NBCU launches shoppable ads on Peacock, discusses new ad formats and in-game ads

NBCUniversal’s “Must See TV” mantra has a new spin for the streaming age: “Must ShopTV.” At the media company’s One23 tech conference Wednesday, NBCU announced shoppable advertising for its digital platform Peacock, new creative ad formats and its ambitions in the gaming space. Previously limited to houses utilizing Xfinity software from parent company Comcast, NBCU now has the capability to get products in consumers’ hands straight from any screen streaming Peacock. While watching content, tech from Kerv Interactive will scan products that appear on screen and serve viewers exact or similar products that are purchasable via remote using payment information logged in the app through NBCUniversal Checkout.Read more: NBCU adds VideoAmp as currency, expands iSpot role When a viewer engages with the shopping prompt, the show will pause to allow interaction with NBCU partner brands through checkout before it resumes. NBCU currently has relationships with “multiple hundreds” of retailers, but will expand that number “by two or three times over the course of the next year,” said Evan Moore, senior VP of commerce partnerships. Moore said the experience won’t be disruptive for viewers not wanting to shop: “If I'm watching ‘Real Housewives,’ we don't want to get in front of that,” he said. “There's drama on screen and you want to watch that.” Ad Age Leading Women and Rising Stars Last call for the annual awards Enter here Moore also said the commerce expansion will help bolster NBCU’s first-party data product for advertisers, NBCUnified. “We'll be able to see and identify what the user is doing—the shopping events that they're taking—and that becomes part of the value that we're creating” for advertisers, the senior VP said. “One of the real core strategies of why we're rolling this out is to understand how consumers react and how they shop based on the content they’re viewing on our platforms.” Commerce that can scale to other programmers The shoppable innovation is part of NBCU’s plans to create a broader partnership platform that can be utilized by other programmers. The company announced a partnership with the publication The Daily Mail, which will incorporate NBCUniversal Checkout to make its web content shoppable as well. “For the first time we're taking the platform that we built in-house here—at least the first time for the commerce group—and looking at it as something that's actually a valuable platform for any entertainment company,” said Moore. He later added that in terms of partnering with competitor video platforms, “There's probably no audience platform necessarily outside of the range partnership … That's not where we are today, but this first step represents the journey that we're hoping to go on.” Retail media deal with CitrusAd NBCU also announced the launch of a Retail Media Extension Network that will lean on data and advanced audiences from Publicis Groupe’s CitrusAd, which collects data from retailers globally and in the U.S., including Macy’s, Lowe’s, Petco, Kohl’s, Harris Teeter, Hy Vee, Shipt and ShopRite. The Retail Media Extension Network will connect brands to audiences from CitrusAd’s data using “a self-service suite of contextually relevant shoppable native ad placements,” according to the NBCU statement. New ad formats NBCU named TripleLift its partner in developing in-scene ad placement during post-production of shows. The format will allow brands to place ads or products into Peacock shows, with the potential for targeting specific products per viewer in the future. “It’s a matter of us getting our rights in order with the show producers and the studios, which we're working on,” said Jenny Burke, executive VP of advertising strategy. “The goal would be that you should see different in-scene ads that are products that are actually tailored to you.” Burke and Moore also teased potential crossover between Peacock’s new in-scene ad and commerce capabilities: “That is our long-term ambition—that all of these formats could be commerce-enabled and actually drive action down the purchase funnel,” said Burke. NBCU also announced sponsored “Watch With” ads on Peacock, in which on-screen talent provide live commentary and Q&A during special episodes. The function is launching with the Peacock series “Bel-Air” and will later roll out to “Eurovision” and “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.” In-game ads Gaming has increasingly been a topic of interest in the media landscape, particularly with the rise of metaverse technologies. NBCU has been toying in the area, launching a virtual shopping mall for its BravoCon fan convention and sending Jimmy Fallon into Fortnite. The company is also the seller for in-game advertising through its partnership with Anzu, which inserts brand billboards and banners into games. Mike Reidy, senior VP of advertising and partnerships, said NBCU’s current mission in the gaming space is to help its advertisers expand their reach and brand-building beyond just video. But Reidy teased that while monetizing its own suite of gaming products is not an immediate venture for NBCU, “now that we have these footholds into gaming through partnerships like Anzu, we're learning a lot really fast … NBCUniversal is always going to consider opportunities.”

NBCU launches shoppable ads on Peacock, discusses new ad formats and in-game ads

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