IPG Mediabrands’ MAGNA Bolsters Data-Driven Video Capabilities in New Partnership with OpenAP

MAGNA will now have access to linear insights and digital audience forecasting through OpenAP to reduce waste and extend its client investments across publishers and platforms

IPG Mediabrands’ clients will receive actionable OpenID insights to unlock key planning metrics, like network unique reach, daypart indexes and total monthly avails across CTV footprints

NEW YORK, December 12, 2023 — OpenAP, the advanced advertising company bringing simplicity and scale to audience-based campaigns in television, and MAGNA, the investment and intelligence arm of IPG Mediabrands, today announced a new partnership that will enable MAGNA to seamlessly build and reach advanced audiences across data-driven video endpoints via a direct integration with Acxiom. MAGNA, which powers planning and investment across the IPG Mediabrands network, will now be able to target and distribute custom audiences using Acxiom data centrally through OpenAP across linear, digital, streaming and programmatic channels, then measure cross-publisher and cross-platform reach and frequency at the end of a campaign.

The partnership underscores MAGNA’s commitment to an audience-first future for video advertising. By activating audiences with Acxiom data on OpenID, TV’s common identifier that powers the resolution of linear and digital audiences across publishers, MAGNA will receive actionable audience viewership data and key planning metrics throughout the campaign lifecycle, giving IPG Mediabrands clients a deeper understanding of viewership and eliminating waste and overlap in cross-platform campaigns across multiple currency workflows. MAGNA will receive end-to-end campaign forecasting for both linear and digital channels from OpenAP, providing clients with new and incremental opportunities to distribute unexposed audiences to digital and CTV channels to extend the reach and ROI of their campaigns. MAGNA will also benefit from first mover advantage on the cross-publisher, cross-platform clean room solution, the OpenAP Data Hub, in early 2024.

The partnership comes at a critical time ahead of the 2025 Upfront, in which advertisers continue to be faced with fragmentation across identity, viewership and new currencies. By partnering with OpenAP for centralized audience onboarding, audience distribution and post-campaign reporting, IPG Mediabrands’ clients will have an unbiased view of planning insights and holistic campaign performance, regardless of viewership currencies.

“Identity is the common denominator powering the industry’s transition to a multi-publisher, multi-platform, multi-currency advertising model. At MAGNA, we are committed to an audience-first strategy to deliver the insights and precision our clients need to maximize their investments. This partnership with OpenAP simplifies a complex process and gives the actionable data our team’s need in the planning stage to maximize our clients’ investments,” said Dani Benowitz, Global President, at MAGNA.

“Buyers have more choices than ever before going into the next upfront cycle with multiple new currencies and data sources, all while managing the complexities of fragmentation of audiences across publisher endpoints. By leaning into a common identifier to unify campaigns across publishers, platforms and currencies, MAGNA is modeling the way for how to navigate an incredibly complex media buying landscape and future-proofing their investments as we migrate to privacy-centric clean room technology with Acxiom in the OpenAP Data Hub,” said Abbey Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer at OpenAP.

About MAGNA

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers. We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity, and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity, and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.

About OpenAP

OpenAP is the advanced advertising company bringing simplicity and scale to audience-based campaigns in television. Powered by a standards-based approach to data activation, we enable advertisers to onboard audiences centrally for use in planning, campaign execution and measurement across the largest footprint of premium video advertising. OpenAP makes it possible for unified ID-based audiences to be used for targeting and measurement across any TV publisher in both linear and digital viewing environments, unlocking transformative insights when using the same audience consistently across all screens. Our technology is open and interoperable, delivering workflow automation and efficiencies on advanced audience campaigns for agencies, brands and publishers. For more information, visit www.openap.tv and follow @OpenAPTV on Twitter and LinkedIn.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Isabelle Brenton, IPG Mediabrands

[email protected]

Bridget Sitton, OpenAP

[email protected]

Interpublic Group, Open AP Strike Data Pact to Help Advertisers Reach New Audiences

Published on Variety

Interpublic Group, the ad-holding company that has made a concerted bid to enlist new kinds of audience data into planning how and where commercials run, hopes to turbocharge its efforts in a new partnership with OpenAP, a consortium of the big U.S media companies that helps identify similar consumer audiences across different companies’ platforms.

