iSpot signs first agency deal as it eyes greater buy-side adoption

iSpot.tv has struck a multi-year deal with independent agency Camelot Strategic Media and Marketing to become its preferred video measurement partner for video and TV, the companies announced today. The deal marks a first for iSpot as an agency’s top choice and a step toward iSpot’s goal for greater buy-side adoption.

The measurement market has become increasingly competitive over the past few years. Challengers to Nielsen’s hold on viewership data have become more prominent and there have been greater pushes for adopting metrics ideal for streaming, such as attention and attribution. This shift in practice has caused many on both the sell and buy sides to question how to navigate the fragmented landscape in a cost-efficient way, fighting to avoid juggling numerous partners per platform, per client.

In adopting measurement providers, publishers such as NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney have been proactive in selecting preferred partners, as many agencies have tested emerging alternatives. Although some agencies confirmed to Ad Age that they have struck similar preferred partner deals with competitors, and iSpot itself offers its products to agencies, the Camelot partnership marks the first step in iSpot’s ambitions to expand its agency-focused business.

As agencies and streaming platforms grapple with standardizing measurement across publishers, iSpot Founder and CEO Sean Muller said the company's emerging agency-focused business will focus its software that unifies the varying metrics that today’s deals are made on—household and personal-level delivery, unique audience and verification. Should agencies begin to adopt similar deals to Camelot’s with iSpot, transacting on the company’s metrics with streaming publishers will “provide for a much more structured upfront future in a market that has a fairly disorganized upfront on the streaming side,” said Muller.

“Today, there’s no standard [metric] in streaming—every deal is different,” said Muller. “You could have one deal that’s done based on a server log, you can have one deal that’s based on Digital Ad Ratings or you could have another deal that’s based on outcomes. It’s really all over the place in streaming today. So the idea is to bring the ecosystem together on a standardized set of metrics, and it starts with the measurement and then moves on to the transaction.”

For Camelot, the partnership allows its clients “to buy iSpot by the pint versus by the keg,” said Sam Bloom, the agency’s CEO. While a client’s goals may vary between campaigns, the brand may be limited in the flexibility of its measurement tools based on the terms of its license. Bloom’s goal is to remove any barriers to entry for its clients to be able to both implement iSpot data as well as customize its use case-by-case.

“Agencies have to build platforms that are different than DSPs’ and are different than publishers’,” said Bloom. “Agencies should be prescriptive in what they want for their client and be able to bring these kinds of tools in an economically and operationally smart way. That’s really what we’re trying to do—democratize these tools. It shouldn’t just be for Procter & Gamble and Unilever. We have the same challenges, just on a different scale.”

While iSpot reports it has direct deals with over 600 brands, the Camelot partnership marks the first time it has signed at the agency level, which grants access to a larger swath of iSpot’s products than other deals. Camelot clients will have access to iSpot’s TV ad measurement to collect data across streaming platforms as well as incremental use with major demand side platforms. Camelot will also be able to implement various metrics in addition to reach, such as attention and business attribution in real time.

Bloom said the intention is to transition Camelot’s full roster of clients over to iSpot data as each deals with “massive transformation in media consumption,” even if some are only beginning to step into video advertising.