Barb Launches 'Ads Hub' Campaign Planning Tool

In the UK, video ad currency body Barb has gone live with its Ads Hub, a new analytics system designed for full-cycle ad campaign planning and reporting, and integrated with the Data Hub the organisation launched in December. A number of upgrades to Barb's CFlight are being added at the same time.

At launch, Barb Ads Hub includes post-campaign analysis delivered via CFlight, the joint-industry accountability tool for linear and VOD services. Barb says pre-campaign planning functionality will follow before the end of March.

The Ads Hub has been developed by RSMB, and will serve as the sole location for UK ad buyers and sellers to estimate and evaluate campaign performance across linear and VOD services using Barb data, and media owners' first-party data. The new Hub will be the home of two existing tools, Advanced Campaign Hub for pre-campaign planning and optimisation and CFlight for post-campaign evaluation - users can run both standalone and customised reports with advanced data visualisation capabilities, and the system also supports automated requests via API for ingestion into proprietary tools.

Upgrades to CFlight rolled out with the new system or due in Q1 include reporting against 11 additional target audiences, including the 'houseperson' audiences and a wider array of age groups; extended coverage of BVOD services, including TNT Sports and Sky AVOD platforms; and the ability to delineate campaign results by sales house and to request analysis for campaigns that run only on VOD services. More services will be added this quarter and later in the year a new MMM data pack will give users access to campaign exposure data across linear and VOD in a single location, for use in marketing mix models.

Luca Vannini, Head of Campaign Audiences at Barb, says the new Hub is 'uniquely designed to support full-cycle campaign optimisation, providing something for everyone from planners to those evaluating effectiveness.' He adds: 'Our Trustmark guarantees that all audience data in the system has been compiled and reported in accordance with joint-industry standards of objectivity, transparency and accountability. And it's all housed in one modern and user-friendly interface, which enables the smooth ingestion of outputs into clients' own systems.'

Vannini says Barb is already speaking to streaming video companies about integrating them into CFlight reporting.

Barb Data Hub, launched in early December, is a cloud-based system for storing, processing and distributing its viewing data to the industry, and in addition to the Ads Hub will also serve as home for Barb's Panel Plus prototypes and its API.

Web site: www.barb.co.uk .