Twitter Blue subscribers will see 50% of ads on their timeline versus nonpaid users, and a visibility boost in search. “As you scroll, you will see approximately twice as many organic or non-promoted Tweets placed in between promoted Tweets or ads,” said the company of the feature. “There may be times when there are more or fewer non-promoted Tweets between promoted Tweets.” The feature doesn’t apply to ads shown on the profile or in replies, promoted accounts and trends, and promoted events on the Explore page.

Video software provider Synamedia unveiled Quortex Link, a pay-as-you-use, self-service multi-tenant SaaS platform for video distribution. Quortex Link reduces the time and investment required to establish video distribution links and cuts energy and CO2 by eliminating always-on infrastructure. “As the demand for live streaming content continues to grow, operators need new ways to deliver and manage high-quality content more efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Thomas Dellerue, Senior Product Manager, Synamedia. “With Quortex Link, content providers can deliver their content to multiple locations around the world, in a few clicks, keeping the same reliability as satellite delivery for a fraction of the cost.”

Newsletter platform Substack is introducing a Twitter-ish short-form content feature, Notes, to “foster conversations that inspire, enlighten, and entertain, while giving writers a powerful growth channel as these interactions find new audiences.” Explains a Substack post, “Like our Recommendations feature, Notes is designed to drive discovery across Substack. But while Recommendations lets writers promote publications, Notes will give them the ability to recommend almost anything—including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.”

Calling all measurement and data industry experts! We’re looking for judges for Cynopsis’ inaugural Measure Up! Awards. Email Carley Ashley by April 17th to find out more, and check out our website to learn more about the event (or enter yourself!).

NPR stopped tweeting from its main Twitter account after it was labeled “state-affiliated media” last week. It also changed its Twitter bio to read, “NPR is an independent news organization committed to informing the public about the world around us. You can find us every other place you read the news.”

A spokesperson for the BBC, whose official Twitter account was tagged “government funded media,” said, “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the license fee.”

ADVERTISING

What are the new challenges and potential solutions for CTV privacy and compliance amid shifting privacy legislation? IAB addresses those issues in its “Project Crosswalk 2.0 – Connected TV Compliance in a New Privacy Law Era” report, addressing what makes CTV unique for consumer transparency and choice; how Personal Information is Processed in CTV Advertising and Best Practices for State Law Compliance; and how the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 is snarling CTV advertising. IAB Project Crosswalk is a working group of the IAB Legal Affairs Council focused on identifying emerging privacy challenges in internet-connected TV advertising and developing best practices for addressing those challenges.

Two out of three advertisers are considering using metaverse and AR advertising within the next year, according to a new Advertising Research Foundation study using insights from Advertiser Perceptions. Additional findings from the analysis include:
* Marketers are more likely than agencies to use AR, VR and the Metaverse in the next 12 months; 77% said they will use one of these three formats within the next year. Comparatively, 59% of agencies planned to use these channels, with many instead preferring in-game advertising (64%), where the perceived costs of production are lower.
* Audience engagement (41%) and the ability to reach younger audiences (38%) were seen as the top benefits to utilizing AR/VR/Metaverse technology.
* Performance is a potential barrier to adoption: Lack of proof of performance of VR/AR/Metaverse is the top challenge for agencies and marketers (33%), followed by inadequate reach (28%) and possessing the ability to reach the same consumers effectively with other ad formats (28%).
* Virtual advertising techniques are led by branded content (67%), followed by sponsorship, product placement and influencers, each totaling 56%.

Auto brands that are performing the best have aligned their TV campaign messaging with the growing popularity of Evs, according to EDO’s Automotive TV Performance Report. Among the insights: Polestar is in the lead for luxury while GMC leads non-luxury; and EV and hybrid auto ads outperformed traditional gas-powered vehicle ads in 2022 by 19%, with a 173% increase in airings year-over-year. “Today’s top-performing auto brands – including GMC, Nissan and Polestar – have aligned their TV campaign messaging with the growing popularity of EVs to appeal to today’s buyers,” said EDO CEO Kevin Krim.

Brands that sponsor the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the US create stronger connections with consumers and drive substantial lifts across key metrics, according to research presented by NBCUniversal last week. Key findings from brand consultancy Brand Asset Valuator include:
* The Olympics creates a strong halo for official partners, who see a +117% increase in association with these Olympic traits among Olympics fans. The Games have embodied brand attributes such as “authentic,” “daring,” “distinct,” “fun,” “high-performing,” “prestigious” and “social.”
* Post-sponsorship, brands across categories were, on average, able to earn substantial equity including consideration (+6%), preference (+7%), pricing power (+40%) and loyalty (+40%).
* Brands that perform strongly in BAV Group outpace the market in terms of financial performance: +127% vs. the S&P 500 over the last 15 years.
“As we prepare for the next three Games – Paris 2024, Milan-Cortina 2026 and then the highly-anticipated Los Angeles 2028 – we wanted to demonstrate the value of the Olympic Rings and the unique and powerful opportunity it presents for advertisers and sponsors,” said Dan Lovinger, President, Olympics & LA2028 Ad and Sponsorship Sales. “Brands see powerful results from their connection to the Rings, and while it’s still very early, we are pacing well ahead of where we were at the same time for recent Summer Games – and that is a true testament to the continued impact of this movement.”

Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference – June 13th and 14th – NYC

Expose your brand and products to high level executives from leading companies across the media ecosystem at our 8th annual Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference. Contact Albert Nassour, Executive Director of Sales and join sponsors VAB, Spectrum Reach, comScore, iSpot.tv, Premion, NY Interconnect, NCM and more! Limited opportunities available!

