Deal enables accurate brand safety and contextual categorization for podcasts and audio content

Comscore , a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms, announced an agreement with Acast, one of the most eminent podcast platforms, to provide brand safety targeting solutions for podcast and audio content as Acast’s brand safety provider.

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As podcast and streaming audio consumption continues to increase, advertisers need to ensure that their brand’s messaging is conveyed in relevant and brand-safe environments. Under the agreement, Acast will leverage Comscore’s natural language processing, machine learning, and AI for direct and programmatic ad sales—enabling brands to ensure that their advertising appears within podcast episodes that align with their brand preferences.

“We are excited to bring our industry-leading podcast brand safety to Acast,” said Lee Blickstein, Vice President, Activation Solutions, Comscore. “Podcasts are one of the fastest growing channels in advertising and it is critical that advertisers have sophisticated tools tailored to meet their subjective brand safety needs without sacrificing audience reach. Our solutions will help these brands go beyond app-level and podcast series-level assessments to set up brand safety for their podcast media plans that align with their brand image.”

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“When introducing new tools like this for advertisers, our first and most important consideration is always how we can do so without hurting our podcasters’ revenue potential, and without having any impact on the brilliant content they create for their fans around the world,” said Joe Copeman, Global SVP of Sales, Acast. “Partnering with Comscore, and guiding individual buyers to customize and define their own specific risk categories, was the smartest way to do this—and means we’re able to bring yet another innovation to the Acast Marketplace, alongside our market-leading solutions such as conversational targeting, data-led audience segments, and curated collections.”

This new agreement further expands Comscore’s footprint as a premier brand safety and contextual targeting solutions provider for podcasts and is the latest announcement in a series of enhancements to Comscore’s Activation suite, which helps advertisers reach specific demographics, and behavioral, TV and OTT audiences in brand-safe, relevant contexts across desktop, mobile, and Connected TV.