Omnicom First To Integrate With NBCU's 'Clean Room,' Claims It Will Enable Better Reach & Frequency

by Joe Mandese , March 14, 2022

NBCUniversal, which has been a driving supply-side force in the development of alternative "currencies" for buying and selling linear TV, CTV, and ad-supported video streaming services, this morning announced Omnicom Media Group has become the first big agency to integrate with its "data clean room."

The clean room, dubbed the NBCU Audiences Insights Hub, enables advertisers and agencies to match their own first-party data about consumers with NBCU's proprietary data in order to calculate the reach and frequency of the viewers they are targeting.

The announcement comes ahead of a developer conference NBCU will host March 22, unveiling some of the partners and progress it is making with various industry data processing and research suppliers that will ultimately be part of the clean room.

News of OMG's integration is significant, because it's not only one of the biggest agency holding company-level media operations, but one that has already invested heavily in its own demand-side data operating system. Dubbed Omni, OMG claims it "has more privacy compliant datasets than any competitive data offering."

NBCU said the agreement will enable OMG to incorporate new audience measurement currencies and "reach measurement models that are "certified" by NBCU, and match them to calculate reach and frequency estimates to plan and buy media more efficiently.

“This agreement exponentially enhances the individual capabilities of two best-in-class, industry-leading data solutions which ultimately deliver industry-first cross-platform capabilities for our clients,” OMG Chief Investment Officer Geoffrey Calabrese said in a statement announcing the deal.

advertising, agency, audience measurement, data, media buying, media measurement, supply side platform, targeting, television

2 comments about "Omnicom First To Integrate With NBCU's 'Clean Room,' Claims It Will Enable Better Reach & Frequency".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, March 14, 2022 at 10:35 a.m.
Joe, this sounds very impressive, indeed. They can calculate reach and frequency across "TV" platforms---"linear" , CTV and streaming---but not digital video ( ? )----for advertisers' target groups I assume to assist media planners. But what data are they using to determine if a consumer is being "reached" by an ad campaign? It's that good old stand by---"OTS"---or "opportunity to see" which isn't even true in this case as they are probably assuming that if the ad plays out on a household's screen that the person who is targeted "watched" either the program or---even less likely----the commercial. Since I didn't see any reference to attentiveness in your report---I'm not blaming you for that---and if I am right in my assumptions---these models will produce very inflated projections of ad reach as well as frequency---which is in the sellers' interest---I get that---but not necessarily a plus for advertisers.

What I would like to see is a study ---even from these device usage sources-----that shows how different the tabulations of actual data are from the classic random duplication formula. For example if you have a "linear TV" reach of, say, 50% for a particular demo---homes with men 25-54 with upper incomes, for example ----and you are combining this with a CTV reach of 30% for the same demo the random duplication assumption nets you a 65% reach. OK, so how different are the "real" findings? Is the real "reach" 63.8% or 66.5%? Or is it 78.9%---which would be a huge surprise. My guess is that the real reach in most cases is totally predictable---within a few points. Which raises the question---what's the big deal here?
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Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., March 14, 2022 at 11:38 a.m.

@Ed Papazian: I believe all forms of video being distributed via linear, CTV and streaming are digital these days.

I think "reach" can somewhat be in the eye of the beholder, but I think in this case, it means that an ad was exposed to a viewer, not necessarily that they actually watched it, had cognition, paid attention, or were in some way influenced explicitly by it.

That said, I'm pretty sure both Omnicom and NBCU have various ways of correlating that reach to various actions, "KPIs," etc.