David Phillips, head of what used to be BBM Analytics, says the firm’s new name, Nlogic, is more than just a rebrand. It’s an entirely new company, with new technology behind it.
“We’re becoming a different company, because we’ve had to respond to changes in the landscape,” he said. “We’re morphing into a tech company.”
Nlogic provides B2B analytics and audience data for agencies and media companies. It’s owned by Numeris (formerly BBM Canada), a non-profit audience measurement company that’s long been Canada’s primary TV ratings provider. BBM rebranded to Numeris in June, and rebranding its for-profit subsidiary BBM Analytics as Nlogic, closes the loop. (The “N” is a tie to Numeris.)
Phillips, who spoke at Marketing‘s Data-Driven Marketing conference on Thursday, said the rebrand symbolizes the company’s shift into a cross-platform future. Over the last 18 months, he and his team have been building a new suite of products that combines audience analytics across traditional TV, digital and mobile.
“We’ve built our own cloud-based warehouse that we will ultimately put all the data we have into, plus other data [from partners],” he explained. “From that warehouse, we’re going to spin a portfolio of products targeted at particular use cases and particular users.”
The new product suite will be available in January.
Also beginning in the new year, Nlogic will be adding new data partners to build on its already considerable trove of data from Numeris’ Canada-wide audience panel measurement. A big focus will be on bringing in social data to help TV buyers measure reaction and attitude towards their campaigns and products.
“One of the key principles of what we’re designing is what we call a multilens perspective,” Phillips said. “If I’m trying to understand what the value of an audience is to a piece of content, just understanding how much is consumed is insufficient. You need to understand what they feel like, what they do as a result, what emotions get generated.”
The company plans to keep its focus squarely on the Canadian market, and on video and radio content. For the time being, Nlogic won’t be extending its measurement into other digital channels like display or search, either.
Asked about whether its audience data will be made available for programmatic media buying, Phillips said Nlogic is considering developing an API that will allow media buyers’ technology vendors to integrate directly with its analytics product suite.
“We firmly believe that programmatic will be a reality in both radio and TV,” he said. “We think the transactional elements of the business, the ERP bit, has to be automated. Where we feel we can be of use is in the decisions before — which is where the context matters, where the understanding of the subject and audiences matter.”
Nlogic revealed its new branding Thursday at a launch party in Toronto and a new website. The rebrand was led by Cundari, which also designed and launched the Numeris brand this summer.
