Holiday ads this year have run the gamut from highly promotional to tearjerker, with some comedy, clever weirdness and new takes on Scrooge in-between. Yet some were better received than others. ISpot, which tracks real-time TV ad data and analytics, used its creative assessment survey to rank the top 10 commercials based on likeability with viewers in each brand’s category.

“Just like in the early days of cable, as this was all taking shape, a lot of people initially wondered, ‘Is anybody actually going to watch all this stuff that’s been around for all these years?’” said Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at media analyst firm TVREV.

But an existing technology modified to spot the white, fluffy bears may be able to help reduce that threat: portable radar units to warn communities that a bear is in the vicinity. Polar Bears International (PBI), an organization that supports research on and conservation of polar bears and sea ice, has been at the forefront of developing and testing such systems—nicknamed bear-dar—for the last several years, and envisages a number of scenarios in which they could be of use.

So, you can now target your TV ad at an individual household. That’s great.

But, in a multi-person home, how do you know who is watching?
Answering that question is going to require bridging so-called “household graphs” with an understanding of individuals – and Scott McKinley thinks he may have the secret sauce.

Every adtech company is pushing to get into the surging streaming TV market, but Madhive is positioning itself to capture a unique aspect.

CreatorIQ, the influencer marketing platform powering end-to-end campaigns for more than 800 advertisers, today released findings showing increased creator marketing efforts from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal, as streaming services look to stand out in a crowded space.

In 2019, Comcast, Charter and Cox launched the On Addressability initiative. Project OAR also involved TV makers like Vizio, promising a technical standard for addressable advertising placements.

“Accurate data is a crucial necessity for the $90 billion TV and CTV advertising industry to reach audiences and assess the effectiveness of ad dollars,” said Charbel Makhoul, Vice President of Inscape Product Management, Data Science and Analytics at VIZIO. “Enhancing our ACR data to help ensure accurate representation of audiences is a critical step in creating currency-grade data that is consistent, stable, and scalable. We are playing a catalyst role in advancing currency measurement capabilities for the industry by enhancing ACR data.”

Vizio Holding Corp.'s Inscape, a major provider of TV measurement of automated content recognition (ACR) data from millions of smart TV sets, is now offering a “national representative panel” to reflect the U.S. population.

B+C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing TV’s most-promoted programming ranked by ad impressions. Our data covers the seven-day period through December 11.

The deal follows a $16 million investment in TVision by iSpot, which has emerged as an alternative TV ratings currency to Nielsen being used by big media suppliers like NBCUniversal and major advertisers and agencies as the basis for their advertising buys.

Automatic content recognition (ACR) data from Inscape is also used by Nielsen, 605, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp.

By iSpot.tv’s count, with four games remaining, the 2022 games in Qatar exceeded 8.4 billion TV ad impressions across both the English and Spanish-language airings, a 20% increase from the 7.1 billion TV impressions delivered in 2018. The World Cup was the third most viewed programming, with 1.89% of all TV ad impressions from November 20-December 11, behind only the NFL and college football, respectively.

ISpot.tv, VideoAmp, ComScore and Samba TV all won deals to serve as currency alternatives to market leader Nielsen in upfront deals from networks including NBCUniversal, Paramount, Fox and Disney Advertising. In some cases, they made substantial inroads, with NBCU reporting that it did more than 40% of upfront deals on non-Nielsen currencies, and Horizon Media saying it would write 15% of its upfront deals in currencies other than Nielsen.

iSpot.TV took aim at Nielsen's dominance as the de facto measurement provider for TV advertisers.

This year, it followed through on that promise by getting major media providers to use its measurement technology, working with a premiere ad buying platform, and nabbing a $325 million investment round from Goldman Sachs, while also investing in other companies. This activity was spearheaded by iSpot CEO Sean Muller.

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. -- Revealing one of the most damning data points yet for makers of connected TV dongles and sticks, Vizio executive Katherine Pond said that only 7% of viewing on Vizio smart TVs is now coming via third-party HDMI-enabled streaming gadgets.

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: ProFlowers says it “helps you do the holidays your way.” Dewar’s hypes Dewar’s 12, a new blended Scotch whisky that’s “double aged for extra smoothness.” And professional breakaway roper Shelby Boisjoli stars in an old-timey Western-themed commercial for footwear brand Twisted X.

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

NFL action delivered 12.14% of TV ad impressions from December 5-11, staying at No. 1 yet again in our ranking among all programs. That was down slightly from 12.25% the previous week, though it’s still more than seven times the program with the next-highest share.

New data from iSpot.tv shows that the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup is delivering large TV ad impressions on linear TV, with more than 8.4 billion TV ad impressions across both the English and Spanish-language airings in the U.S., a 20% increase from the 7.1 billion TV impressions delivered in 2018.

Mini USA is partnering with musician Pharrell Williams to help save polar bears.

The project includes exclusive merchandise for sale, with 100% of the proceeds donated to Polar Bears International, whose outreach efforts are dedicated to saving polar bears and the Arctic region.