Apr 22 2021
Media Coverage

Beet.TV: Powering Dentsu’s DELTA Is Just The Start: VideoAmp’s Parkes

Originally published on BeetTV, by Robert Andrews

VideoAmp has been named as the “data partner of choice” for a new solution Dentsu Media will use to buy linear TV across cable and broadcast. But the partnerships won’t stop there. In this video interview with Beet.TV, VideoAmp president Michael Parkes explains the company is non-monogamous with agencies, and has big growth plans.

DELTA’s curve
In April, Dentsu Media announced the creation of Data-Enabled Linear TV Activation (DELTA). The suite will supposedly “reimagine” the way it has been programmatically buying data-driven, people-based TV ads for clients. It integrates audience and viewership data for planning, buying and measurement reporting into a single source, supposedly reducing reliance on third parties.

But DELTA relies on VideoAmp.

Unlock value
“We’ve been working with Dentsu for a while, and this is really indicative of a broader trend that we’re seeing with clients looking to adopt VideoAmp as an alternative currency for advanced audience guarantees within the linear TV, as well as extending into OTT and digital marketplaces,” Parkes tells Beet.TV.

“Dentsu has a very advanced capability with (people-based agency platform) M1, and their ability to create custom audience definitions for their clients is a big part of their differentiation as a holding company. So we’re enabling them to leverage that and be able to guarantee audience delivery with the networks and the supply side, so they can unlock more value within the marketplace.

“I think the industry has been unhappy with the status quo and the legacy measurement and currency solutions in the market. And we’re seeing a lot of demand for VideoAmp solutions to transition from the traditional measurement capability into currency, and being able to do audience guarantees based on the custom definitions that any client brings.”

Currency quest
VideoAmp says its platform offers walled garden, linear TV, OTT and digital data within a single platform, and that its software transforms how advertising is valued, transacted and measured across all channels and devices.

And it has been evolving after its launch back in 2014.

Parkes recalls: “Our strategy was always to start with the buy side and change the measurement behaviour, get clients used to planning and measuring against audiences that are beyond traditional age and gender, allow them to use their own first party data, bring in third party data that they may want to use for audience definitions.

“And then now we’re moving to work with the media owners to establish a trading currency that can be used for traditional television, as well as OTT and the more emerging spaces.”

Source: Beet.TV