NEW YORK—Novocap’s Cadent has acquired VuePlanner, a YouTube video ad planning, optimization, and measurement company in a deal that will help Cadent expand its capabilities and give advertisers broader access to video inventory with a single, end-to-end platform.

“This acquisition fortifies Cadent's commitment to building a truly unified platform, one that reflects today's converged media landscape and evolving consumption habits,” said Nick Troiano, CEO, Cadent. “With VuePlanner, Cadent is the only platform that enables advertisers to activate YouTube’s premium creator inventory alongside linear and CTV. Now, for the first time, advertisers can take a Total Video approach to engaging any audience across any format.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With VuePlanner, Cadent will be able to give advertisers better access to YouTube, world’s biggest video platform. With over 62% of US internet users using YouTube daily, Cadent clients will now have access to one of the biggest ad ecosystems on the market, seamlessly integrating YouTube budget and activations into one total strategy, the company reported.

VuePlanner is an innovative media intelligence platform—powered by a blend of AI and expert curation—that improves YouTube campaign performance through precise content identification, quality scoring, advanced predictive targeting, and pre-bid transparency, Cadent said.

As one of seven companies in the YouTube Measurement Program, VuePlanner gives advertisers privileged access to scale high-intent environments, reach quality audiences, and validate results through independent measurement across premium YouTube content and creators—delivering differentiated ease and efficiency.

Headquartered in New York, VuePlanner is led by co-founder John Cobb. All VuePlanner employees will be integrated into Cadent’s operations, with Cobb joining as executive vice president and general manager, Cadent VuePlanner.

“YouTube has become a premium destination for curated video, creating powerful new ways for brands to reach and engage audiences across every screen,” said Cobb. “In a multiscreen world, meeting viewers where they watch is critical. Now, Cadent enables advertisers to seamlessly activate YouTube within a broader Total Video strategy.”

NEW YORK—Cadent, one of the largest independent providers for converged TV advertising solutions has announced a definitive agreement to acquire AdTheorent Holding Company, Inc. for $3.21 per share or about $324 million. 

AdTheorent offers ID-independent machine learning and algorithmic audience solutions. 

The combination of Cadent and AdTheorent will create one of the largest independent omnichannel audience activation platforms for buyers and sellers of advertising. 

Once the deal is completed, the newly formed entity will focus on providing performance advertising solutions that cater to both digital and traditional TV markets using advanced machine learning and a unified media and data marketplace, the companies said. 

The combined company will serve nearly 1,000 advertisers and plans to work with all leading holding companies, agency groups, independent agencies, and premium publishers, the companies reported. 

“Together, Cadent and AdTheorent will enable our customers to drive performance across all strategic audiences, no matter where they consume media or where they are in the sales funnel,” said Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent. “We will connect the worlds of programmatic and TV, providing solutions across our partner ecosystem that will drive next-generation omnichannel reach and performance results.”

The two companies also reported that AdTheorent’s leadership in ID-independent machine learning and algorithmic audience solutions, combined with Cadent’s cookieless household identity graph will uniquely position the combined company in the ad market place for future growth.  

“AdTheorent’s customer-focused culture, award-winning technology and commitment to innovation has helped our team build a strong brand that is a recognized leader in performance-first programmatic advertising,” said James Lawson, CEO of AdTheorent. “In Cadent, we’ve found a partner with a shared commitment to delivering measurable results for customers, and a complementary vision for the future of omnichannel advertising. In an increasingly competitive and evolving adtech sector, we are excited to bring together our teams, technology, and solutions to drive continued value to our customers and our employees.”

Novacap, the Montreal-based private equity firm which acquired Cadent in August 2023, provided strategic services and funding support to Cadent for the transaction.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review and AdTheorent shareholder approval. The transaction has been approved by the AdTheorent Board of Directors and is expected to close in approximately 90 days.

Moelis & Company LLC is acting as lead financial advisor to Cadent. RBC Capital Markets also is acting as a financial advisor, and Baker Botts LLP is providing legal counsel. Canaccord Genuity is acting as financial advisor and McDermott Will & Emery LLP is acting as legal counsel to AdTheorent in connection with the proposed transaction.

