• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, March 4, 2015

Digital ad measurement firm Integral Ad Science on Wednesday announced it has acquired Veenome, a video ad measurement firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Integral has emerged as one of the leaders in the vieawbility and fraud measurement space, and just last week received MRC accreditation for its video viewability ad technology. Scott Knoll, CEO of Integral, told Real-Time Daily that Veenome’s technology is “very complementary” to Integral’s existing stack.

Veenome specializes in creating data around the quality of video content, which can then be used for targeting purposes. The company collects data about the context of the content that will play after the ad as well as data about the video player itself -- size, auto play features, muted, etc.

“This is a new data stream [for Integral],” commented Knoll, adding that it also gives Integral’s team an influx of “video experts.”

Chief among those experts is Kevin Lenane, Veenome’s founder and CEO. Knoll said Integral will keep Veenome’s full staff on board with plans to add more.

“They have a bunch of interesting ideas about how to continue to improve what they are doing, such as adding new metrics,” Knoll said. “What was holding them back was the resources. As part of buying the company, we promised to invest in more resources.”

Veenome will also give Integral an engineering operations center in northern Virginia -- an untapped hub of talent, per Knoll -- to go along with its other engineering-focused offices in San Francisco, New York and the UK.

At this juncture, Integral is focused on viewability measurement -- because that’s where the ad industry is focused. Knoll called viewability a starting point, and contends that once viewability challenges are overcome satisfactorily, other measurement metrics will play a bigger role. Integral is acquiring Venomee now to be prepared for that day.

“The reality is [viewability] is just a starting point,” said Knoll. “There are all [kinds of] other metrics. Unlike TV, where if you buy a 30 second spot the only constraint is the size of the screen, in digital, if you buy a 30 second spot, it could be squeed into a banner, on a page with six other videos playing, in a game where someone is only clicking to get to the next level -- there are so many scenarios.”

This is Integral’s second acquisition; the company acquired mobile analytics firm Simplytics last February.