Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications are creating a new division within their jointly owned NCC Media group to create advanced, data-driven video advertising products for NCC clients.
Comcast Media 360, a division of Comcast Spotlight representing national brands, will form the core of the new group. It will launch later this year headed up by Andrew Ward—vice president of CM360—as general manager. The Comcast crew will pool resources with Charter, Cox and NCC, the nationwide media sales firm representing video programming providers.
David Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable, called the division a “natural extension” of the advertising collaboration among the three operators.
Its mandate, the companies said in a joint statement, is to use “non-personally identifiable data and targeting capabilities” to design, deploy and sell unified ad solutions across NCC’s national footprint, delivering targeted audiences across linear and VOD platforms. The division “will drive research, data and analytic capabilities to provide consistency in how the advertising industry measures the effectiveness of an advertisement and simplify how agencies manage campaigns.”
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“Together … we have the scale needed to provide even better value to our customers, and we are committed to defining clear standards around measurement that will help marketers better plan, buy and execute campaigns," said Cox Communications President Pat Esser.
Charter Chairman and CEO Thomas Rutledge believes the new initiative “has the power to transform the way we measure advertising effectiveness across linear and VOD through best-in-class data and technology."
Ward previously spent 15 years at NCC Media and has more than 30 years of experience bringing new advertising solutions to market. At Comcast Spotlight, he launched the company's addressable advertising platform as well as new data and analytic capabilities.
The companies said NCC Media's board is spearheading the new initiative led by Charter Communications executive VP and president of media sales David Kline, Cox Media senior VP Billy Farina and Marcien Jenckes, president of advertising at Comcast Cable.