Brief:

• Media measurement firm ComScore and mobile audience data provider PushSpring partnered to streamline the process for marketers to plan and push mobile ad campaigns. ComScore can use its mobile measurement solution to analyze and define mobile audiences, then send them to PushSpring for same-day campaign execution through a data management platform or demand side platform, according to a press release.
• The partnership lets ad buyers target and programmatically reach audiences based on mobile app consumption and demographics, and to enhance and expand mobile app audience segments in PushSpring with other unique characteristics like personas and location.
• ComScore customers also can build mobile app audiences on-the-fly and leverage existing DMP or DSP relationships to activate their custom-built target. All comScore Mobile Metrix subscribers have automatic access to the new PushSpring integration, enabling them to execute across 300 million unique devices in the U.S. 

Insight:

ComScore and PushSpring are seeking to close the loop between planning a media buy on mobile platforms and executing in a targeted, more seamless way. The news comes at a time when comScore has new leadership and is looking to rebuild following a series of struggles that has included having had three CEOs in two years and being de-listed by Nasdaq after accounting irregularities were discovered, according to an Adweek report. 

As programmatic advertising continues to grow among mobile placements, media buyers are seeking ways to reach people on mobile platforms where audiences are consuming news and entertainment, playing videogames and communicating. Mobile media consumption continues to rise, with media agency Zenith predicting that 24% of global media consumption will be on mobile platforms in 2018 and rise to 28% by 2020. 

While partnerships like the one between comScore and PushSpring can streamline mobile campaigns, they come at a time when privacy concerns about mobile ad targeting abound, with more than half of advertisers describing privacy implications of mobile device identifiers as an "urgent issue." Ads targeted by demographic data and location could be off-putting to consumers, who overhelmingly worry about brands' handling of personal data and find many forms of marketing personalization creepy. At the same time, consumers are demanding personalized and relevant ads, underscoring the fine line that advertisers need to walk these days and the need for transparency. 

In the aftermath of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal and in the era of the E.U.'s new General Data Protection Regulation privacy law, marketers must quickly figure out where and how to draw the line on data targeting.