Arrived,” as one wall-sized slide insisted.
Watch on Deadline
“The data, operations and workflows are ready to scale,” Chief Product Officer Josh Hudgins told the crowd. “We can’t think of a better time to shift to VideoAmp and let us prove the difference by delivering.”
The night’s program included video testimonials, including one from Paramount EVP of Advanced Advertising Travis Scoles. Paramount trumpeted its pivot to VideoAmp last year when a contract dispute with Nielsen left the CBS parent without any traditionally collected numbers to circulate. VideoAmp, whose CEO is Fox and Tribune Media vet Peter Liguori, also has battled Nielsen in court in a patent squabble, with a judge days ago dismissing Nielsen’s latest claim.
VideoAmp revealed at the event that it has embarked on the lengthy process of getting accredited by the Media Rating Council, a non-profit, self-regulatory body established in 1963. The arcane process has made news in recent years, with Nielsen losing the MRC’s blessing for national and local ratings in 2021. Nielsen has since overhauled its methods, adding more advanced viewing metrics in order to satisfy complaints from programmers and advertisers, who are in the throes of making the leap from linear broadcast to streaming. It regained national TV accreditation in 2023 and the MRC earlier this year signed off on its cross-platform TV methodology, a crucial step heading into the upfronts.
Along with the MRC news, VideoAmp also said it had reached a multi-year contract extension with TelevisaUnivision. Brian Lin, SVP of Product Management, Advertising for the Hispanic media giant, announced the news onstage.
“It is not a zero-sum game,” Lin said of the measurement sector. “All of the innovation …. is for the betterment of the television ecosystem. We just need more data.”
The post VideoAmp Stakes Claim As True Nielsen Alternative At Upfront Event For Ad Buyers And Sellers appeared first on Deadline.
