The Trade Desk Gains Access to ACR Data Through Nexxen Partnership

The independent demand-side platform The Trade Desk inked a deal Tuesday with Nexxen that will allow it to offer advertisers data segments created using automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, according to senior director of CTV partnerships Jonathan Low.

ACR data allows companies to determine what kind of content is appearing on viewers’ screens, such as ads or programming. So the new capability, made possible through the partnership with tech platform Nexxen, will enable marketers to plan and execute digital campaigns that yield greater incremental reach in a more efficient manner.

“One of the greatest challenges is that sometimes we’re not aware in digital of what’s happening on linear,” Low said. “ACR gives us a great view of both, so we can avoid hitting the same house with redundant campaigns.”

The tie-up is notable because ACR data is a coveted metric from companies that produce TVs—known as original equipment manufacturers—and those companies have historically kept that data to themselves. Nexxen, which is not an OEM, struck a deal in October 2021 to gain access to the ACR data of Vidaa, a subsidiary of TV manufacturer Hisense.

With this partnership, The Trade Desk will become the first external DSP to offer ACR data from Nexxen. The segments, which are categorized by genre, networks, programs, and brand-level ad exposure, will be available in the U.K., U.S., Canada, and Australia in the coming weeks. 

While this is the first time Nexxen has partnered with a third-party DSP, it is looking to strike similar data-sharing arrangements in the future, according to Karim Rayes, chief product officer at Nexxen.

“Marketers want to be able to overlap these data segments so they can reach people as effectively as possible,” Rayes said. “From the beginning, we wanted to make this available across the open web.”

How ACR makes CTV more efficient

While ACR granularity is common for digital buys, the value of the product lies in its ability to bring this precision to linear television, according to Rayes.

For marketers looking to execute ad campaigns across linear and digital, starting with an understanding of what ads and programming have already reached a linear audience allows them to avoid serving those same ads or targeting that same segment on digital.

This allows marketers to use their digital buys to reach viewers that they have not reached on linear, meaning they spend their budget more effectively and can deploy frequency caps with greater certainty. 

The integration within The Trade Desk platform does have some limitations, however. 

Specifically, advertisers can technically use ACR data in three separate stages of the marketing process—planning, activation, and measurement—but The Trade Desk can only make the data available for activation. For marketers looking to use ACR data in the planning or measurement stages of their buy, they will have to work directly with Nexxen.

Still, the partnership is a significant step in the growing trend toward interoperability in the CTV space. As platforms share data more freely, marketers will be able to plan more efficient campaigns, resulting in a better experience for their clients and customers.

“As an industry, as we try to converge linear and digital and make cohesive sense of the two platforms, it’s very important that this data is available,” Rayes said. “It benefits us and everyone else.”