NBCU Cable to Implement Google TV Ads
Advertising Platform
Google to Bring New
Advertising Clients to Television
Partnership
Includes Collaboration on Custom Research Projects to Help Drive
New Insights into TV Advertising
NEW YORK &
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. (September 8, 2008) - As part of its
continuing effort to offer innovative advertising solutions to
its clients, NBC Universal (NBCU) will join forces with Google
(NASDAQ: GOOG) to form a strategic multi-year advertising,
research and technology partnership. The two companies will work
together to develop more effective advertising metrics, attract
non-traditional advertising partners to NBCU and incorporate
self-service buying opportunities through the Google TV Ads™
advertising platform.
The announcement was made
today by Mike Pilot, President, NBC Universal Sales and
Marketing and Tim Armstrong, Google’s President of Advertising
and Commerce, North America.
On the national
level, NBCU will offer advertising time from several of its
cable networks to Google’s TV Ads platform. Inventory from Sci
Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller will be made
available to Google in the coming months, with potential to
expand onto other NBCU properties in the future. With the
addition of NBC Universal inventory, advertisers using the
Google TV Ads platform can reach NBCU Cable’s national audience
and gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale.
With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers
are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their
campaign to maximize their ROI.
“We’re extremely
pleased to join forces with Google on this effort, which will
help us develop better accountability and ROI metrics for our
advertisers and attract an entirely new group of clients to
television advertising,” said Pilot. “This is another step in
our commitment to trying innovative advertising approaches and
testing new technologies that can help benefit our clients.”
“The Google TV Ads platform is making television advertising
more accountable and measurable and we're pleased with our
progress to date,” said Armstrong. “Our partnership with NBCU
will help us bring the power of television to a broader set of
advertisers as well as give our current advertisers increased
reach through our system.”
On the local level,
NBCU and Google have also agreed to work jointly on adapting the
Google TV Ads platform for local market use.
“This is a great way to reach clients who are interested in
buying television advertising but may not have previously had
the resources or ability to do so,” said Frank Comerford,
President, Platform Development and Commercial Operations, NBC
Local Media. “A self-service ad platform will be a great
complement to our existing sales efforts and help us further
connect our clients to their customers.”
As part
of the agreement, NBC Universal will maintain its direct
relationships with agencies and advertisers and can set
parameters around the purchase of the available ad time. NBCU
will also gain access to the large base of advertisers using
Google’s AdWords™ online advertising program, many of whom are
not currently television advertisers. The two companies will
share in all ad revenue and explore innovative ways to expand
the partnership in the future, including adapting the platform
to add local inventory.
As part of their effort
to help drive value for advertisers, NBCU and Google will also
collaborate on a series of custom marketing and research
projects using the Google TV Ads platform. Through its
partnership with DISH Network, the Google TV Ads platform can
report second-by-second set top box data allowing advertisers to
measure viewership of their ads more precisely than ever before.
The two companies will also take advantage of joint research
that will help advertisers and agencies better understand their
media mix and optimize their ad campaigns.
"We're
pleased that NBCU will make some of its inventory available on
Google's TV Ads platform," said Laura Desmond, CEO of Starcom
MediaVest Group. "The partnership will generate real value for
our clients by providing us with a more measurable--and
actionable--understanding of how consumers engage with content."
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of
people around the world with information every day. Founded in
1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin,
Google today is a top web property in all major global markets.
Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all
sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web
experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley
with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more
information, visit
www.google.com.
Google, Google
AdWords, and Google TV Ads are trademarks of Google Inc. All
other company and product names may be trademarks of the
companies with which they are associated.
