NBCUniversal opens clean room to Omnicom amid first-party data arms race

NBCUniversal has struck a deal with Omnicom Media Group to make it the first agency to have access to NBCU's audience insights hub—or “clean room” solution. The agreement comes as first-party data becomes a more critical sell for NBCU's ad business.

OMG will now be able to run permissioned queries across the hub’s combined data pool, which will include information from both Omni—Omnicom’s marketing insights platform—and NBCU’s own first-party data set. The news comes ahead of NBCU’s One22 developer conference on March 22.

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NBCU first introduced its audience insights hub during last year’s developer event in an effort to offer an ad framework as third-party cookies are axed. Through a clean room solution like this one, brands are able to leverage a pool of first-party data in a secure environment in order to measure their campaigns. The protective aspect ensures that no personal information is disclosed.

NBCU's announcement comes on the heels of a similar deal between Disney and Horizon Media. Earlier this month, the Mouse House said it would open its clean room to Horizon Media OMG also signed up as a beta partner when Disney first announced the clean room in October.

It's a move that positions media companies more closely to ad tech, as brands look for more creative ways to measure ads amid a data-sharing crackdown. 

This is NBCU's latest step to build out its advertising offerings through its One platform, which it unveiled in early 2020. The company earlier this year announced NBCUnified, a database consolidating 150 million consumer-level, first-party data points for advertisers to match against their own. 

For OMG, by combining its data set with that of NBCU, the goal is to allow its clients to conduct their own reach and frequency analysis for more efficient media planning and measurement.