If you’re the industry, think about the optics. It is one thing for a company like Madhive, which toiled in relative obscurity for years before securing a nine-figure round of funding from Goldman Sachs to throw a sizable party to celebrate.

In May, Hashtag Pay Me closed its first round of fundraising with a $200,000 pre-seed. Ruff said participants included cofounders of influencer-marketing platform Tribe Dynamics, Conor Begley and Jon Namnath, as well as unnamed founders and CEOs of DTC brands and engineers in the creator space.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by TV measurement company iSpot.tv.

JL: You also talked about the walled gardens getting higher. Are the YouTubes and the Netflixes and the Amazons becoming more transparent as they sell more advertising and measurement, as companies like iSpot, Comscore, even Nielsen get better at measuring streaming?

The JIC formed in January with the backing of major programmers (notably minus Disney), as well as media buyers. One of the key aims is to certify measurement vendors based on a standardized criteria to provide alternate currencies in time for the 2024 Upfront season. Led by OpenAP, unveiling the official scoring rubric is the latest step in the group’s efforts.The scoring system will be used to evaluate requests for information (RFIs) that were submitted by six measurement vendors including Comscore, InnovidXP, Samba TV, iSpot, VideoAmp and 605.

One major through-line for all their advertising is a level of energy that aims to excite consumers. You can see this play out in many TJX ads that have aired on TV over the last few months – whether they’re new spots or ones that are being recirculated from recent years.

Notably, The Great Food Truck Race has the highest iSpot Attention Index (119) in the ranking, meaning viewers were on average highly likely to watch its promos all the way through (vs. interrupting viewing by changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

In order to grade third-party data providers, the U.S. Joint Industry Committee -- a media industry group looking to standardized cross-media measurement -- is publishing a “Scoring Rubric to evaluate submissions for certification.

This involves a group of companies including Comscore, InnovidXP, iSpot.tv, SambaTV, VideoAmp, and 605.

Companies that have applied for JIC certification include Comscore, InnovidXP, iSpot, SambaTV, VideoAmp and 605.


Nielsen in April announced that it would not apply for JIC certification until the group resolved what it asserts are operational, scientific and legal issues

The JIC will rate each participating measurement company—which includes Comscore, InnovidXP, iSpot.tv, SambaTV, VideoAmp, and 605 at the time of writing—on a scale of 1 to 4, with four representing an offering that meets the majority of criteria. The scores will be determined by its list of requirements, whose level of importance was decided on by a subcommittee of buy- and sell-side representatives.

“I urge all businesses to do two things. One; review the year that’s been. Two; take time to set yourself up for the year ahead. It’s of course an overly simplistic answer to what can be a stressful time for many business owners.

Truthset, a data validation-as-a-service offering, says that Experian, a leading global information services company, has joined the Data Collective.

Frndly has not limited its expansion efforts to Samsung Smart TVs, either. In April, the service launched on VIZIO Smartcast TVs, which also widened its reach by millions of homes. There’s something for the whole family to enjoy on Frndly TV, and now users can find its app on Samsung Smart TVs manufactured in 2018 or later.

Right now, Vizio TV users have the option to save 50% on the cost of AMC Plus for the first two months. Considering a standard AMC Plus subscription typically costs $8.99 per month, this deal brings the price down to just $4.49 per month.

As one of the world’s largest alternative investment managers with more than $445 billion of assets, Goldman Sachs has developed an extensive investment track record across the marketing and advertising technology space with select recent investments including iSpot.tv, HUMAN, GumGum and Innovid, among others.

Weight-loss brands are making gains during daytime TV, according to iSpot's recent Daytime TV Transparency Report, which examines advertising trends during the daypart from Sept. 5, 2022 through May 29, 2023.

Chili's halted national TV advertising in early 2020 as the pandemic began, briefly returning with a small multi-market test of ads in July 2021, before coming back to national TV in March of this year, according to ad-tracking service iSpot. The brand is looking to get in front of more eyeballs to drive awareness around its updated food options and, of course, margaritas.

Chili's halted national TV advertising in early 2020 as the pandemic began, briefly returning with a small multi-market test of ads in July 2021, before coming back to national TV in March of this year, according to ad-tracking service iSpot. The brand is looking to get in front of more eyeballs to drive awareness around its updated food options and, of course, margaritas.

According to our survey, brands credit the authentic and relatable content that creators publish as the main driver of conversions, at 48%. Aspirational or instructive content follows at 21%, with ease of reach and entertainment value both tied at 15%.

Second, brands can more easily find, recruit, and manage a larger number of creator partnerships than ever thanks to the availability of creator discovery and management platforms like CreatorIQ.

According to Campaign Monitor (2021) Segmented campaigns can drive up to 760% more revenue. These turnover figures are the result of, among other things, personalized marketing promotions, devising sales strategies for each target group and developing products that specifically respond to the needs of those target groups. Automating this process is necessary as manually creating customer segments takes too much time.