In this AW360 interview, we speak with Pete Bradbury, Chief Commercial & Growth Officer of media measurement company, VideoAmp. Bradbury shares his 30-year perspective on the measurement industry, why he joined VideoAmp at the beginning of this year and how VideoAmp will carry its reputation as the advanced currency provider into Upfronts and the rest of 2024.
By R. Larsson, Advertising Week
AW360: With nearly 30 years in the media research industry, what motivated your decision to join VideoAmp?
I wasn’t actively looking to get back in, actually. I was having a lot of fun and success out on my own. I had begun consulting and teaching Consumer Marketing at Miami University when I was approached with the opportunity to join VideoAmp, directly from Peter Liguori and other team members at VideoAmp. Serendipitously, I also heard from many friends and former clients who said VideoAmp has a great product that could be transformational for the measurement space. And the company could benefit from a steady, seasoned hand to help them chart the course and grow their business.
After really looking into things and doing my due diligence, my assessment was this is a watershed moment for the industry and that I could be part of something really groundbreaking. It’s clear the industry has moved to alternative currencies, but we’ve reached a tipping point, when more efficient and effective measurements that enable greater outcomes will be the norm, not the exception and it’s proven to be 100% true over the past several months since joining.
What really got me excited was when people you have worked with and former colleagues across the buy and sell side of the industry say, “You can help scale this. We’d love to see you back in the league.” It’s a rare opportunity and incredibly humbling. The old way of doing things in measurement and transacting isn’t sustainable… it’s super expensive and not nearly as accurate as it could and should be. There’s a famous baseball quote from Babe Ruth that says, “Yesterday’s home runs won’t win today’s game.” Yesterday’s successes don’t guarantee tomorrow’s results.”
The industry isn’t showing signs of slowing down any time soon. We have an incredibly talented and forward-thinking group here at VideoAmp that ladders up to a well-experienced executive leadership team that Peter Liguori assembled by hand. We also have the support and encouragement of seasoned private equity investors – they see the value VideoAmp continues to bring. Everyone is playing their role on the team, while other companies are struggling to figure out who’s on first and who’s on second, we are all focused on doing our jobs.
I’m excited to be partnering with this passionate cast of industry leaders who are all tired of the status quo and want to combine their different backgrounds to create a more efficient ecosystem.
AW360: How do you envision your role as Chief Commercial & Growth Officer influencing the growth trajectory of VideoAmp?
I’m a career customer and client service guy. My North Star has always been and will always be the needs of my clients. As I work very closely with our executive team and across all our teams at VideoAmp, I always begin by asking: what does the marketplace need and what can VideoAmp provide to customers and their clients to help them succeed? Rinse and repeat. Thinking about a marketplace for clients is always top of mind for me. When we have internal discussions about developing our products, these are the questions we ask and tackle together as a team.
AW360: The measurement space has become an open field of competition. What drives you and the VideoAmp team to be seen as differentiators who are consistently sparking innovation and change?
I don’t get up in the morning thinking about competitors. I wake up thinking about our clients’ needs and how I can get the most out of myself and my team and ensure we’re maximizing our abilities and capitalizing on our strengths to drive our customers’ success. If we focus on that and what we can control, we’re going to find success more often than not. Our focus is to start with our clients’ needs and deliver measurement solutions that help them drive better business outcomes. That’s how we were able to develop our tech-led solution VALID (VideoAmp Linked Identity & Data).
Our ambition is to revolutionize the way our clients plan, buy, activate, and evaluate their media investments… so that everyone wins. We identified a need and created a big data tech engine, like VALID, that increases the precision and accuracy of reaching advanced targeted audiences. Our identity graph has a 70% higher match rate, and our clean rooms enable us to combine data without compromising privacy. We’ve seen 1,400% year-over-year growth in adoption for our measurement and currency solutions. We’re doing business with 98% of publishers, 11 agency groups and more than 1,000 advertisers.
