No one just watches TV anymore. They’re on Twitter during live events and checking Facebook during commercials, with the occasional Snapchat reaction to big reveals on the latest TV shows. For marketers, that makes it hard to know when advertisements are actually getting views.
4C provides multi-screen analytics for companies looking to better target messages, and just announced at $26 million funding round to expand geographically and introduce new products. The Series C was led by Kayne Partners, with all previous investors like Jump Capital and Prime Ventures also participating in the round. Leon Chen, vice president at Kayne Partners, will join the 4C board of directors.
To support its growth, 4C plans to bring on technical and sales talent to increase its use of data science techniques and integrate its software-as-a-service offerings with more applications.
“Currently, we have a technology platform that operates around television and social and online video,” said 4C chief marketing officer Aaron Goldman. “What we want to do is build out new inventory channels and additional data sources to become a more complete platform.”
[video:https://youtu.be/7XkCIo-9PI0 width:600 autoplay:0]
By applying powerful analysis to big data, the company can currently target ads on social platforms based on what a consumer is watching. Goldman gave the example of someone scrolling Twitter while watching the Bears.
“So every time the Bears score, which unfortunately it's not that often, we could trigger a Coke ad saying ‘Raise a cold one, Bear down!’” he said.
As use of mobile devices grows and viewing habits change, 4C expects to continue its pace of expansion. An Accenture study found that 87 percent of consumers user laptops, smartphones and other personal electronics while watching TV. The company currently claims nearly triple-digit, year-over-year growth and has raised $37.6 million to date.
4C has built up a number of integrations across social and TV networks that allow it to closely monitor consumption. It has partnered with Turner, 20th Television and Groupe M6 to track what’s being seen on broadcast TV, while also building on social media tools. This summer, Snapchat named 4C a partner, allowing brands that use its platform the ability to access information on the young and growing social network.
4C was founded in Chicago in 2011 and has staff in the U.S., U.K., France, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands and Singapore. The company recently added two new executives to its team: Kevin Kearns joined as chief revenue officer in July and Anupam Gupta was named chief product officer in August.
Image via 4C
Does your startup have news to share? Drop us a line or tweet us @BuiltInChicago
.jpg)
