A year after first touting its entry into connected TV’s (CTV) contextual TV ads market, Gracenote has announced its first partner.
Index Exchange, one of the largest independent supply-side platform (SSP) operators, will embed Gracenote’s brand-safety segments and granular do-not-air (DNA) controls directly into its SSP.
Nielsen-owned Gracenote specializes in the creation and management of metadata and content identifiers for the video business, and has primarily provided these assets for consumer-based search-and-discovery mechanisms.
By extending these same IDs into Index's SSP platform, publishers can now package streaming supply with contextual data and provide show-level targeting and transparency to advertiser clients. Publishers keep full control over when and with whom they share contextual data, supporting their monetization strategies and protecting their data.
Contextual targeting is still fairly new to CTV, and still not technologically easy to pull off, either. But it can potentially provide a way for brands and advertisers to strategically connect with audiences at key moments with relevant messaging, while also helping them avoid running commercials that could turn select viewers off.
Or, as Gracenote puts it, its segments and DNA “give marketers the ability to align ads with the right shows while avoiding placements in content that doesn’t fit their brand standards.”
The collaboration extends to program-level delivery reports, equipping buyers with transparency into adjacent content and ad performance at a show level. Gracenote said these insights enhance confidence in streaming TV ad spending while introducing optimization techniques designed for programmatic environments.
“This collaboration is about making contextual signals practical for programmatic,” said Catherine Cho, lead product manager of streaming TV at Index Exchange, in a statement. “By building Gracenote’s capabilities directly into our workflow, we’re turning show-level data into tools that buyers and publishers can actually put into action.”
Added Kanishk Prasad, VP of product at Gracenote, added “Gracenote’s collaboration with Index Exchange pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in programmatic CTV advertising as brands shift to streaming...we’re enabling smarter, real-time decisions that improve campaign outcomes for brands, elevate premium content and improve CTV as a channel.”