• by Wayne Friedman , February 28, 2022

NBCUniversal is expanding into in-video game advertising sales through a deal with Anzu.io, a Tel Aviv-based in-game advertising platform.

NBC says this will help generate advertising revenue around gaming and esports. The deal also includes a “small” investment by NBC in the company. Financial details were not disclosed.

Anzu claims its global partners include advertisers such as Pepsi and Samsung, as well as video-game studios such as Ubisoft and Amanotes, where it can insert real-world brand ads directly into video games, esports tournaments, and live streams.

NBCUniversal says in-game video advertising clients can run “non-intrusive” in-game ads across Anzu’s cross-platform gaming inventory — on mobile, PC and consoles. Advertisers will have access to interactive, data driven, contextual, and programmatic in-game advertising tools.

Advertising partners can get measurement from the platform— including ad viewability, brand lift measurement, audience verification, data enrichment, and fraud detection. Anzu has measurement partnerships with Moat, Comscore, Human, Lumen, and Kochava.

Video-gaming advertising deals from Anzu will work within NBCUniversal’s supply-side platform (SSP), called One Platform.

This news comes as NBCUniversal is expected to announce other partnerships and efforts in the data, technology, and measurement space at its tech developer conference ONE22 on March 22.