Dive Brief:
- NBCUniversal partnered with mobile ad tech firm Kargo for advertising on the media giant’s 80 mobile web and app properties reaching 170 million users, and it will also make its mobile properties available to advertisers on the Kargo platform per MediaPost.
- The partnership includes integrating third-party measurement companies including Moat, Integral Ad Science, Nielsen and comScore for campaign validation.
- “Collaborating with Kargo to create opportunities for advertisers together in a trusted, brand-safe environment will make it easier for mobile marketing campaigns to scale,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships, NBCUniversal.
Dive Insight:
The deal arrives as the latest sign that NBCUniversal, which includes the NBC network and Universal Pictures movie studio, is making a big push into digital and mobile advertising. Through the deal with Kargo, advertisers will able to reach U.S. smartphone users across more than 80 premium media companies through a single point of access. Last year NBCUniversal struck a deal with Apple to handle ad sales across Apple News beginning this year with the exclusive rights to sell ad inventory such as units that appear between stories or within mobile search results. It’s not clear if the new mobile ad partnership with Kargo will be part of NBCUniversal's deal with Apple.
Together NBCUniversal and Kargo — which offers agencies and brands access to proprietary advertising automation tools and a creative studio as well as its media relationships — will offer marketers exclusive mobile advertising solutions. As part of the deal, NBCUniversal is making its mobile properties available over the Kargo platform.
Integrating third-party measurement into the partnership from the beginning illustrates the importance advertisers are increasingly placing on independent validation, and also should offer marketers some reassurance as mobile campaign metrics have been historically difficult to obtain.