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STREAMING

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has launched Crackle Connex, a new advertising sales platform. Drawing on the company’s portfolio of owned and operated AVOD and FAST networks and platforms, Crackle Connex offers brands a unique way to engage with over 80 million monthly active users. “With Crackle Connex, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has created a leading advertising platform that simplifies the buying process of video advertising across both in-home and out-of-home screens,” said Philippe Guelton, CRO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Crackle Connex. And that’s just for starters – “We have some big news to share in the coming weeks and at our Newfront presentation on May 3,” added Guelton.

MyOutdoorTV has added five ad-free live TV channels with programming from Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, and the World Fishing Network. Channel include HuntStream, AnglerStream, Late Season Whitetail Channel, The MeatEater Channel and TurkeyStream.

Vionlabs, a provider of cognitive AI technology, has partnered with Plex, the free global streaming media platform, to enhance the viewing experience with more accurate and intuitive UX. The partnership will see Vionlabs’ technology integrated into Plex’s streaming service. “Vionlabs’ technology provides some truly unique capabilities that we believe will be invaluable in helping us achieve our goal of making streaming content even more accessible and enjoyable for everyone,” said Shawn Eldridge, Vice President of Business Development and Content

MediaRadar, the advertising intelligence company, and PlayOn, makers of a streaming video recording platform, announced a partnership that calls for MediaRadar to use data derived from video captured via PlayOn to enhance their streaming Media advertising analytics and insights products. “We think the opportunities for analytics companies to leverage the platform are vast, and we are excited to see the commercial applications that arise from it,” said PlayOn CEO Jeff Lawrence.

Video streaming user experience company 24i announced enhancements to its 24i Mod Studio video streaming platform and its 24iQ personalization platform. 24i Broadcaster Studio allows broadcasters and virtual broadcasters to bring their live and VOD catalogs direct-to-consumers in their own apps to supplement distribution via external content aggregators, and 24iQ, the company’s data-driven personalization platform, is now available in three tiers to meet the needs of companies at different stages in their streaming development.

Sportradar has renewed its partnership with Big Ten Network to power its OTT platform B1G+ through the 2024-25 college athletics season. Sportradar will collaborate with BTN to enhance user experience through additional front-end experiences, including the integration & visualization of sports data.

MEASUREMENT

For the first time, Nielsen has introduced comparable reporting of local television’s OTT streaming apps when delivered via connected TV devices, apps and/or websites and viewed on the TV glass. The new capability includes feeds that have unique, streamed content that is not available on the station’s over-the-air channels or direct-to-cable station feeds. “We continue to evolve our measurement to account for all local audiences and are thrilled to offer a more inclusive way to capture local audiences across platforms,” said Catherine Herkovic, EVP, Managing Director, Audio and Local TV at Nielsen. “This new innovation is the next step in aligning our local TV measurement to national TV.”

Comscore has added “Pulse” to the Comscore TV measurement suite. All stations in all 210 US. media markets and 250+ networks nationally are reported on within 48 hours. “This newly launched data opens a whole new world for local markets ranked 50+ that were ‘shut out’ of in-flight campaign optimizations and pacing data previously,” write Comscore CRO Carol Hinnant in a blog post. “Comscore built Pulse with a new analytics engine that accounts for many distinct factors that could impact stability, while still using the same singular methodology that builds ratings and impressions viewing estimates zip code by zip code, market by market.”

CTV/OTT advertising platform Premion shared insights from a co-viewing study from TVision that showed Premion’s CTV inventory exceeds industry benchmarks for co-viewing and capturing viewer attention. Among the TVision CTV Co-Viewing study findings:
* Premion inventory had more than a 19% lift above CTV Norms with views per viewable household (VPVH), defined as the average number of viewers present in the home when the TV is on with the content tuned. The average VPVH for Premion inventory was 1.5, with 1.26 being the average for ad-supported CTV.
* The average attention percentage for Premion placed inventory exceeded industry norms, with a 3.5% lift from the CTV average.
* Premion placed inventory captured more attention than the CTV norm in nearly every hour of the day (23 of 24 hours) and this difference is especially notable in Prime and Overnight dayparts.
“CTV advertisers want to know how many people are streaming content together and who’s paying attention, and our studies show that attention is closely correlated with both aided awareness and ad recall — two fundamental brand metrics,” said Yan Liu, CEO of TVision. “Premion scored high in attention and views per viewer household which validates the power of premium content. This maximizes value for brands by getting the ads in front of a larger audience without them having to increase ad spending.”

Ampersand has launched sports-focused audience segments within the company’s portfolio enabling brands to reach sports viewers in an engaged environment and glean insights into viewers’ behaviors before, during, and after sporting events. “Sports Viewer audience segments are a game-changer for the industry, reorienting some of the most important audience segments to facilitate brands’ ability to truly optimize their TV investments,” said Natasha Sinagoga, Ampersand’s VP of local sales. “By providing unique insights into the entire fan journey, Ampersand is transforming the way brands can target some of the most desired audience segments.”

Habu announced a partnership with data collaboration platform Narrative to harness Narrative’s data discovery, acquisition, and integration capabilities within Habu’s data clean room platform to enable companies to complement and enrich customer profiles with new insights and provide closed-loop measurement. “Through this partnership, we’re able to offer Habu customers instant access to an extensive array of high-quality data, while making it easy for them to quickly find relevant insights,” said Matt Kilmartin, CEO of Habu.

IN MEMORIAM

Bob Lee, the tech entrepreneur who helped launch Cash App, died after being stabbed in San Francisco on April 4. He was 43. “Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature. Bob was the genuine article,” said Josh Goldbard, CEO of MobileCoin. “He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real.”

Cynopsis Team