NBCU, Facebook Strike E-Commerce Partnership
NBCUniversal and Facebook unveiled a new partnership that will put e-commerce pitches from the TV company’s clients on Facebook and Instagram, part of an ongoing bid by the Comcast media conglomerate to cultivate a new set of advertising clients.
Under the new pact, NBCUniversal e-commerce clients will be able to make outreach to users on Facebook and Instagram, utilizing content related to NBCUniversal’s shows and stars.
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“What it does is enable NBCUniversal to drive the sale of third-party products through our social handles on Facebook and Instagram,” says Josh Feldman, global CMO of NBCUniversal’s ad-sales division.
The company unveiled the new agreement as part of a virtual conference Monday aimed at advertisers and developers that burnished technology across NBCUniversal, its sibling Sky and its parent Comcast. During one presentation, the company said it would begin to collect more data about users of services such as Peacock, Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango that “will help inform
better audience targeting, as well as cross-platform planning and measurement. And for our consumers, it will drive further personalization of the content viewing experience, said Ryan McConville, NBCU’s executive vice president for ad platforms and operations, during part of the presentation.
Developing an e-commerce and data businesses could give NBCU a different line of cash as advertisers place new emphasis on streaming video hubs, which traditionally run fewer commercials than their linear-TV counterparts. Like other TV companies operating during the coronavirus pandemic, NBCUniversal had to contend with a difficult “upfront” ad-sales negotiation in 2020 that offered a smaller volume of advance advertising commitments than in previous years.
The company also said it had expanded its partnership with The Trade Desk, a large platform for programmatic advertising, that will help make e-commerce activity more seamless for consumers.
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