Dive Brief:
- Havas Media Group (HMG) North America and Samba TV are partnering to integrate Samba’s streaming and linear television viewing and gaming data into HMG’s proprietary data management platform, Converged, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- Through the partnership, HMG will have access to viewership behavior data that will allow it to generate enriched customer viewing insights for its media clients and elevate its planning, activation and measurement strategies.
- HMG is the first major holding company to fully integrate Samba’s television and gaming viewership data into its own platform, with the partnership representative of a large trend among agencies as they look to provide more accurate TV-viewing insights in an otherwise difficult category to measure.
Dive Insight:
As linear TV ad success continues to prove difficult to measure and consumers bounce from one screen, platform and service to the next, media companies have increasingly found themselves seeking more granular information about consumers’ attention in the chase for precision, with HMG the latest.
Through the partnership, HMG will have access to Samba TV’s data sourced from over 24 television manufacturers and millions of opted-in televisions across 100 countries in what is described in press materials as a “highly representative viewership data set” that will be combined with HMG’s existing data sources to guide media buying strategies.
“Modern media is about more than just reach and frequency – our approach prioritizes identifying the right environment based on the ability to foster meaningful connections with viewers,” said Mike Bregman, Havas Media Group North America’s chief data officer, in the release. “This partnership allows us to understand how consumers spend time across screens and the ability to analyze the unique value media has for each one of our clients.”
The addition of Samba’s data will pair with HMG’s first-party insights and consumer purchasing behavior through its data management platform, Converged. The tie-up will allow the media company to focus in on the behaviors of its most valuable customers, as opposed to only age and gender proxies, in a move described by Samba TV’s Head of Agency and Publisher Solutions Kris Magel as far more business-focused and effective.
Advertiser-supported streaming media is growing in influence and breadth. Samba TV recently noted that streaming will play a huge role in this year’s midterm election, as a majority of television viewers no longer have linear TV and that voters are nearly twice as likely to stream content rather than have a cable TV subscription. Netflix is also nearing the release of its ad-supported platform, a move expected to help boost the streamer’s revenue during an otherwise tricky year.
