AT&T launches new advertising company, Xandr

AT&T Advertising & Analytics is Now Xandr, A New Kind of Advertising Company Harnessing Data, Technology, Premium Content and Distribution

Inks Two Agreements with Addressable TV providers, Altice USA and Frontier Communications

Xandr Unveils Consumer and Market-Based Research

AT&T* announced today the launch of XandrSM, its new advertising company led by CEO Brian Lesser. The announcement was made at the Relevance Conference, Xandr’s inaugural conference in Santa Barbara, California.

Xandr encompasses all aspects of the existing AT&T advertising & analytics businesses, including AT&T’s advanced TV business, AT&T AdWorks; AT&T’s data and analytics business; ATT.net and AppNexus, which will continue to support its US and global customers under the Xandr umbrella.

“Xandr is a name that draws inspiration from AT&T’s rich history, including its founder Alexander Graham Bell, while imagining how to innovate and solve new challenges for the future of advertising,” said Lesser. “Our purpose is to Make Advertising Matter and to connect people with the brands and content they care about. Throughout AT&T’s 142-year history, it has innovated with data and technology, making its customers’ lives better. Xandr will bring that spirit of innovation to the advertising industry.”

This new kind of advertising company has four key advantages, which include data, premium content, advanced advertising technology and AT&T’s distribution to more than 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships across wireless, video and broadband.1

Advancing Advanced TV

To further strengthen its leadership in advanced TV advertising, Xandr has entered into agreements with Altice USA and Frontier Communications to aggregate and sell their national addressable TV advertising inventory. This initial step starts to create the foundation of a national TV marketplace for advertisers and premium content publishers. Xandr will also collaborate with a4, Altice USA’s advanced advertising business, to help expand a4’s nationwide addressable digital advertising capabilities.

By aggregating this video inventory from multiple multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), AT&T’s addressable TV offering starts to provide advertisers with a one-stop shop. This allows marketers to reach the audiences they want to connect with most, while improving yield by helping inventory owners compete more effectively.

By combining data with advertising technology, addressable TV allows advertisers to more effectively reach their audiences without the wasted spend associated with traditional, non-targeted TV.

Consumer-Centric Advertising

Xandr’s unique differentiator is its commitment to personalization, while considering the human element of advertising and people – not just placements.

To underscore its commitment, Xandr teamed up with Insight Strategy Group and Advertiser Perceptions to conduct surveys and on-the-ground ethnographies in order to understand the dynamics between consumer sentiment and the advertising experience.

These findings formed the basis of the inaugural Xandr Relevancy Report, original research on the state of consumer attention, which found 66 percent of consumers wish advertisements were more relevant to their interests and lifestyle, while 57 percent said ads are not relevant to them.

However, consumers recognized the importance of advertising: 64 percent of those surveyed believe advertising enables independent voices to be heard on the Internet, while 70 percent like when ads go beyond just selling a product.

Additional findings can be found in the Xandr Relevancy Report, including examples of how relevant advertising and data-driven insights can result in better consumer experiences.

For more information, please visit: www.xandr.com.

^{1 Represents cumulative video-capable D2C relationships across the following services: Postpaid, prepaid and reseller wireless; US and LatAm pay-TV, including DIRECTV NOW; Mexico wireless; and US consumer broadband.}

About Xandr

Xandr is creating a better solution for advertisers and publishers to find and reach specific audiences at scale in trusted, premium content environments. As a current leader in advanced TV advertising, we help advertisers deliver the right message, at the right time, on almost any device. We are rooted in a tradition of responsible data usage. For more than 140 years, AT&T has used data and technology to inform and improve the customer experience.