The first part wasn't so hard, since the umbrella company doing the buying wasn't a strong brand to begin with. It was just a placeholder as we built our strategy through acquisitions. So, changing from CM Group to Marigold wasn't a huge risk.

Far more challenging was how to reposition the multiple companies underneath it — each with its own customers, employees and existing marketing and messaging in the field. In particular, the employees of each company were tied both professionally and emotionally to those brands, and upsetting that carries its own risks.

For its inaugural Music of Beer report, Songtradr did a deeper dive by analyzing content on such “sound-on” platforms as TV, radio, podcasts, YouTube and TikTok

The firm examined 241 music tracks by uploading them to its AI platform, which profiled them using some 300 variables across 28 categories—identifying elements including mood, music genre, personality and music quality.

With the breadth of reach to a large national college basketball audience, that also skews younger, it is no wonder advertisers see the March Madness as a great marketing opportunity. Data from iSpot.tv revealed that household TV ad impressions for last year’s tournament was estimated at 24.2 billion across CBS and WBD’s networks.

“The JIC requirements call for full transparency around data sets and methodology, and for all currency providers to seek Media Rating Council certification as well. Currently, Comscore has an application in process for its TV measurement and iSpot.tv for the ad recognition portion of its measurement. Nielsen, which is seeking to restore accreditation for its panel-based national TV ratings, has yet to file an application for Nielsen One Ads, which is based primarily on big data sets from set-top boxes and smart TVs.”

Wunderkind, the performance marketing solution that delivers guaranteed revenue and performance for brands, publishers and advertisers, has announced the appointment of Bill Ingram, a proven marketing technology leader, as Chief Executive Officer. Ingram brings over 30 years of experience scaling tech start-ups, leading enterprise SaaS organisation advancement, and driving product development and growth. Before joining Wunderkind, Ingram served as President and Chief Product Officer at Cheetah Digital, driving the global innovation and advancement of next generation B2C marketing automation solutions.

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: Pete Davidson says that with Smartwater Alkaline, he can “elevate how I hydrate.” Burger King promotes the limited-time return of its Bacon Melt, Spicy Melt and Classic Melt. And Duracell wants you to know that its lithium coin batteries have a bitter coating “to help discourage swallowing.”

For the second week in a row, Chevrolet takes first place on iSpot.tv’s most-seen auto ads ranking for Feb. 27 through Mar. 5. Its spot promoting Silverado models generated over 212 million TV ad impressions – a 20% increase from the previous week – while its estimated TV ad spend increased by 17% week-over-week.

iSpot, the real-time TV measurement company, and The CW – owned by Nexstar Media Group, America’s largest local television and media company with 200 broadcast stations in 116 markets – today announced that it would partner in order to measure cross-platform premium video campaigns and sponsorships associated with the 2023 LIV Golf Tournament across linear and digital properties.

That’s right. Kroger, the largest supermarket operator in the country, spent $2.5 million, per iSpot estimates, on an ad that emphasized the brand’s own private-label products, about a fifth of what Kroger spent nationally in 2022. “When you get proven quality at lower-than-low prices with Kroger brand products, it feels like you’re winning,” the ad’s voiceover said.

Songtradr, the world’s largest B2B music company, recently analyzed the impact music used in ads had on the top brands in one of advertising’s largest markets—Beer. The company studied brand performance across 2022 to rank the top 10 brands by the effectiveness of their music choices in the newly released Music of Beer report.

The news comes roughly a year after the launch of +Play, an online platform enabling users to organize their streaming subscriptions and discover new viewing options. The aggregator is similar to initiatives by the likes of smart-TV maker Vizio and large-scale streaming gateways like Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

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: “Paid real consumers” (per the fine print on screen) offer testimonials about Verizon’s network reliability. ButcherBox wants you to know that it delivers grass-fed beef, wild-caught seafood and more. And Chuck E. Cheese says it’s a place “where a kid can be a kid.”

iSpot, the real-time TV measurement company, and The CW – owned by Nexstar Media Group, America’s largest local television and media company with 200 broadcast stations in 116 markets – today announced that it would partner in order to measure cross-platform premium video campaigns and sponsorships associated with the 2023 LIV Golf Tournament across linear and digital properties.

“As LIV Golf continues to, literally, change the game, so too is Nexstar Media Group, alongside The CW, revolutionising the way content and advertising is transacted upon. With an innovative approach to sponsorship opportunities for brands and advertisers, LIV Golf on the CW will be an immersive, omnichannel advertising opportunity in ways the industry really hasn’t seen before,”

But in an event where 127 different brands aired at least one national TV commercial during the live March Madness games last year, according to iSpot.tv, if someone wants to pull out, there are plenty of others to move in. And they have.

iSpot and The CW are partnering to measure cross-platform premium video campaigns and sponsorships associated with the 2023 LIV Golf Tournament across linear and digital properties. “With an innovative approach to sponsorship opportunities for brands and advertisers, LIV Golf on the CW will be an immersive, omnichannel advertising opportunity in ways the industry really hasn’t seen before,” said Michael Strober, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer, Nexstar Media Group. “With this unprecedented integration of experiential omnichannel activations across digital and linear, as well as traditional and offline channels, we needed a measurement provider who could keep pace with our innovative approach to consumer monetization.”

The hire comes as the rise of streaming television viewing facilitates increased competition between measurement providers including VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and Samba TV that position their products as a complement or alternative to those offered by Nielsen Holdings PLC, the longtime standard-bearer for traditional TV measurement.

Preliminary research by MASB and Truthset across 16 data providers demonstrated substantial disagreement in demographic profiles used for campaign segmentation. This will only get worse with the phasing out of third-party cookies, expansion of commercially sponsored consumer anonymity programs like Apple ATT, and data-sharing evasion by younger generations.

Marketers are invited to participate in a new research initiative on targeting accuracy return on objectives and investment. MASB and Truthset are partnering again to conduct rigorous experiments with data from recently completed and soon-to-be completed client campaigns to quantify targeting accuracy and the resulting impact on marketing objectives and financial returns.

The following article highlights an interview between Adam Helfgott, Madhive’s Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Shields, co-founder of Marketecture Media and host of the ‘Next in Marketing’ podcast. Register to watch more of the discussion and learn how advertisers are employing DSPs to power local CTV campaigns.

So with all of that in mind, here's a look at a sneak preview of what's to come (courtesy of VIZIO Smart TVs), followed by the official Season 3 trailer & overview for Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso, hitting streaming screens on March 15th: