2020 has barely begun but, already, it looks like we are in another wave of ad-tech consolidation – this time, driven by the opportunity to make connected TV ad buying smarter about audience targeting.
Cadent, a company helping deliver addressable ads to connected TV and data-driven ads to linear TV, announced it will acquire 4INFO, a company whose software supports the creation of identity graphs, linking together distinct parts of audience members’ scattered profile data.
Writing about the deal, Cadent CEO Nick Troiano says 4INFO enhances Cadent’s ability to work with inventory partners, gives advertisers better tools for data activation and OTT, and, whilst the company thinks about “TV-first”, it gains a programmatic bidder that will help it create more dynamic advertising campaigns.
This acquisition follows the recently-announced merger of Rubicon Project and Telaria, which also brings together two tech suppliers with historic specialisms on cross-channel targeting and TV-specific delivery.
That seems to be the driving imperative behind the current crop of M&A – empowering connected TV ad sales with all the targeting capabilities that have grown up in digital.
“The real opportunity for us … is to be able to bring to television what we’ve been bringing to the digital world for the last seven years,” says Tim Jenkins of 4INFO in this video interview from May 2019, which we are republishing here.
We’re now seeing a lot of advertisers really embrace finally this one-to-one addressability in TV. I’m glad to see advertisers are finally starting to insist on accountability from the various providers in the space, and I think the ability to prove the real attractiveness of television in this one-to-one addressable world.”
