Nielsen Buys Minority Stake In OpenSlate, Which Measures Brand Safety In Online Video

Analytics leader Nielsen has purchased a minority stake in OpenSlate, a fellow video measurement company that tracks brand safety to help marketers avoid associations with objective content.

The two platforms will work together to measure safety on YouTube and Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reports. The terms of the investment are not being disclosed, though it values OpenSlate at more than $100, according to the Journal.

OpenSlate provides marketers with information about the substance and quality of videos on YouTube and Facebook, providing clients with custom ratings. Concerns surrounding brand safety exploded in the digital video ad world following the onset of the so-called Adpocalypse in the spring of 2017, when advertisers first began pulling their ads from YouTube en masse after discovering that they had run next to content comprising terrorism and hate speech. Since then, YouTube has faced countless controversies involving objective content.

The Journal reports that OpenSlate has measured 600 million ad-supported videos, and its clients include ad agencies like Omnicom Group and GroupM, as well as CPG giants P&G and Unilever. Nielsen will now offer its clients OpenSlate’s aforementioned custom ratings as an add-on purchase. Eventually, Nielsen will integrate OpenSlate data directly into its product, per the Journal. The purchase marks Nielsen’s foray into the realm of brand safety.

OpenSlate, which was founded in 2009 and counts 80 employees, will use the investment to double its headcount by 2020, as well as to expand internationally, CEO Mike Henry said. Prior to Nielsen’s investment, the company had raised $16.8 million in venture funding.