Kantar rebrands media intelligence unit, which now includes Numerator elements

Kantar Group is consolidating and rebranding its syndicated competitive media intelligence business as Vivvix, a standalone unit that will combine what was previously known as Kantar Media with elements of Numerator.

Vivvix will be the world’s largest ad spending intelligence business and the largest in the U.S. “by orders of magnitude,” said Andrew Feigenson, CEO of the business.

The combined business will measure more than $250 billion in global media spending with detailed descriptors for more than 35 million creative assets.

Numerator, acquired by Kantar in 2021, is best known for its panel of more than a million consumers whose online and offline spending are tracked and linked to survey research mainly for packaged-goods marketers. That business will remain separate from Vivvix inside Kantar.

But Numerator also brought with it a well-developed competitive ad spending intelligence of its own that competed with Kantar, albeit with different strengths, Feigenson said. Kantar’s media measurement strength was more like “a wide-angle lens,” he said, across media and industries. Numerator “didn’t capture every ad out there,” he said, but would focus on certain industries with considerable detail about creative used. So mobile phone marketers, for example, were using it to drill down on how competitors were spending, including the portion that was co-op advertising with retailers or major carriers.

Some customers have been cobbling together Kantar and Numerator data with custom integrations, but the integration of the companies under Vivvix will include a newly updated dashboard that unifies data feed from both sides of the company, he said.

Competitive media intelligence long has been a side dish for the multi-faceted research companies that do it. But the launch of Vivvix as an independent brand within Kantar will help focus management attention and innovation on the area, Feigenson said.

“It hasn’t been a top priority for the industry,” he said, but competitive media intelligence plays an important role in helping marketers allocate budgets and resources. “We’re really excited by the ability to go after this comprehensive view,” he said.

Already, he said, Kantar has been focusing more resources on coverage of digital media spending over recent years, adding coverage of connected TV and advertising-supported video on demand, for example. “Just last quarter, we launched full coverage of apps, including YouTube,” he said. “As you look across the digital landscape, that’s an area we know we’re going to have to invest in.”

Staying current on advertising activity within financial services “feels like an impossible task in today’s environment” Allie Amenta, VP of enterprise advertising and brand strategy manager at Citizens Bank, said in a statement. “I rely on the Vivvix reporting for cross-channel analyses, breaking activity and a view into competitor market presence. Daily alerts flag anything I should dig into and influence weekly reporting.”

Amenta said she expects the formation of Vivvix to “bring clients more relevant and accurate intel.”