Koddi has partnered with Comcast's Universal Ads, adding TV advertising to its platform.
The tie-up makes Koddi the first commerce advertising technology platform to integrate natively with the Universal Ads API, according to the companies.
The agreement targets advertisers that want to plan, activate and measure campaigns across commerce media and premium streaming from one system. It is also intended to widen access to connected TV inventory beyond the largest advertisers, including mid-sized and smaller marketers that have often faced higher barriers to entry in television.
The integration gives Koddi's clients direct access to premium TV inventory from major publishers available through Universal Ads, including NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corporation and TelevisaUnivision.
Single platform
Advertisers will be able to run TV and commerce media campaigns through a single platform instead of managing separate buying and measurement processes across channels. The offering includes tools for audience targeting, campaign execution and measurement across reach, delivery and conversion signals.
It also adds closed-loop attribution and incrementality measurement, linking TV exposure with commerce media signals so advertisers can track whether campaigns influence purchasing behaviour. The aim is to frame television in terms more familiar to performance marketers, who have traditionally relied more heavily on digital formats with clearer measurement.
Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing parts of digital advertising as retailers and marketplaces use first-party shopper data to sell ads to brands. At the same time, streaming television has attracted more ad spending as audiences move away from traditional linear viewing. The partnership reflects a broader effort to connect those two areas and give advertisers a way to buy against retail audiences in premium video environments.
For Koddi, the move extends a platform already used by companies including Booking.com, Kroger, Fanatics and Cars.com. The business has focused on helping retailers, marketplaces and travel companies build media networks and manage advertising tied to commerce activity.
Backed by Comcast, Universal Ads has been positioned as a route for brands of different sizes to buy premium video advertising with fewer layers than are common in television. The arrangement with Koddi is intended to bring that access into the retail media buying process.
Market shift
A central claim behind the partnership is that TV advertising can become more accessible to advertisers that have traditionally lacked the budgets or specialist buying teams needed to enter the channel. The integration is intended to reduce complexity by giving brands more direct access to inventory and self-service tools for campaign management.
Eric Brackmann set out Koddi's view of the change. "We're redefining what performance looks like on TV," said Eric Brackmann, Vice President of Commerce Media, Koddi. "By integrating with Universal Ads, we're enabling brands to use TV not just as a branding tool, but as an accessible, performance driven growth channel and activate in premium TV environments, with the precision, measurement, and outcomes they expect from commerce media."
The push toward self-service buying and clearer attribution has been a recurring theme across the advertising market, particularly as brands demand stronger evidence that media spending leads to sales. In television, that has often proved harder to demonstrate than in search, retail media or social advertising, where user actions can be tracked more directly.
Adam Royle said the partnership is meant to address that gap while lowering the cost and complexity often associated with TV buying. "Historically, TV advertising has been dominated by the largest brands with the biggest budgets. TV should be a growth channel, not a luxury," said Adam Royle, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Universal Ads. "As the industry evolved, accessibility often came with added layers that drove up costs and diluted performance. Our partnership with Koddi removes that friction for retailers and brands, helping them reach customers and grow their businesses across premium TV with affordability and flexibility that many previously assumed wasn't within budget."
The combined offering includes direct access to premium inventory at scale, targeting of high-intent audiences closer to the point of purchase, real-time measurement, self-service execution tools and integrated artificial intelligence tools for campaign workflow and creative production.
Universal Ads' publisher roster also includes A+E, AMC Networks, Cox Media, DIRECTV, Estrella MediaCo, Fuse Media, LG Ad Solutions, Philo, Samsung Ads, Scripps, Spectrum Reach, Telly, Vevo, Vizio and Xumo.