Dentsu Announces Strategic Partnership with Sports Innovation Lab

Today dentsu announced a strategic partnership with Sports Innovation Lab bringing clients specialized access to sports audiences across any publisher or platform. Dentsu is the first holding company to partner with Sports Innovation Lab, providing clients with the ability to develop sports-related insights and target addressable sports audiences to Merkury’s 268M reachable U.S. adults.

Sports Innovation Lab brings audience segments from all teams across seven major sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WNBA, MLS, and NSWL), their entertainment venues, and major sports betting platforms – all built on deterministic, transaction-based data. Through the partnership, this data is now linked with Merkury, dentsu’s global data, identity and insights platform.

“Merkury’s more than 10,000 consumer data attributes combined with the data-driven fan intelligence from Sports Innovation Lab, generate the most advanced and precise sports audiences in the industry,” said Gerry Bavaro, chief strategy officer, Merkury at dentsu. “Through the partnership, our clients can confidently develop custom audiences, enabling personalized, real-time experiences for sports enthusiasts across channels while adhering to the highest standards of consumer data protection.”

The integration is built on a privacy-first, cohort-based scoring method that aligns with the growing demand for data privacy and security in digital advertising. Person ID-based connections via Merkury power targeting across 100+ publishers and ad-tech platforms, including connected TV, social media, and display media.

“This is an amazing opportunity for dentsu clients to gain direct access to purchase-based sports data that can be leveraged for planning, insights, and activation,” said Jennifer Pelino, chief commercial officer and president, Data Cloud at Sports Innovation Lab. “Sports audience data has historically posed a challenge for brand advertisers because it is limited or bundled as part of media publishers’ promotions and sponsorship deals. Now brands can use this data to meaningfully enhance their advertising strategies during key events like the NFL season or the holiday shopping rush, driving increased engagement and ROI. The potential for more powerful business outcomes is significant.”

This partnership comes at a time when global spending on sports media rights is on the rise, forecasted to reach $60.09B this year. Dentsu has made significant investments in sports, entertainment and gaming to bring its clients first-mover access, advantage and ROI from reaching sports fans.