Nielsen is now the owner of a technology startup that has developed a machine learning-enabled platform to measure brand exposure and impact in sports programming.
It looked toward the Holy Land to gets its prayers answered, and the purchase agreements signed.
The company Nielsen is acquiring is vBrand, an AI data platform for sports marketing dedicated to sports sponsors, rights-holders, agencies and TV operators.
With the deal, the Tel Aviv-based vBrand and its technology will be fully integrated into Nielsen Sports, bringing increased delivery speed and scale to the company’s existing sports products, Sport24 and Social24.
Financial terms were not disclosed or if the deal was in Euros or Israeli New Shekels, valued at 4.26 per Euro.
According to Nielsen, vBrand’s machine learning “will significantly accelerate the speed at which Nielsen Sports’ logo recognition and media monitoring technologies locate and calculate brand positions on screen.”
Specifically, the vBrand technology could allow brands and rights holders to monitor and track sponsorship visibility within hours of an event and make adjustments to digital signage and social campaigns within a tournament, competition weekend or season, Nielsen says.
Nielsen Sports’ flagship marketing solutions presently measure millions of hours of content per year, helping to deliver analytics and insights to more than 1,700 of the top rights holders, brands, agencies and broadcasters.
“This is an exciting acquisition that demonstrates our continued ambition and commitment to our sports clients,” said Nielsen Entertainment President Howard Appelbaum. “Bringing vBrand’s technology into Nielsen Sports’ existing sponsorship valuation process will further expand the scale of programming and events it covers around the world. It will also provide timely exposure information, enabling clients to make smarter and faster decisions on sponsorship placement. Nielsen Sports’ brand exposure data and metrics are considered currency in the global sports marketplace, and we’re delighted to strengthen that further with this acquisition.”
“The acquisition of vBrand by Nielsen is a great opportunity to continue our journey and take our offering to the next level,” said Yael Dor, CEO of vBrand. “We are confident that our cutting-edge technology, combined with Nielsen’s platform, will extend its leadership position in the market by providing sports marketers with transparency and clarity on sports sponsorship investments.”
