Comcast’s FreeWheel unit is integrating ACR-based data from Samba TV into its audience platform to help better target audiences across TV viewing platforms, just ahead of the upcoming U.S. elections in November.
Announced Wednesday, the partnership means custom and standard audience segments from Samba TV, which pull first-party automatic content recognition (ACR) data from 38 million opted-in U.S. TVs, are available within the FreeWheel Audience Manager platform. The integration ties Samba’s first-party data, including more than 1,000 pre-built audience segments, and FreeWheel’s pool of premium publisher inventory. The companies said this will improve audience precision and match rates for FreeWheel client campaigns and touted the ability to target and retarget in real-time.
That aspect could be particularly handy in what’s shaping up to be a competitive political season, including a tight presidential race among Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump. Last night’s ABC Presidential debate garnered an average of 15.3 million viewers on the ABC network alone, peaking at 17.4 million at 10 pm ET, according to AdImpact. That compares to an average of 7.3 million viewers for the first debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, with a peak of 10.5 million viewers. Viewership across all networks averaged 71.3 million viewers, with a peak of 78 million at 10:02 pm ET.
"Our partnership with FreeWheel allows advertisers the ability to combine high-quality, biddable media with real-time targeting precision across TV, streaming and digital platforms to connect with audiences who are consuming media in new and diverse ways," said Samba TV Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin in a statement. “This is a crucial strategy to reach the entire electorate efficiently in one of the most pivotal elections in history.”
Targeting across platforms is also key as viewers access content in different ways. For example, per AdImpact, traditional linear television accounted for 51.4% of the total audience on ABC for the Tuesday night debate between Harris and Trump, while other streaming platforms captured 33% of ABC debate viewership. YouTube and YouTube TV had 15.5% of the total audience on ABC.
As for Samba and FreeWheel, the new integration means Freewheel clients can build custom audience segments to target viewers based on TV consumption behavior, content exposure and demographics with a 24-hour turnaround. “For example, this could include cost-effectively engaging with viewers who tuned into a major tentpole TV event or were exposed to a competitor’s ads,” the vendor stated.
“With elections less than a month away, this new offering is a valuable asset for our clients who are looking to accurately re-target viewers in a privacy-centric way as early as the next day, such as after a debate or breaking news,” FreeWheel U.S. Chief Revenue Officer Katy Loria added in a statement.
ACR is a so-called “glass-level” technology that’s capable of detecting content playing on a media device, in this case the TV screen, providing information about consumption and viewing habits for content and ads automatically across input or access modes. Meaning it can pull data about content viewing and ad exposure on smart TVs from across traditional cable, free ad-supported streaming services, SVOD and more.
In the FreeWheel announcement, Democratic-aligned strategic political communications agency Bully Pulpit International’s Ivanka Farrell emphasized the use of ACR data in targeting voters.
“The team at Bully Pulpit International is constantly seeking innovative solutions to deliver precision-targeted messaging to voters at the most impactful moments,” said Farrell, managing director of Media at Bully Pulpit. “The integration of Samba TV's real-time audience targeting with FreeWheel’s advanced technology empowers us to harness the full potential of ACR data, allowing us to reach voters based on their actual TV viewership in near real-time. This partnership enables us to deliver the right message to the right audience exactly when it matters most, ensuring our campaigns are as effective and timely as possible.”
And Republican-focused digital marketing agency Direct Persuasion’s Daria Grastara pointed to the ability to utilize real-time consumption behaviors across both linear and streaming.
“Direct Persuasion takes an audience-first, not publisher-first approach, to all of our voter contact efforts,” said Grastara, CEO of Direct Persuasion, in a statement. “Samba has always been our preferred partner to find audiences accurately, scale reach quickly, and utilize real-time behaviors of linear and streaming consumption as well as advertising exposure. Samba's new integration with FreeWheel now ensures we can pair Samba's audience-first approach with FreeWheel's publisher quality, scale, and diversity.”
The new audience targeting integration between FreeWheel and Samba TV comes amid a U.S. election cycle that AdImpact said is on track to be the most expensive on record, with ad spending projected to grow 19% over the 2019-2020 cycle.
The firm’s updated June forecast projects $10.69 billion in total ad spending for the 2023-2024 cycle, led by far by broadcast, which is anticipated to account for over 50% of total spending. Cable and CTV are still expected to see significant spending, including anticipated growth for CTV to account for an estimated 14% of total political ad spending – outpacing digital channels like Facebook and Google, which the firm expects to drop by 1 percentage point.
Specifically, the AdImpact projected the following political spend across categories: broadcast estimated $5.35 bilion, cable $1.93 billion, connected TV $1.51 billion, digital $1.12 billion, radio $381 million, network cable $309 million and satellite $102 million. Of the total, AdImpact estimates the Presidential election will account for $2.68 billion in media spending, the Senate $2.15 billion, the House $1.79 billion, and Gubernatorial $469 million, while the Downballot category is expected to generate $3.59 billion in spending.
Article updated to add information from AdImpact on viewership numbers for Tuesday's Presidential debate across all networks, and to clarify percentages for modes of viewership reflect ABC-only.