iSpot unveils attribution solution for rapid performance tracking

As the advertising landscape continues to fragment across platforms, media measurement company iSpot has introduced a new solution that promises to transform how brands assess TV and streaming campaign performance. Launched today, the system connects verified ad delivery to business outcomes in near real-time.

Outcomes at Scale, announced by iSpot on March 27, 2025, represents a significant advancement in TV advertising measurement capabilities. The solution, which has been in development since 2023, addresses longstanding industry challenges around attribution speed, accessibility, and actionability. Paramount, a global media and entertainment leader, has become the first major partner to implement the technology.

The launch comes at a pivotal moment for the advertising industry, exactly zero days after its announcement, as advertisers increasingly demand more precise and timely performance data for their media investments. According to the announcement, the new offering is designed to help both advertisers and publishers share a common metric that demonstrates investment value.

"The ability to deliver automated outcomes seamlessly across platforms is incredibly transformative," says Travis Scoles, EVP of Advanced Advertising at Paramount. "While traditional metrics like GRPs remain important, they often serve as proxies for impact. Delivering proof of performance at scale is the roadmap for the future of the industry."

Outcomes at Scale builds upon attribution capabilities that iSpot first introduced in 2017. The system provides a continuous data feed that connects verified, on-screen ad impressions to specific business performance metrics such as store visits, online activity, and ticket purchases. This represents an evolution beyond traditional measurement approaches that typically focus on audience reach rather than business impact.

The technology addresses several key limitations that have historically restricted attribution capabilities to larger brands with substantial media budgets. By automating the process and making it available as an integrated solution, iSpot aims to democratize access to lower-funnel performance metrics for advertisers of all sizes.

Stu Schwartzapfel, EVP of Media Partnerships at iSpot, explained the strategic shift in measurement priorities. "Offering attribution at scale doesn't just speed up the time to critical insight for brands and enable better in-flight optimizations, it can change the buying process from a conversation about reach to one about impact," says Schwartzapfel. "Now, instead of waking up and checking how campaigns are pacing for on-target reach, buyers can see how investments are performing as campaigns progress and allocate dollars on what's working."

In the detailed announcement, iSpot emphasized the operational benefits of the new approach. The system delivers performance data throughout a campaign's lifecycle rather than solely as a post-campaign analysis. This timing shift enables brands to make tactical adjustments while campaigns are still active, potentially improving return on advertising spend.

The technology's core functionality centers on conversion-rate tracking across multiple dimensions. Advertisers gain visibility into which specific programs, dayparts, and audience segments generate the strongest response to their campaigns. This granular insight creates opportunities for publishers to offer flight optimizations that drive improved performance.

For Paramount, the integration represents a strategic investment in advanced advertising capabilities. As one of the world's largest media companies with extensive streaming and traditional broadcast assets, Paramount will be able to provide advertising partners with more sophisticated performance reporting across its content portfolio.

Television measurement has undergone significant transformation in recent years as viewing behaviors have fragmented across traditional broadcast, cable, and numerous streaming platforms. This fragmentation has complicated advertisers' ability to understand campaign effectiveness holistically.

The iSpot solution addresses this complexity by unifying measurement across platforms and linking impressions directly to business outcomes. Rather than relying on separate measurement methodologies for different media channels, Outcomes at Scale provides a consistent framework for evaluating performance.

Industry experts have long noted the challenges associated with traditional TV measurement approaches. While standard metrics like reach and frequency remain foundational, they serve primarily as proxies for advertising effectiveness rather than direct indicators of business impact. The shift toward outcome-based measurement represents an industry-wide movement toward more accountable advertising models.

The technical infrastructure supporting Outcomes at Scale leverages iSpot's existing measurement capabilities. The company maintains a panel of smart TVs that detect and verify ad impressions across platforms. This verification component ensures that measured impressions represent actual ad exposures rather than simply scheduled or purchased placements.

Once verified, these impressions are then connected to lower-funnel activities through various identity frameworks and statistical modeling techniques. The result is a continuous data stream that enables near real-time performance assessment.

For media publishers, the solution offers potential competitive advantages in a challenging marketplace. By providing advertising partners with rapid performance insights, publishers can demonstrate concrete value beyond traditional audience delivery metrics. This capability may prove particularly valuable as advertisers scrutinize media investments more carefully.

"We want to innovate and say how do we pull attribution further upstream into the campaign life cycle itself and have it not be an afterthought and how do we scale attribution to more advertisers," explains Schwartzapfel in a video accompanying the announcement. "So not just pull it further upstream into the campaign itself so it's not just an afterthought but also across more advertisers. So it's more readily available across a broader array of advertisers."

The attribution system is designed to complement rather than replace traditional measurement approaches. Reach and frequency metrics remain important planning tools, but connecting these upper-funnel metrics to business outcomes provides a more complete view of advertising effectiveness.

Schwartzapfel further elaborated on the practical implementation: "If I were able to give an advertiser or an agency representing an advertiser an always-on drip throughout the 3, 4, 5, 6 month campaign that they're running on behalf of their client where every single week we can update the conversion performance in flight in a way that is portable, in a way that doesn't involve logging into a dashboard... it's available as a data feed and it can be offered to more advertisers."

iSpot positions the solution as democratizing access to sophisticated measurement capabilities. "Now they can say attribution is a part of the fabric of how we report out on campaign performance regardless of how much you spent," said Schwartzapfel. "If we can start to move to that sort of narrative where we're democratizing the metrics and the insights associated with attribution, that's an innovative future."

The broader media measurement landscape continues to evolve as industry participants seek more accurate, comprehensive, and actionable metrics. Alternative measurement providers have emerged to challenge traditional approaches, while established players have invested in methodological improvements and technological capabilities.

iSpot itself has received industry recognition for its measurement methodologies. According to the announcement, the company has been certified as a National Currency by the U.S. Joint Industry Committee and received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for National TV Ad Occurrence Reporting.

For advertisers, Outcomes at Scale offers several practical benefits beyond just faster insights. The system enables more efficient allocation of media investments by identifying higher-performing placements. It also creates opportunities for mid-campaign optimizations that were previously difficult to implement due to measurement delays.

Media agencies may find particular value in the solution's ability to demonstrate concrete results to clients. By connecting media investments directly to business outcomes, agencies can more effectively justify strategic recommendations and demonstrate their value as marketing partners.

The timing of the announcement coincides with broader industry discussions about measurement standards and practices. As the media landscape becomes increasingly complex, advertisers and publishers alike have called for more sophisticated attribution capabilities that reflect modern consumption patterns.

With Paramount as its inaugural partner, iSpot has secured a significant validator for its approach. The implementation across Paramount's extensive media properties will provide substantial scale and diversity of advertising environments to demonstrate the technology's capabilities.

Looking forward, iSpot indicated that additional media partners are expected to implement Outcomes at Scale in coming months. The company views the solution as a foundational component of a more accountable and performance-oriented advertising ecosystem.

Timeline of iSpot Attribution Development:

• 2017: iSpot pioneers robust outcome measurement capability
• 2023-2024: Development of scaled attribution solution begins
• March 27, 2025: Official launch of Outcomes at Scale
• March 27, 2025: Paramount announced as first implementation partner
• 2025 (ongoing): Additional media partners expected to adopt the solution