vBrand had been a graduate of Nielsen’s tech incubator, Nielsen Innovate, and now will be integrated into the parent company’s stable of offerings. The visual data platform, powered by artificial intelligence, logs and measures brand exposure on television, social media and streaming digital feeds. vBrand offers its clients data not only on exposure value but engagements and audience.
Nielsen’s statement highlighted vBrand’s speed at delivering these results, within hours of events, so that rights holders and sponsors can react and adjust swiftly to maximize return on investment.
“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,” Howard Appelbaum, Nielsen Entertainment president, said in a statement. “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.”
Nielsen estimated that global sports and entertainment sponsorship expenditure will exceed $60 billion in 2017; a Price Waterhouse Cooper assessment projected the domestic spend would reach $18.7 billion by 2020, a compounded 3.9 percent growth rate. Earlier this week, for instance, Major League Soccer announced a six-year, $700 million sponsorship from Adidas, more than quadrupling the annual value of its previous eight-year, $200 million deal. The market for sports sponsorships is so robust that a new exchange-traded fund, ProSports Sponsors, debuted last month under the governing principle of only investing in companies partnering with the big four pro sports leagues in the U.S. The fund gained about 3 percent in its first month.
News of the vBrand sale came on the same day that a competitor, GumGum Sports, launched a new NBA valuation index, as sports advertising and sponsorship continues to be a very competitive landscape.
“The acquisition of vBrand by Nielsen is a great opportunity to continue our journey and take our offering to the next level,” vBrand CEO Yael Dor said. “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.”
Nielsen Innovate, the tech incubator, is licensed by the Israel Innovation Authority (previously known as the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel).
“Using a slightly different approach to most incubators, Nielsen Innovate mentors and shepherds the companies they back, in addition to providing an investment, with a goal of helping early-stage startups become successful, scalable global businesses,” Nielsen Innovate CEO Dov Yarkoni said.
vBrand is also a product of another major start-up commercialization program called The Bridge and backed by Coca-Cola, Turner and Mercedes-Benz.
