GumGum acquires attention-based advertising platform Playground xyz

Contextual intelligence company GumGum has acquired attention measurement and optimization platform Playground xyz for an undisclosed sum. The transaction was done using a mix of cash and stock and will be immediately accretive, the company said. 

Playground XYZ has an AI technology that is trained and verified using real eye-tracking data to measure and optimize towards Attention Time – how long, in seconds, an ad is actually looked at.

Said Rob Hall, CEO of Playground xyz: “There are two seismic changes taking place in the ad industry. The first is the death of the cookie which will widely impact how we reach and target consumers. Contextual targeting will be the winner here and GumGum has an unmatched pedigree via the only MRC accredited content level solution.

The second is the emerging “attention economy” which recognizes that brands are increasingly fighting for their precious share of consumer attention. Playground xyz has the world’s most awarded attention measurement and optimisation platform. The pairing of GumGum’s privacy forward contextual solutions with our attention-driven ad products creates an unbeatable combination.”

Founded six years ago in Australia, Playground xyz has expanded operations across APAC, EMEA, and the US. The company said that it saw more than 60% year-over-year growth in revenue. 

With the acquisition of Playground xyz, GumGum aims to provide advertisers the ability to measure the attention of their contextually-driven campaigns without the use of personal data. 

“In a future without the cookie or personal data, we believe that digital advertising will come down to capturing the consumer’s mindset through a combination of creative, context, and consumer attention. Each is independently important, but together make up The Mindset Matrix, which will be key to understanding and optimizing campaigns of the future,” said Phil Schraeder, CEO, GumGum. 

“Our accredited contextual technology combined with Playground xyz’s proven attention measurement and optimization solution will allow advertisers to future proof their attribution strategies by moving past basic viewability metrics to better understand the true effectiveness of their digital campaigns.”

GumGum will add Playground xyz’s team of around 80 employees based in Sydney to its ranks, making GumGum’s global workforce around 500. Rob Hall, Playground xyz’s CEO, will lead GumGum attention products as Global President, Attention Intelligence Platform.