NEW YORK—The advanced TV ad platform Cadent has announced a new clean room integration with Google Cloud that will improve workflows for clients while ensuring privacy, with controls in place for data storage and movement. 

“Given our partnership and shared clients, it’s fitting that Google is our first partner to join our clean room integration marketplace for advertisers,” said Mari Tangredi, senior vice president, audience solutions, at Cadent. “As an independent platform, Cadent integrates with best-in-class partners to provide our clients with the interoperability they need for a seamless experience.”

The partnership will expand Cadent's integrations across the advanced TV ecosystem, creating new opportunities for advertisers at a time when anti-tracking changes and channel fragmentation are making it harder to execute comprehensive, targeted TV ad strategies.

Being a Google Cloud Build Partner will allow the Cadent Aperture Platform to provide the access and interoperability that clients need to onboard, build and deploy audiences for activation anywhere, at scale, in a fully secure environment, the companies said. 

In addition, Cadent’s Aperture Audience Studio and Viewer Graph combined with Google Cloud and Clean Room infrastructure allows shared major broadcast media and national programmer clients to onboard, build and deploy audiences to Google Ad Manager or other platforms in a privacy-preserving manner. 

More information about the Cadent Aperture Platform is available here.   

NEW YORK & WASHINGTON D.C.—The advanced TV advertising platform Cadent has announced that it is partnering with Tunnl to expand Cadent's Aperture Audience Data Marketplace by bringing Tunnl audiences to Cadent's customers.

The partnership is designed to help advertisers faced with  ever-increasing media fragmentation among their target markets. Using Tunnl's laser-focused audiences, advertisers—especially those in the political and issue advocacy realms—can ensure that their messages reach the right people, maximizing investment, impact, and results this year and beyond, the companies said. 

"As the TV ecosystem becomes increasingly fragmented and complex, marketers need solutions to reach their target audience across screens and devices," said Eoin Townsend, chief product officer at Cadent. "Through our partnership with Tunnl, we further our mission in helping brands engage the right consumers in a scalable, privacy-compliant manner."

Tunnl audiences are built from monthly, national, large-sample surveys paired with a proprietary data library based on 20+ years of intelligence. The granularity of Tunnl audiences allows for uniquely effective targeting across multiple verticals like "brand," "political," "public affairs," and "corporate advocacy" within Cadent Aperture Audience Data Marketplace, the companies said. 

In addition to Aperture Audience Data Marketplace, Cadent Aperture Viewer Graph enables advertisers to reach Tunnl's audiences across linear and OTT to drive incremental, deduplicated reach, the Cadent reported. 

Aperture Viewer Graph allows marketers to unify audiences across the TV ecosystem, empowering them to target their specific high-value audiences and measure outcomes using any third-party partner.

"This integration closely connects Cadent Aperture Platform users with Tunnl's audiences at a time when OTT and CTV are increasingly important ways for advertisers to reach their buyers," says Sara Fagen, CEO at Tunnl. "We see significant opportunity for advertisers to benefit from Tunnl's partnership with Cadent as we continue to focus on connecting audiences with people's TV viewership habits."

NEVADA CITY, CALIF.—In an effort to automate processes and boost productivity across its media planning and buying operations, media, advertising and technology provider Cadent has brought in Telestream’s Vantage media processing platform.

Using the Vantage Transcode Pro media processing platform, Cadent migrated to an automated file-based workflow that reportedly enables a faster turnaround. The Vantage system is able to automatically identify media files that need to be transcoded; executes automated workflow instructions; converts between ProRes, H.264, MPEG2, MPEG4 and other common formats; performs media analysis for quality control; generates low-res proxies of full-res media; and adds Nielsen watermarks.

As a result, Cadent claims that its media processing volume rose to 500,000+ files annually and the turnaround time to distribute a group of 100 spots decreased from 24 hours to two.

“Vantage is the backbone of our operation,” said Joe Kovach, vice president of technical operations for Cadent.