The current advertising media landscape is fragmented, and competition is fierce. From large companies to small start-ups, there's always someone who's selling something that's just a little better, operating a tad more efficiently, or reaching customers that you can’t reach. Today, more and more media players are realizing that to best serve advertisers, collaboration may be necessary and that the old adage, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" never rang more true than it does now. Companies like the re-launched  New York Interconnect (NYI)—a partnership between three of the country's leading media providers, Altice USA, Charter, and Comcast—exemplify why and how coming together benefits both media partners and advertisers.

At its core, a partnership must make the customer experience better. Companies win when their customers win. In the consumer market, this rationale is easy to grasp. Whether it's with technology (Nike and Apple's Nike+ app), fashion (Alexander Wang and H&M), or finance (Apple Pay and MasterCard), co-branding has always made sense. This logic extends perfectly to the B2B space as well. Recently, Viacom and Snap entered into a multi-year advertising deal in which the two work together to develop and produce shows that use popular Snapchat stars. The end result is a more attractive, accessible platform that helps marketers drive brand awareness. Here, the customer wins. And they must continue to win for a partnership to be successful.

To sustainably power these client successes, media companies can use partnerships to scale efficiencies, streamline processes, and innovate product offerings. Earlier this year, IBM’s Watson Advertising announced plans to partner with Jivox, a personalization data platform, to offer contextual ads that change with weather conditions in real time. Using the former’s billions of weather-related data points, the new tool will allow advertisers to deliver a coffee ad, for example, when it’s snowing outside. These two businesses did not just simply use each other's platforms; rather, they integrated them in order to create a new solution for customers.

NYI took the same collaborative approach to ignite its new partnership. Launched earlier this month, the revitalized brand provides marketers with more audiences, a seamless customer experience, and innovative ad tech solutions. By harnessing the reach of each media partner, clients now have access to an astounding 6.2+ million households in the #1 market. And with this, they’re able to buy the entire footprint with one simple ad buy, targeting the NY market in a single streamlined campaign. Branded Audience One, NYI's multi-screen platform spans linear TV, addressable advertising, digital, VOD (including OTT), and two of the most-watched local news networks, News 12 and Spectrum News NY1. Ed Renicker, CEO of NYI says the need in the market was clear. "Agencies were looking for more unified ways to buy media in NY, with access to more audiences. This is exactly what NYI provides. We’re a one-stop shop for brands and agencies to deliver campaigns in households across the full NY footprint.”

Today, partnerships bestow substantial value on each of the participating media companies and deliver necessary advancements that marketers crave. Missing out on opportunities could have a monumental impact on any company that chooses to stay behind the curve. These symbiotic relationships propel the needle forward when it comes to innovation, capabilities, and, of course, the customer journey. And that’s exactly why NYI is set up for success.