Under terms of the new pact, Interpublic Group’s MAGNA media-investment arm will be able to identify discrete group of consumer audiences and distribute commercials to reach them via OpenAP. Magna will tap data from Axciom, a unit that specializes in housing and managing scads of customer data that Interpublic purchased for $2.3 billion in 2018.

“We have a lot of audiences we have built within Axicom that we want to be able to distribute via all our video endpoints — across linear, CTV, OTT,’” says Larene Mantel, vice president of strategic investment for Magna Global, during an interview. She says using OpenAP will enable Magna not only to plan better ways to reach specific audiences, but to analyze performance of ads in spurring recall, action and other outcomes.

The deal is unveiled as more advertisers and media companies are preparing for the industry’s next “upfront” market, when TV networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory ahead of the next cycle of programming. Marketers are increasingly interested in new ways of tabulating audiences and U.S. media companies, which still rely on Nielsen to do so, are also cobbling new deals with start-ups and rivals that count audiences in new ways.

“This partnership with OpenAP simplifies a complex process and gives the actionable data our team’s need in the planning stage to maximize our clients’ investments,” said Dani Benowitz, Global President, at MAGNA, in a prepared statement.

OpenAP is backed by NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corp. and Paramount Global, among others. The company aims to help advertisers reach certain consumer categories that remain the same no matter which company’s inventory is being purchased, and the chance to create benchmarks that can be more easily compared.

 

Read the Article on Variety

AMAZON AND IPG MEDIABRANDS SIGN PRIME VIDEO ADS DEAL

Published on Ad Age

Three-year agreement grants media agency network first-look on upcoming ad formats and show sponsorships

Amazon has signed a three-year deal with IPG Mediabrands for its upcoming Prime Video ad tier, the companies announced today.

The deal grants the media network—home to agencies including Magna, UM, Mediahub and Initiative—first-look rights on upcoming ad formats and show sponsorships. It also gives the agencies’ clients access to the e-commerce giant’s first-party shopping and entertainment data to incorporate into advertising on the platform.

It’s the first deal struck between Amazon Ads and a media agency organization for Prime Video ads.

Amazon announced in September that it would automatically opt all Prime Video users in for advertising when watching shows such as “The Boys” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” starting in early 2024. Those wishing to continue viewing Prime Video ad-free will have to pay an additional $2.99 per month. The ad tier will initially launch in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada, with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later next year. IPG Mediabrands’ deal will encompass all markets.

“Amazon’s latest offering brings a first-to-market opportunity for our clients to reach consumers at the category level in a comprehensive, scalable way—from culture and content to commerce and shoppable experiences,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, in a statement.

“The ability to access the entire Amazon streaming TV product suite is an added benefit for both endemic and non-endemic brands within our broad client portfolio,” added Dani Benowitz, Global President of MAGNA, noting that the agency is a longtime partner of Amazon Ads.

‘Unmatched reach and frequency’

Amazon’s capabilities in data and commerce have been an exciting addition to the streaming video ecosystem for advertisers. Prime Video’s recent Black Friday NFL game was a showcase for its ability to pair entertainment with direct sales as brands filled the match with interactive spots for viewers to access exclusive holiday deals. While “Black Friday Football” didn’t achieve the ratings some media buyers predicted, the business outcomes from Amazon’s first Black Friday game were enough to keep marketers hyped for future partnerships with the streaming platform.

“When we begin introducing limited ads into Prime Video shows and movies, Prime Video will be one of the largest premium ad-supported services in most countries where we operate,” said Alan Moss, VP of global sales for Amazon Ads. “This means we can simultaneously offer brands unmatched reach and frequency to help them achieve their business goals.”

