Blis rolls out omnichannel measurement solution into broader market

Continues global launch of Smart Holdout Groups, its patent-pending measurement solution, to help marketers get the full picture of omnichannel campaign impact

Blis, the geo-powered advertising tech stack, announced the global release of Smart Holdout Groups, its industry-leading omnichannel measurement solution. The patent-pending, privacy-first measurement framework connects reporting across previously disconnected channels, like DOOH, Audio, and CTV, enabling marketers to measure what really matters: omnichannel campaign impact, not just siloed channels and proxy performance metrics.

The globally-available offering is already being utilized by brands including Bloomingdale’s and UKTV Play. To date, the geo-based technology has been shortlisted for two Digiday Technology Awards (Best Measurement Solution), a Mediapost OMMA Award, and two nominations for The Drum Awards, recognizing campaigns with DC Lottery (FuseIdeas and Taoti Creative) in the US and the UKTV Play (Havas), part of BBC Studios, in the UK.

“Blis has always been at the forefront of our industry’s innovation, helping marketers navigate a fast-changing landscape particularly when it comes to privacy. This is the perfect example of how we’re ahead of the curve and solving for industry-wide challenges like measurement – because let’s face it, traditional measurement is broken,” says Amy Fox, Chief Product Officer. “The very core of our technology does not rely on cookies or IDs and Smart Holdout Groups allows us to remedy a pressing issue for marketers while adhering to consumer preferences.”

“Accurate and trusted omnichannel measurement has been a thorn in the side of clients and agencies alike,” said Hamid Habib, MD of Havas Entertainment UK. “This new solution from Blis, Smart Holdout Groups, has not only solved that challenge but gone further with a rich and insightful measurement solution that can feed straight back into planning. It can exist solus but becomes even more powerful when combined alongside media mix modeling by giving you a complementary view of what is working in real-time.”

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How Smart Holdout Groups works

Without relying on cookies or IDs, Smart Holdout Groups allows marketers to measure the outcomes that matter to their business, such as sales lift, store visit lift, brand lift, and even custom client metrics. Critically, it works across all programmatic channels, whether it’s an ad seen on a TV at home, an interstitial in a mobile game, or a full poster ad on an out-of-home screen. Smart Holdout Groups moves marketers beyond siloed, proxy metrics and allows them to see the true performance of their audiences and advertising. It’s one of the first solutions of its kind that focuses on audience incrementality, not just channel incrementality.

Smart Holdout Groups takes campaign audiences and automatically creates statistically robust, geo-based A/B holdout groups for analysis. Working at the zip code or postal district level, it uses machine learning to split audiences into exposed and controlled areas such that both groups contain similar people. It can even create buffer areas where there is too much audience movement between areas that would affect measurement. Smart Holdout Groups currently splits audiences based on a number of socio-demographic factors and clients will soon be able to select their own control factors. With just a button click, Smart Holdout Groups does what traditionally requires entire teams of data analysts.

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The offering is different from previous iterations of geography-based measurement, which typically holds out DMAs or entire states as control groups. While Smart Holdout Groups is rooted in geography, it takes a much more granular approach, so advertisers don’t risk missing entire swaths of audiences or getting fundamentally skewed results based on different geographic audiences with very different behaviors. Blis’ zip code-level analysis opens up a new world of possibilities for advertisers, with much more accurate, statistically similar comparison groups.

Building on Blis’ growth acceleration

The launch of Smart Holdout Groups comes amidst growth acceleration for Blis with the appointment of ad-tech veteran Alex Boras as US President, joining from Samsung Ads, and Steve Tschosik as Regional Vice President, Midwest. In the UK, Blis continues to experience record growth, with 90% year-on-year revenue growth and over 20% growth in regional team size.