NEW YORK—Comscore has announced that Dentsu will shift local TV buying to a Comscore-based currency that supports transactions in all 210 local markets.
The agreement means that Dentsu will be the first agency network to place buys in local markets using Comscore’s advanced audiences. Dentsu will use the local TV measurement across its three US media agencies, Carat, Dentsu X, and iProspect, which will add a new addressable solution to the agency network’s toolkit.
The move signals a significant shift for the local media industry as it seeks to utilize the same data-driven techniques that have been long employed by national buyers, Comscore said.
Comscore and Dentsu will conduct test buys on behalf of two clients in top 10 local markets based on impressions delivered to advanced audiences built in Dentsu’s proprietary audience-building platform M1, with buys planned to go live in early 2023, the companies reported.
The partnership will expand to additional markets throughout next year. All major broadcast stations in the markets and local cable inventory will also participate in these buys.
“At Dentsu we pride ourselves on knowing people better than anyone else and have been at the forefront of unlocking new ways to create addressable, audience-first solutions across media environments. For too long, our local TV buyers have been unable to reap the benefits of advances in data driven buying,” said Jennifer Hungerbuhler, executive vice president local and audio investment at Dentsu Media US. “As we look to what’s next in media, the scale and stability of Comscore’s local TV dataset, coupled with the power of Dentsu’s M1 audience intelligence platform, enable new opportunities for us to precisely transact on the audiences that matter most to our clients and drive value in every market.”
This partnership follows a previous announcement that the companies were expanding their long standing partnership and adding the ability to utilize Dentsu’s M1 advanced audiences within Comscore’s local planning and buying datasets, Comscore reported.
It also represents the culmination of a two year proof of concept phase led by Comscore’s agency and brand leadership team helmed by Kathryn Roganti, senior vice president commercial at Comscore, and Karine McMaster, vice president advanced media, local investment at Dentsu Media US.
