Cadent, a media network and data platform for pay TV providers, has rolled out a TV targeting tool that taps into TiVo’s data sets.
Available initially as a managed service, the product is Cadent’s first since its acquisition last August of addressable and video on-demand ad platform BlackArrow.
GroupM’s advanced TV specialist Modi Media is the first agency customer to sign on to use the tool.
“Every network came out with their own data solution but if the person selling you the media is the same person providing the data and setting the price points, that doesn’t sound like such a great idea for agencies and advertisers,” said Modi President Michael Bologna.
Cadent’s inventory stretches across 80 million homes and 70 cable networks, claiming a more complete picture of viewing patterns than a standalone network could offer.
Using Cadent’s TV targeting tool, media buyers can perform matches against the 2.3 million households that subscribe to TiVo.
That scale increases to more than 7 million when factoring in TiVo’s partnerships with other set-top box data partners like Charter and FourthWall Media.
They can then use that data to identify programs and day parts that index highly across certain networks, for instance by targeting networks with high concentrations of soup purchasers or those with households in-market for a specific car.
The tool lets marketers comingle first- and third-party data with network data to narrow down their linear TV buys (this is not a one-to-one household targeting tool, in and of itself, but can be used alongside addressable in a larger plan).
Media buys will be similar to those Modi creates with other addressable TV partners, according to Bologna.
Although Modi has no shortage of data options from programmers and MVPDs directly, he said the agency will use Cadent as a complement to its existing national buys to drive more efficiency.
Using a third-party company like TiVo brings data matching capabilities beyond age, gender and program times, said Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent, formerly the president of BlackArrow.
Cadent previously had a data management platform, which cable and MVPD partners could use to manage first- and third-party data sets across addressable inventory, including video on-demand network DVR. The next step was expanding that support to linear TV schedules.