We’re really operating at a different velocity than others in our space, and that’s because of our tech first heritage. We are setting ambitious goals for ourselves to achieve. In March, we had our pre-upfront event VAMPFRONT where we announced a robust product roadmap across sports, cross-platform, digital and advanced currency. We could not be more excited about our mission and rewriting the playbook on delivering measurement that enables everyone to realize the full value of their ad investments.
AW360: How do you see VideoAmp shaping the future of measurement this Upfront season?
We are humbled to be playing such a large role in the upfront again this year and we’re very excited about what’s yet to come. There’s already been several, very high profile and high value partnership announcements with major clients on the buy and sell side. We feel very privileged to be associated with some of the most forward thinking, proactive companies in the Media ecosystem.
One very recent example that we are so proud to be part of, NBCUniversal named us as a currency of choice at their One24 event. NBC’s announcement, along with the many others, speaks to the increasing reliance on Videoamp information and how clients are going to market smarter, equipped with more accurate data to drive their decision making and improve the return on their investments.
We’re incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm of our clients. Many have jumped at the chance to share their success stories, highlighting the incredible progress made within their organizations. It’s largely thanks to our partnerships that they’ve evolved their measurement and currency approaches. This momentum will send a powerful message to the industry: VideoAmp is here to champion innovation and collaboration, and we want everyone to join us to keep the competitive spirit alive.
AW360: How does VideoAmp ensure transparency in its data and measurement solutions, especially in a climate where building client trust has become so important?
At VideoAmp, we value transparency as a core pillar to building long-lasting partnerships and collective successes with our partners. We’re always committed to being absolutely transparent with our clients and in our methodologies. It’s one of our best features with no black boxes and we’re welcoming of all transparency conversations. No question is going to offend us. We’re sharing our data in a very open format and find ourselves excited about the idea of how we can expand those boundaries, where needed.
We work closely with all of the governing measurement bodies and are currently in the pre-audit phase of MRC (Media Rating Council) accreditation. We were also recently certified by the JIC (Joint Industry Committee) for cross-platform transactability as a national currency. At the end of the day, our goal and priority is to instill confidence in our clients around the accuracy and reliability of our data and measurement processes.
AW360: Which measurement and currency trends are rapidly gaining traction in the industry right now?
We’re seeing a very large and accelerating shift from broader demographic based demos to much more refined data definition languages (DDL). We’re also seeing adoption rates triple in quadruple digits. I have every reason to believe, based on the ongoing feedback from our clients, there are now signs of measurement and currency trends slowing down. It’s clear the marketplace sees the value of more refined currencies. Clients understand it’s their own money they could potentially lose and they’re leveraging solutions, including ours, to maximize their investments.
AW360: As we look towards the future, what else can AW360 readers expect to see from VideoAmp in 2024 and beyond?
Everyone in the media and measurement industry is under enormous pressure. Brands need to prove their advertising is driving sales. Agencies are under fire to make their buys more efficient. Publishers are on an urgent hunt for new profits from advertising and content. That’s where we come in. We’re going to make 2024 the year where VideoAmp helps everyone navigate these complicated challenges and it starts with providing the best data and technology in the market to represent actual prospects.
VideoAmp was the first measurement company to stitch together multiple big data sources (also known as COMMINGLING) to represent advanced audiences more accurately. This was all built upon first- and third-party data and has made us the advanced currency across the entire landscape. We’re excited for the direction we’re headed in and look forward to bringing on more clients along for the ride, who want to be a part of our journey.
About Peter Bradbury
Peter “Pete” Bradbury is a growth and transformation leader with 30 years of industry experience and a proven track record of building profitable sales operations, enablement infrastructures and multibillion-dollar product and service contracts for Fortune 500 brands across Big Tech, FMCG, CPG, media, sports, and entertainment. Prior to joining VideoAmp in 2024, Peter spent 26 years at Nielsen where he oversaw all aspects of the domestic media commercial enterprise. Bradbury holds a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Bentley University and certifications from Stanford University and Harvard Business School.
