ViacomCBS to Launch Connected Video Ad Platform “ViacomCBS EyeQ”

ViacomCBS to Launch Connected Video Ad Platform “ViacomCBS EyeQ”

Unified Digital Offering to Drive Incremental Reach and Ad Effectiveness Across ViacomCBS' Immense Audience Scale

Launching Fall 2020

NEW YORK--August 04, 2020--ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC, VIACA) today announced the planned launch of ViacomCBS EyeQ, a new and expansive connected video advertising platform that will serve as a single transactional point of entry for digital video content from ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of broadcast, entertainment, news and sports networks, with enhanced capabilities to deliver incremental reach across one of the largest premium video audiences in the U.S.

ViacomCBS EyeQ will bring together all of ViacomCBS’ connected video assets — including BET, CBS Television Network, CBS All Access, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Pluto TV and VH1 — allowing advertisers to access a viewing audience that measures 50 million full-episode monthly unique viewers in the U.S., and 150 million across all content and all devices.

“The launch of EyeQ marks the arrival of one of the biggest premium video platforms in digital media,” said John Halley, Chief Operating Officer of Advertising Revenue at ViacomCBS. “In unifying the operating backend and go-to-market of three large pre-existing players – CBS Interactive, Pluto TV, and Viacom Video – we have consolidated a massive audience footprint that will deliver quality, scale, and capabilities that cannot be matched.”

David Lawenda, Executive Vice President of Digital Sales and Strategy at ViacomCBS, said “EyeQ is game changing. It is a portal into 50 million highly engaged, full-episode viewers watching our content each month, with 80% of the consumption happening on TV glass. And ViacomCBS can now offer unified buying and frequency control across all of that scale, which is aligned to the needs of an advertising marketplace that is increasingly focused on incremental reach.”

ViacomCBS EyeQ will simplify transactions and reporting across ViacomCBS’ premium digital offering, which is among the broadest and highest quality in the ad-supported marketplace. The content offering includes many of the biggest franchises and number one hits currently running in News, Sports, Late Night, Comedy, Music, Kids, Movies, Reality and Scripted Entertainment, in addition to the most coveted live events.

ViacomCBS EyeQ will support a variety of transactional models depending on advertiser preference, including programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace, and will offer multiple lanes of activation, including:

• Content segments, allowing advertisers to verticalize spend under scaled content categories, including the best in Entertainment, News, Sports and Kids programming.
• Broad demos, allowing advertisers to maximize reach across all viewership and platforms.
• Strategic segments, allowing advertisers to leverage syndicated behavioral sets or custom audiences through leading advanced ad platform, Vantage.
• Creative, allowing advertisers to customize immersive brand experiences for greater impact through integrations, custom creative, influencers, and live experiences.

ViacomCBS EyeQ will also introduce a new reporting infrastructure to provide real-time data and tactical campaign guidance for advertisers to track spending across platforms. Additionally, ViacomCBS EyeQ will offer a range of solutions to measure the effectiveness of campaigns, including ad quality metrics, brand lift, attribution and social sentiment.

ViacomCBS EyeQ will launch in Fall 2020.

About ViacomCBS

ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, its portfolio includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, CBS All Access, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster, among others. The company delivers the largest share of the U.S. television audience and boasts one of the industry’s most important and extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, ViacomCBS provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution and advertising solutions for partners on five continents.

For more information about ViacomCBS, please visit www.viacomcbs.com and follow @ViacomCBS on social platforms.

VIAC-IR

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From AdWeek:

ViacomCBS Preps Connected Video Advertising Platform for Fall

Part of upfront talks, EyeQ will unify digital video buying across CBS Interactive, Pluto TV and Viacom video

The new platform, which is part of ViacomCBS' upfront talks, will become available Oct. 1.

Key insight:

- The one-stop-shop platform comes as digital and streaming video viewership has climbed, and some marketers' budgets are tightening.

ViacomCBS is unifying connected video assets across CBS Interactive, Pluto TV and Viacom video on a singular video advertising platform to debut during the upcoming broadcast year.

EyeQ, the name of the new platform, will make 50 million monthly unique viewers in the U.S. available to marketers across the recently combined company’s video assets, which range from on-demand and live streamers like CBS All Access and Pluto TV, CBS Interactive assets like CBS Sports HQ and CBSN, and digital videos coming from Viacom brands like Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Paramount Network.

The platform is designed to give advertisers a single point of entry into ViacomCBS’ video footprint, which right now must be accessed separately. The new platform will also offer marketers reporting and measurement tools.

The upcoming format, which is already being brought up in upfront conversations with agencies and advertisers, is aimed at attracting advertisers looking for incremental reach by giving more ways to spend across the ViacomCBS portfolio. It also comes as other television and media companies look for ways to simplify the buying process with one-stop shops of their own.

“We have a lot of history with advertisers who have worked inside of a marketplace that has been generally siloed,” said John Halley, ViacomCBS’s chief operating officer of advertising revenue. “As advertisers look to partner with big players to deliver incremental reach across assets, it’s important for us to bring all of our assets together to be able to offer that size and scale and capability set.”

EyeQ has been in the works since November, when Halley and David Lawenda, ViacomCBS’s evp, digital sales and strategy, began discussing how to to “demystify” the buying process for buyers and give them a single entry point into ViacomCBS’s video assets, Lawenda said. The new platform will also help ViacomCBS address frequency concerns: With buys coming through EyeQ, the company can prevent a Pluto TV viewer from viewing the same ad on the CBS.com side, Halley said.

The platform has taken some time to get off the ground, due both to the recency of the company merger and the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended work life, but will become available Oct. 1, and is a part of this year’s upfront discussions. The tool, which is primarily aimed at agencies that manage multiple advertisers across multiple ViacomCBS properties, will let buyers buy via content segments like entertainment, news, sports and kids programming, broad demos aimed at maximizing reach, or narrow strategic segments using ViacomCBS’s advanced ad platform, Vantage.

The platform will also let buyers customize and plan creative, which could take various forms in the way of integrations, custom content, live experiences or influencer content.

On the reporting and measurement side, a web-based real-time data and campaign guidance hub will become available, and new tools, including ad quality metrics, brand lift, attribution and social sentiment measurement functionalities will roll out, beginning with an October beta that will last between six weeks and two months. The platform will run on two ad servers to start, but that, too, will be unified by the middle of the broadcast year, Halley said.

The upcoming arrival of EyeQ comes as digital and streaming video viewership has been skyrocketing as the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted people to consume more at-home content. ViacomCBS, which says about 80% of consumption across the company’s video occurs on television screens, gave flagship subscription streamer CBS All Access a considerable upgrade last week with an injection of programming and a UI facelift aimed at attracting even more viewers.

“This is a zeitgeist moment for digital and streaming,” Lawenda said. “Marketers are following the consumers and where consumption is happening, and that is digital. And in a world of Covid-19 and a challenging business climate for brands, everyone is looking for efficiency, and for untapped and efficient ways to reach the consumer.”

Halley and Lawenda said early interest in EyeQ is promising. Some agencies have opted to put all of their growth dollars into digital spend on ViacomCBS properties.

“There is certainly an appetite to increase digital investment,” Lawenda said.

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More Nick: Nickelodeon Upfront 2020 Roundup!

H/T: Seeking Alpha.

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