• by Larissa Faw , February 4, 2020

Horizon Media is partnering with global intelligence provider Location Sciences (LS) to independently validate location data applied across its programmatic practice, including media, audience development and measurement.

Horizon — through LS’ location verification platform, Verify — will be able to access campaign insights through a self-service dashboard to, in theory, help the company reduce wasted ad spend, improve the value of the purchased media and increase the overall efficiency of its media investments.

“We've invested a tremendous amount of resource into our existing data infrastructure, Blu, but in order to drive ongoing value for our clients it's key that we keep a close eye on market trends,” says Donnie Williams, Chief Digital Officer, Horizon Media.

Given the well-documented challenges related to location data, LS was “well worth testing for across relevant brands,” says Williams.

“It was a combination of product maturation on their end as well as identifying the right use case on ours,” he says. New regulations around user data was also a key motivator.

The partnership is not exclusive.  “Of course the value of the Verify product, along with any verification solution (IAS, DoubleVerify) is how you deploy the insights that are surfaced,” explains Williams.

LS verifies the quality of location data and enables Horizon teams to navigate the complexity of the location data space.

The amount of available background or “always-on” location data has dropped significantly since the September 2019 launch of iOS 13, as 68% of its users have opted out of sharing that data, as MediaPost reported last week.

Less background location data impacts audience quality, including location-derived audiences (like QSR diners); attribution confidence for footfall-based offers; multi-touch attribution; device graphs and dynamic creative optimization, among other marketing functions.