Top 10 March Madness advertisers so far: Datacenter Weekly

Innovid to use Walmart data to target CTV advertising

“Innovid struck a deal with Walmart Connect to use the retail giant’s data to target and deliver personalized creative to shoppers on connected TV networks,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports.

Buy-in so far: “Publicis Media’s Spark Foundry and its Campbell Soup Co. client are among early users of the capability, which is delivered via Walmart Connect’s demand-side platform (DSP), managed through The Trade Desk,” Neff notes.

Essential context: “The move comes as brands, in particular packaged-goods marketers, rapidly increase their spending on both retail media and CTV, and retail media networks increase their efforts to harness their data to let advertisers shape their buys on CTV,” Neff adds. “Kroger Precision Marketing last year opened its retail data marketplace for use in connected TV buys via several DSPs. Roundel has made similar moves. And Amazon—both a retailer and a substantial player in ad-supported CTV via its own Freevee network and others—also makes data available for targeting on streaming networks.”

Keep reading here.

Top 10 March Madness 2023 advertisers (so far)

This just in: Here are the top 10 March Madness TV advertisers so far, per TV measurement firm iSpot.tv, as ranked by share of household impressions:

1. AT&T Wireless (4.52%)
2. Progressive (2.48%)
3. GEICO (2.48%)
4. Nissan (2.42%)
5. Buick (2.32%)
6. Capital One Credit Card (2.22%)
7. Buffalo Wild Wings (2.22%)
8. State Farm (2.11%)
9. GMC (1.91%)
10. Subway (1.80%)

GM’s zero-party data play

Ad Age’s Garett Sloane reports that GM “is investing in its customer data platform to help move drivers into EVs, and the strategy hinges on ‘taking our first-party data down to zero-party data,’ according to Ajay Kapoor, GM’s global director of performance driven marketing.”

The big picture: “GM has had a tremendous amount of first-party data, on the vehicle, the individuals, households,” Kapoor told Sloane. “Now, it’s about really driving activation, and cleaning up and pulling that [data] together … gelling that together in an enterprise data strategy.”

First-party vs. zero-party data: “First-party data is information brands collect during the normal course of business,” Sloane explains. “For instance, when a person visits a website and buys a product, the brand could infer a certain amount of information from the consumer. ... Zero-party data is more direct, when the consumer states a preference and opts into using that preference for greater customization in marketing and services. For GM, this is a key distinction as it builds a more complete marketing picture of its customers, and as it deals with the transition in digital media that is moving away from cookies and third-party ad IDs.”

​​Keep reading here.

Ad Age Best Places to Work 2023

In his introduction to Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2023 package, Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson writes,

The best practices at the Best Places to Work turn out to be pretty straightforward:

Fair pay. Solid benefits.

Recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Keep staffing levels adequate so team members and teams can do their best work.

Provide good training and keep employees in the loop on how the business is doing. Tilt work-life balance a bit more toward life.

Easy to say—and hard to do. Ad Age Best Places to Work 2023 honors 50 companies for a job well done last year amid the challenges of a tight talent pool, uncertain economy and ongoing effects of the pandemic.

Dive into the full package here.

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Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Joy R. Lee.