Advertisers have been enthusiastically awaiting the arrival of Prime Video’s ad tier, particularly because of the instant, large audience it will offer, while other streaming platforms have struggled to grow the number of ad-supported users. Despite pitching advertisers with CPMs, or the cost to reach 1,000 viewers, as low as $30, Ad Age previously reported the streamer has asked for nine-digit commitments from agencies.

Read the Article on Ad Age

WHAT GEN Z’S CONNECTED TV VIEWING HABITS CAN TEACH BRANDS

Published on Ad Age

New research shows ways advertisers can shift media strategies to better engage with younger TV viewers

The divide between viewing habits for older versus younger generations continues to deepen, which means advertisers may need to embrace new media strategies in order to fully capture Gen Z and millennial consumers’ attention.

While viewership has been shifting from linear TV to connected TV, and streaming platforms broadly, the medium is particularly impactful for reaching Gen Z and millennial viewers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both age groups spend over half of their time consuming video content on connected TV, while Gen X and Boomers still watch mostly on broadcast and cable, according to new research from Magna Media Trials and Samsung Ads.

Engaging Gen Z and Millennials is far more complex than simply shifting spend from one platform to another, and each group shows unique viewing habits compared to one another as well. For example, a Gen Z viewer watching TV throughout the day was attentive to the most ads during late night TV (12 a.m. to 6 a.m.), followed by daytime hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The opposite is true for millennials: ads were most viewed during primetime hours (7 p.m. to 12 a.m.).

Gen Z and millennials also show opposite behaviors for the type of content that they were most receptive to seeing ads during. Gen Z was most open to advertising during multi-hour viewing sessions, specifically while watching movies over user-generated content or TV shows, while millennials showed their highest receptivity during viewing sessions of less than an hour and during user-generated content such as YouTube videos.

For brands looking to engage young audiences, the research isn’t meant to signal advertisers should immediately shift all media buys to movies viewed after midnight. Rather, “I would consider these untapped opportunities where advertisers should explore and test and shift some in that direction,” said Kara Manatt, executive VP of intelligence solutions at Magna.

Manatt said that as advertisers have followed audiences to CTV platforms, “a lot of the focus was on being more personalized with who [the client] is reaching…but we have not yet taken full advantage of the creative aspect of CTV.”

CTV and streaming platforms offer advertisers greater capabilities to serve different ads to different viewers, or evolve the creative served to one viewer over time, as well as new formats such as shoppable and interactive ads.

Magna and Samsung’s research found that millennial viewers were receptive to brands that showed multiple creative variations when they were served multiple ads from the same brand, while Gen Z preferred consistent messaging. However, both age groups were less attentive to ads being shown multiple times within short time periods and were most tuned in when an ad was spaced out by at least three hours.

Media buyers have long criticized frequency control in streaming and the inability for some platforms to reduce frequency while still delivering audience guarantees, which they say won’t happen until ad-supported streaming grows audience numbers.

However, the length of ads can also determine viewer attention and can create more cost efficient opportunities for marketers. On average, Gen Z and millennials watched nearly seven seconds of 15-second ads, according to the research. Attention increased for longer ad formats, but not at an even rate. Both age groups watched approximately 10 seconds of 30-second spots; Gen Z watched about 12 seconds of 60-second ads while millennials watched them for nearly 14 seconds. Millennials were tuned in for 15 seconds of 90-second spots, while Gen Z’s attention dropped to under 11 seconds for the longer ads.

Largely, “brands should be considering the different patterns” of Gen Z and millennial TV viewers when developing media strategies, said Manatt. A brand “may want to even deliver a different message to a millennial than they would Gen Z. They’re in very different life stages, so it makes sense for all advertisers to start exploring and looking at generations uniquely.”

 

Read the Full Study

 

Read the Article on Ad Age

NEW MAGNA RESEARCH WITH SAMSUNG ADS EXPLORES CONNECTED TV VIEWING HABITS OF A NEW GENERATION OF GEN Z AND MILLENNIAL VIEWERS

Research finds that ads on CTV are better quality and more relevant, according to Gen Z and Millennials

New York, NY – November 2, 2023 – MAGNA Media Trials, in collaboration with Samsung Ads, released a new study today that explores the viewing habits of Gen Z and Millennial audiences. Their onward march toward digital platforms, such as Connected TV (CTV) sets viewing habits apart from previous generations, creating new challenges – and opportunities for advertisers vying to secure their attention.

