NBCU’s latest ad tool: One Platform Total Audience

Announced ahead of CES, NBCU last week rolled out One Platform Total Audience, an AI-supported ad tool that incorporates machine learning, predictive analytics, first-party data, and advertiser data to create a media plan designed to reach an advertiser’s target audience across both linear and streaming, according to a news release.

Speaking at the annual tech conference, which has become the place to be for marketers ready to kick off the new year, NBCU Global Ads and Partnerships Chairman Mark Marshall said the tool is a response to changing consumer attitudes. He said streaming “is bringing in a new audience. It’s not just cannibalizing linear.”

“The consumer mindset has changed,” he said. “As an industry, we haven’t changed as much as we need to. Measurement was still bifurcated.”

NBCU claims the number of its advertisers who use audience-based buying has grown 25% in the last year, totaling almost 60% of its advertisers. In early tests, advertisers notched a 25% higher engagement rate over just age and gender demographics, according to an NBCU press release.

One Platform Total Audience follows other ad tools it has debuted in recent years, such as expanded One Platform offerings in partnership with Comcast’s ad platform FreeWheel, or Peacock Ad Manager, its programmatic ad portal. Earlier this month, NBCU teamed up with GroupM, Disney, and Roku, among others, to develop new ad formats for streamers.

When asked to comment on the reasoning behind this new tool, NBCU spokesperson Andrew Bilbao said execs were unavailable due to travel and touched on themes from the company’s release announcing the tool.

One Platform Total Audience is just the latest development in NBCU’s ad division. Last year, the company promoted Marshall after Linda Yaccarino, the network’s head of ad sales, left 30 Rock for a different kind of experience at then-Twitter-now-X, and hired President of Advertising and Partnerships Alison Levin away from Roku. NBCU also reduced its losses on Peacock; the streaming service lost $565 million last quarter, down 8% year over year. Peacock hit 28 million subscribers last year amid the company’s aggressive subscriber email strategy and shoppable ads. In 2024, NBCU is preparing for the Paris Olympics, selling out extensive ad and sponsorship slots. It is also preparing for the upcoming US presidential election, which is projected to see the highest political ad spend of all time, hitting $16 billion, according to Axios.