Comcast Corp's Latest Marketing Tools

Comcast Corp's CMCSA NBCUniversal has created a new tool for marketers that will help them better target their customers. The initiative, called Audience Studio, pulls together three of the firm's recently launched ad offerings and will give brands more control over who their ads reach. Audience Studio is seen as a major benefit to advertisers, but some are worried that other studios will follow suit with their own unique offerings, making it more complicated for advertisers to develop coordinated campaigns. Advertising Made Easier NBCUniversal's Audience Studio takes Comcast's set-top data, social media offerings and targeting abilities and combines them to create a powerful marketing tool that will give advertisers more control over their campaigns. Most advertisers are using multifaceted campaigns that include elements of traditional TV advertisements, online ads and social media efforts to get their message across. Audience Studio makes it easier to use data from each segment together to ensure the effort is successful. Disconnected Systems For advertisers, NBCUniversal's new tools are both a blessing and a curse. While its helpful to have tools that make data analytics simpler and more streamlined, marketing firms have long been calling for more coordination between networks in order to create a master system that provides support for data-driven advertising. If each studio comes up with its own version of Audience Studio, marketers will have a harder job of reconciling data from each system and advertising across several platforms. NBC On Board NBCUniversal has said it is proud of its latest offering, but that it would be open to collaborating on a cross platform system with other networks. However, with nothing in the works at the moment, NBC has said its system is an important part of advancing targeted advertising.