Nlogic has introduced its new standalone Video Planner software tool and is gearing up for the summer launch of the self-serve version of the ad planning solution. Video Planner is a reach and frequency calculator that works across both linear TV and digital streaming platforms. It was built on the Numeris VAM dataset and, for the first time will allow media planners to compare exclusive unduplicated reach and frequency across linear video and digital video audience in one place.

Sue Haas, president and COO of Nlogic, says Video Planner is for both the sell side and buy side of the business. It will begin as a managed service for the first few months before a self-serve version is launched. “The tool is really about advertising, the planning of an ad campaign. It has been tested, it works, and it’s now available – but it’s not finished. We’re continuing to optimize and add new features and functionality. That’ll be ongoing. Self-serve will launch in late summer.”

IPG Mediabrands and Corus Entertainment have already signed on to Video Planner and partnered with Nlogic throughout the test period.

Chris Herlihey, head of Insights for IPG Mediabrands, says the video planner is intended to pull in the audience data from Numeris across different video platforms, for example, linear TV, online, video, social video and connected TV platforms. “It brings in all those audiences and allows planners to allocate budget across all of those platforms, and provide a total video reach and frequency. In the past, we were just planning on linear TV, and now we’ve got all these other platforms to plan against so we want to understand how much time people are spending on the different platforms.”

Herlihey adds, “We’re no longer thinking of these video platforms in a silo. We’re using a unified video planning approach. It’ll help us really understand where to place those ad dollars for maximum impact for our campaigns.”

NLogic also unveiled an upcoming collaboration with Nexxen, a global advertising technology platform specializing in video and connected TV. The two companies are exploring opportunities to take Video Planner beyond planning to campaign activation and reporting to create a seamless end-to-end platform. In addition, NLogic is looking at the integration of Nexxen’s global ACR (automatic content recognition) data to address existing gaps within the Canadian media landscape.