SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico\u2014iSpot.tv has been a third-party television data provider for the past five years. So when Robert Bareuther hears someone at Beet Retreat 2018<\/a> talk about third-party verification and measurement as being \u201croyalty right now,\u201d he takes a bow of sorts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like de facto. And that\u2019s pretty cool. Maybe iSpot should get our crown pretty soon, because we\u2019re rapidly becoming a really trusted third-party analytics provider for TV advertising,\u201d the SVP, Business Development, says in this interview.<\/p>\n iSpot.tv<\/a> started as a measurement company that could track TV ads in real time, according to Bareuther. \u201cWe built a syndicated product that measured TV ads and it became really popular for brands.\u201d<\/p>\n About four years ago, the company started a partnership with smart TV manufacturer VIZIO to get access to ad impressions as they appear, based on automatic content recognition.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019ve taken all this raw data from what\u2019s appearing on screens second by second and do a lot of data work and data science around that,\u201d Bareuther says.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a range of information gleaned, including whether the ads are being seen live, via DVR or OTT, plus the pods and the shows in which the ads appeared. A typical analysis will include the number of airings of a spot, the estimated advertiser spend, the number of impressions, attention and engagement scores and percentage of share of voice.<\/p>\n The next step was being able to show what happened after viewers had seen the ads, as happens with much of digital advertising.<\/p>\n \u201cBrands are spending so much money on TV and they\u2019re spending so much money on digital and they know what\u2019s happening in digital immediately. They get long feedback loops from TV,\u201d Bareuther<\/a> says.<\/p>\n iSpot.tv set out to shrink that feedback loop. \u201cSo we figured out a way to understand household consumption of television ads\u201d so that advertisers could blend it into their marketing stacks, through LiveRamp, Adobe, Oracle et cetera. And help them understand themselves how it\u2019s being effective.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether any of its clients have enough outcomes data to be able to use it not just for back-end measurement but for planning purposes, Bareuther says yes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to get to the bottom of the funnel the first step is always to have the top of the funnel. Once we can say that this NBC show is more effective for you X retailer than this ABC show or this Bravo show or vice versa, maybe could use it to optimize your planning.\u201d<\/p>\n