The new study, Capturing the Attention of our Youngest Generations, The Digital Advertisers’ Guide to Reaching Gen Z + Millennials on Connected TV, explored highest attention to ads by time of day on CTV, average attention spans by content type and their reactions to repeating ads. One finding, untapped by advertisers, is that Gen Z spends the most time looking at ads on CTV during late-night, locking in for an average 9.63 seconds per spot, while millennials dial up focus during traditional primetime at 9.8 seconds per spot.

Daytime and late night are Gen Z prime times as data revealed viewability rates are at their highest (62%) during late night and daytime capturing a 57% viewability rate and 55% ad receptivity. Millennials’ viewability rate is highest, at 59%, during traditional primetime hours.

“Each new generation claims their own unique viewing behaviors, as evidenced by the shift toward CTV and short-form content,” said Kara Manatt, MAGNA’s EVP, Managing Director, Intelligence Solutions. “Our research hints that other trendlines are more eternal, as Millennials, who are raising families and entrenched at work, clock peak viewability being during primetime and Gen Z, still by majority students, having the bandwidth to watch during daytime and late night.”

Previous MAGNA research has tracked younger generations progress toward CTV. A 2022 MAGNA Time Spent Report determined that streaming networks receive a 56% share of Gen Z TV time and 52% of Gen Y/Millennials’. Gen X and Boomers devoted 30% and 15% of their viewing time, respectively, to CTV.

The study enlisted a nationally representative panel of 2,717 individuals who installed TV visual attention technology in their households to capture automatic content recognition (ACR), resulting in 73,531 ads analyzed for viewability and visual attention. Researchers also recruited approximately 1,022 Gen Z and Millennial CTV users to keep a media consumption log.

Ads viewed on CTV were perceived to be of better quality and more relevant than those aired on broadcast and cable, according to Gen Z and Millennial respondents. For example, 60% of Gen Z and 56% of Millennials agreed that CTV featured better quality ads than cable and satellite and 67% of Millennials and 62% of Gen Z believe they are more relevant.

Other findings include:

  • Gen Z has a greater tolerance for advertising during long-form content, of an hour or more at 46% receptivity, compared to shorter spurts of less than an hour. (38%). In turn, 52% of the cohort was more open to ads during movies, and less so to TV shows at 44%.
  • Millennials are more attentive to ads during sessions of less than one hour at 62%. They were most open to ads aired during DIY programming at 61%.
  • Repeating the same ad in tight timeframes taxed visual attention rates. Gen Z (43%) and Millennials (28%) peaked in attention when the same ad should air three or more hours apart.
  • Gen Z pays more attention to ads appearing on FAST channels, at 31% vs. 27% for non-FAST outlets.

“This research adds powerful context to what we observe every day at Samsung Ads. TV for Americans, particularly younger generations, is streaming-first. It calls for brands to rethink how and when they should engage them on the biggest and best screen,” said Justin Fromm, Head of Insights, Samsung Ads. “This research underscores the highly nuanced behaviors of Gen Z, and Millennials that marketers should approach strategically, based on the multiple layers of data that are now available.”

The full study can be found here.

About MAGNA

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers. We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.

 

About Samsung Ads

Samsung Ads is Samsung Electronics’ advertising ecosystem, spanning hundreds of millions of smart devices across TV, mobile, desktop, and beyond. Our deep understanding of consumers and unmatched position at the intersection of hardware, software and advertising delivers quantifiable results for brands on a massive scale.

With the largest single source of TV data in the market, reaching 3 in 4 U.S. households, Samsung Ads unlocks unmatched opportunities to engage consumers during connected moments that matter. Today, Samsung Ads serves over 25 countries around the globe.