Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has unveiled a new contextual advertising business, to provide advertisers with a clearer picture of the content environment where their ads appear.
Gracenote is collaborating with Peer39, a leader in contextual suitability and quality solutions. The Gracenote contextual CTV categories will become available on Peer39 partner demand side platform (DSP) platforms enabling programmatic CTV ad buys.
“CTV represents the future of television advertising, and the ability to pass standardized contextual data signals at scale will enhance results for advertisers and drive more investment for publishers,” said Mario Diez, CEO of Peer39.
Additionally, Magnite, the largest independent omnichannel sell-side advertising company, has been selected as the initial SSP to support and scale these new CTV categories.
A new standard for CTV transactions
With this latest initiative, Gracenote aims to establish its program genres, ratings, content types, and advisories as the industry standard for CTV transactions.
“For CTV advertising to reach its full potential, scale and transparency are essential,” said Trent Wheeler, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote. “Gracenote is uniquely positioned to become the taxonomy for the CTV marketplace by providing comprehensive program-level metadata for both sellers and buyers.”
DSPs, SSPs, and publishers like Basis, Cadent, DeepIntent, Illumin, Index Exchange, Infillion, Magnite, Microsoft, Plex, Viant, and Yahoo are already on board or planning to adopt the new Gracenote categories through Peer39.
Unleashing the power of granular data
Gracenote’s data offers detail for programmatic ad buys. Publishers can utilize this rich metadata to create targeted ad inventory packages, unlocking new revenue streams. Magnite’s controls grant publishers the ability to determine when and how content metadata is shared with advertisers.
“For instance, a sports documentary categorized simply as a “documentary” might miss out on advertising opportunities targeting sports enthusiasts. However, with Gracenote’s granular data, sub-genres like “fashion” or “travel” can be identified within a drama set in Paris, opening up new avenues for luxury brands or airlines,” explains the company.
Gracenote’s strategic shift
Previously focused on supporting publishers, Gracenote has expanded its offerings to include contextual advertising as it recognized the growing demand for such solutions within the CTV landscape.
“The idea that you can make an ad that matches the context of the viewer viewing it is powerful,” Wheeler says. “Understanding taxonomies and scale are the two most important things to customers now, so having the ability to buy across many platforms will come next.”
With this strategic move, Gracenote is positioning itself as a key player in the evolving CTV advertising ecosystem.
