Nielsen rival VideoAmp clears key hurdle as it integrates with Mediaocean

VideoAmp will be integrated into Mediaocean, the ad industry’s leading platform for billing and payments, clearing a substantial hurdle toward its adoption as a currency in TV and other cross-platform media deals, the companies have announced.

The integration covers both Mediaocean’s original Spectra mainframe-housed system and its newer cloud-based Prisma. The platforms, which are in the process of being integrated, together handle billing and payments for more than $200 billion in global media transactions.

Some agency executives have pointed to VideoAmp and other Nielsen-rival currencies not being integrated into Mediaocean as a stumbling block to their adoption. Nielsen CEO David Kenny in an October earnings call and other interviews, also pointed to rival measurement players not being integrated into Mediaocean as something that would prevent buyers from adopting them as primary currencies in TV deals.

But it was always clear that Mediaocean is open to adopting non-Nielsen measurements. Comscore has been integrated for years with Mediaocean, which also was an early-stage investor in VideoAmp, though it sold that stake last year.

A key difference between measurement and currency is integration into industry billing systems so transactions can be automated, said Nick Chakalos, chief strategy officer of VideoAmp. He said the firm has had positive results in trials with agencies from the six largest media holding companies, but that integration with Mediaocean takes things a step further.

“It matters first because it proves there’s trust in our data,” Chakalos said. “Secondly, it matters because it really points to the need for interoperability and seamlessness from a workflow perspective. Mediaocean is really the advertising system of record for media and creative transactions.”

During a Cannes forum hosted by OpenAP, a data and measurement confederation of TV networks, Sean Muller, CEO of iSpot.tv, another Nielsen rival, downplayed the endurance of Mediaocean integration as a stumbling block to new currencies. “Even Mediaocean is moving over to a new buying system,” Muller said. “And at some point, we’re just going to do this and figure it out.” A person familiar with the matter said iSpot too is on the way to being integrated with Mediaocean.

“Obviously the big trend here is the transition from a monolithic, Nielsen-based measurement, to, some people would call it, new currency or alternate currency, as I’ve tried to call it advanced currency,” said Ramsey McGory, chief development officer of Mediaocean. 

In addition to the major agency holding companies, McGory said, “We estimate that at least 200 brands have tested advanced currencies in this [upfront] cycle. I think that’s going to increase. And now the hard part, and the fun part, is how do you take that and integrate it so that they can do it as part of their standard planning, buying and measurement process?”