In a blow to Nielsen, the longtime predominant ad currency, the media conglomerate announced that it will activate iSpot.tv's cross-platform audiences as currency for national ad buys at this year's Upfront, according to Kelly Abcarian, executive vice president of measurement and impact at NBCU Advertising and Partnerships. Comscore will be the currency for local ad buys.

iSpot.tv and Crown Media Family Networks have entered into an ad-measurement agreement that gives Crown Media access to a suite of advertising measurement capabilities across Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama, including always-on ad verification and impressions across more than 150 national networks. “Leveraging iSpot provides powerful insight by allowing us to home in on the real-time performance of ads on our networks,” said Ed Georger, EVP, Ad Sales & Digital Media at Crown Media. “This tool increases our ability to plan and strategize in a way that optimizes the reach and value of our networks for marketers.”

Nielsen now faces competition from several companies, such as Comscore, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp, all of which are trying to measure TV for various forms of effectiveness — from attention to engagement to generating business outcomes. Their efforts to measure these elements can generate various forms of currency. Many of them are trying to make their mark as not only valid forms of measurement, but important forms of currency off of which to evaluate the advertising.

Crown Media Family Networks, whose media brands include Hallmark Channel, last week signed a measurement deal with iSpot.tv.

The challenge to that effort comes from the networks who have begun to create their own audience-measurement efforts using rivals such as iSpot, ComScore and VideoAmp, in hopes that advertisers will start moving some portion of their media buys to be graded by their alternatives.

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For example, in December 2021, Fred Segal partnered with media tech holding company Subnation to develop Artcade, an experience launched at the retailer’s Los Angeles location on the Sunset Strip and within the metaverse. Artcade’s NFT gallery, including digital skins and virtual goods, were alluring components of this launch. The experience also featured digital asset jewelry tokenized by physical 18-karat goods from Metagolden. A collaboration with artist Ashley Longshore included tangible goods and NFTs featuring iconic women.

Cheetah Digital, a cross-channel relationship management solution provider for the modern marketer, unveiled the five key trends shaping the state of relationship marketing in the year ahead with the release of its 2022 Global Digital Consumer Trends Index. In conjunction with eConsultancy, the global report looks at consumer attitudes and year over year trends in personalization, privacy, messaging, advertising and brand loyalty based on survey insights collected from more than 5,400 consumers across six countries.

“The path to purchase today looks more like a bowl of spaghetti, with technologies providing infinite routes to closing the sale,” according to the 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index from Econsultancy and relationship-marketing platform Cheetah Digital. “What used to be a simple game of persuasion, which marketers had nearly mastered, has morphed into the age of consumer empowerment where control, choice and convenience rule the day. Marketers need to pivot energies from trying to persuade, to a model that tries more to support a customer.”

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Vizio said it has launched another set of Features channels as part of its WatchFRee Plus free streaming service. The thematic Features channels are created and curated based on data from Inscape, Vizio’s data unit, and are among the most-watched of the 250 WatchFree Plus channels.

During the big fourth-quarter season of holiday programming -- where Hallmark Channel typically sees soaring viewership -- data from iSpot.tv showed Hallmark Channel delivering the most household ad impressions of any cable network on TV, with 5.26% of 90.6 billion verified ad deliveries.

“Crown Media now has access to evidence for how much reach and attention it delivers advertisers and can use this information to foster much more compelling, fact-based discussions with agencies and brand partners than if it were simply trying to tell a program ratings story,” said Stuart Schwartzapfel, senior VP of media partnerships. “This deal is a great example of how incorporating modern measurement can be a game changer for the buy and sell side virtually over night.”

Crown Media Family Networks—which includes Hallmark Channel—is the latest company to tap iSpot.tv as its newest ad-measurement partner. But unlike several of its peers, Crown Media isn’t looking for alternative currencies to Nielsen. The deal will allow iSpot to measure creative performance across Crown Media cable networks Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama.

In addition, programmers are continuing to partner with Nielsen alternatives in evaluating their capabilities. These include conducting pilot studies. Earlier today, iSpot.TV announced they will be conducting a pilot study with Crown Media Family Networks. Crown Media is parent company to The Hallmark Channel and their sister cable networks. Previously, NBCU and WarnerMedia made similar agreements with iSpot.TV. Hallmark Channel is one of a handful of cable networks that has been thriving in this era of cord-cutting and streaming video. Using Nielsen data, in 2021, Hallmark Channel averaged 1.12 million prime time viewers ranking fifth among all cable networks. In 2015 the Hallmark Channel had averaged 910,000 primetime viewers ranking 22nd overall.

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Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. (Scroll down to watch them all.) A few highlights: Burger King hypes its new Whopper Melt. Ryan Reynolds and his “The Adam Project” co-star Walker Scobell help promote Mint Mobile’s current half-price deal. (See also: “Ryan Reynolds’ influence may have gone too far—all the way to an ad for Kraft Mac & Cheese,” from Ad Age’s Parker Herren.) And longtime Capital One pitchmen Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Charles Barkley star in two new spots—part of a continuing series of March Madness–themed commercials for the banking brand.