NBCUniversal Goes For Gold

Ad Tech Insights

A Feat In Ad-letics

The story: NBCUniversal is stepping up its advertising approach for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, making a bold shift beyond traditional TV to capture a larger share of the digital ad market -- and it’s already paying off. The broadcaster has already surpassed previous records by selling $1.2B in advertising, as reported by Dan Lovinger , NBCUniversal’s President of Ad Sales & Partnerships back in April. This growth outpaces previous years, with NBCUniversal having sold a total of $1.2B for the entire 2021 Olympic Games run. This new strategy includes pushing more ad inventory online, and for the first time, opening some coverage to programmatic advertisers. 

NBCUniversal’s collaboration with social and streaming platforms like TikTok , YouTube , and Snap Inc. enables advertisers to place ads around social coverage or sponsor content directly. This multi-platform strategy not only adapts to users’ ever-changing content consumption habits, but also engages sports influencers and creators, ensuring a broad and active audience. 

The takeaway: NBCUniversal ’s success shows us that shifting from traditional TV to digital platforms is crucial for reaching broader and more engaged audiences. By meeting users where they’re at, through partnerships with major social and streaming platforms, the broadcaster has unlocked diverse and targeted ad placements, from pre-roll ads on YouTube to sponsored content on TikTok. All this, combined with leveraging programmatic advertising, NBCUniversal has boosted their brand visibility and engagement, perfectly timed alongside this year’s 2024 Olympic Games. 

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Extra Industry Insights

Digiday + Research explored the question: How do other retail media platforms measure up to Amazon?

Here’s what they found:

• Walmart and Target are gaining traction among marketers investing in retail media. As of Q1 2024, 85% of marketers are invested in Walmart’s retail media platform, marking a huge leap from just six months previous, with a reported 54% of marketers invested in Walmart’s retail media platform. 
• More than one-third (39%) of marketers reported, outside of Amazon, investing the most retail media spend in Target, and more than a quarter of marketers reported using Target’s Roundel platform. 
• After Amazon, Walmart, and Target, 13% of marketers reported investing the most in eBay, 11% in Kroger, and just 2% investing the most retail media spend in Best Buy. 
• 27% of marketer respondents said they use “other” retail media platforms, including food and beverage retailers Instacart, Ahold Delhaize, Drizly, an Uber Company, and UNFI. Other specialty retailers were also mentioned, including Etsy, The Home Depot, Lowe's Companies, Inc. , Michaels Stores , SEPHORA , and Ulta Beauty. 

Kevel Catch-Up

LIVE: Kevel Blog “What Retail Media Networks are Learning from Ad Networks” 

Ad networks have long lacked unified first-party data, top-tier ad formats, and closed-loop attribution. Retail media networks are rising to fill in those gaps, and in this blog, we’ll unpack why those three learnings are the reasons why they’ll keep rising to the top.

Check out the full blog here. 

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