The competition continues for the title of best video ad currency provider.
Last month, Nielsen’s top three rivals – VideoAmp, Comscore and iSpot – received their re-certifications from the US Joint Industry Committee as part of the org’s efforts to standardize new measurement and currency methodologies.
Still, buyers and sellers aren’t ready to ditch the legacy ratings provider they’ve relied on to value TV media for decades. And so alternative currency companies have been focusing on data and measurement more broadly.
VideoAmp, for one, is sharpening its focus on TV audience data, ad performance and, of course, AI.
Over the summer, VideoAmp cut about 20% of its headcount as part of an effort to entrust more operations to AI. But the company is also making strategic hires, including media veteran Andrea Zapata as SVP of agency partnerships, who came on board in July, and promoting from within. Josh Hudgins was elevated from EVP of product to chief product officer in 2024 as part of a restructuring and leadership shuffle that involved the departure of CEO Ross McCray.
Zapata said VideoAmp’s AI push extends beyond its products to the way the company operates.
As a company, "we wouldn’t be prudent if we didn’t take advantage of the promise of AI, which is to make workflows more efficient," she told AdExchanger. Now, she said, AI is embedded into not only the company’s technology but also how it operates on a daily basis.
VideoAmp’s overarching goal moving forward, she said, is to use AI to help media buyers plan smarter campaigns that perform better against their intended outcomes.
After all, the only buzzword in the TV ad industry that’s buzzier than “performance” right now is AI.
Performance, please
VideoAmp already has a media planning solution in addition to its measurement solutions.
One of its top priorities is to connect those workflows with AI agents, said Hudgins. Agents can help buyers spot opportunities to tweak and optimize their campaigns in-flight, he said, improving their chances of meeting their performance goals.
Agents may recommend reducing spend on one source of inventory, for example, and buying new inventory that will efficiently generate more unique reach.
Which isn’t to say that AI is an easy button. AI can help VideoAmp be more efficient, but it still needs first-party viewer data to work, which comes via data clean room partnerships and integrations with media sellers.
According to Hudgins, to improve video ad performance, "you really need to work directly with publishers’ log-level data." Building the relationships and integrations required to access that data can take years, but it’s worth the investment because it helps VideoAmp understand how video ad inventory contributes to an advertiser’s goals.
Adding AI infrastructure to the equation makes that process "repeatable and scalable," Hudgins said.
But there is also another ingredient: automatic content recognition (ACR). VideoAmp uses ACR data for connected TV targeting and measurement, because it reveals what content viewers are streaming. When paired with audience data, Zapata said, ACR gives marketers a fuller picture of their target audience’s behaviors and preferences; for example, what types of content people tend to watch when they are in market for a new car or planning a vacation.
With that information in mind, Zapata said, marketers can target more advanced audience segments while controlling reach and frequency.
At the end of the day, the goal is making sure media performs – and proving it, she said. “Ultimately, what we’re all trying to get is outcomes.”