Ampersand leverages data clean rooms to connect its vast multiscreen inventory with granular audience insights, helping Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPD) partners drive impactful targeting and measurement in advanced TV.
Data clean rooms emerged as a privacy-enhancing solution for advertisers, allowing valuable audience insights without exposing consumers’ PII. As privacy regulations tighten, these secure environments let advertisers and publishers collaborate on data without risking user privacy.
As Myles Younger, Head of Innovation and Insights at U of Digital, recently pointed out in our data clean rooms resource guide, publishers must use these tools to succeed in driving real client value.
Ampersand is applying this same approach in CTV, enhancing audience targeting and measurement for its MVPD partners.
In advanced TV, data clean rooms enable advertisers and publishers to match user-level data without sharing raw information. This approach provides more precise audience insights while keeping consumers’ data protected.
We spoke with Ethan Heftman, CRO at Ampersand, about how the company’s unique position in the clean room ecosystem—representing the multiscreen inventory of major cable providers and offering viewership insights from 64 million homes—demonstrates how these solutions can bridge the gap between inventory placement and data-driven decision-making.
Andrew Byrd: How is Ampersand leveraging data clean rooms to enhance audience targeting and measurement capabilities for its MVPD partners? 
Ethan Heftman: Ampersand plays a crucial role in the Clean Room ecosystem. We are a publisher representing the multiscreen inventory of our owners, Comcast, Charter, Cox, and other affiliates, to place media and provide viewership insights.
Ampersand sits on 64 million homes of viewership insights that can be matched to our brand’s 1st and 3rd party audience. Our position within the cleanroom space echoes our value proposition of having the inventory to place media and the data to make the best decisions for our clients.
AB: Can you discuss the balance between gaining detailed audience insights and maintaining user privacy when using data clean rooms?
EH: To be blunt, There is no “balance”—privacy compliance and data safety are table stakes.
We don’t even begin the conversation without them, and the Clean Room technology enforces them. We will pull all the levers we can to create the most meaningful audience insights we can, but always with privacy at the forefront.
AB: How are data clean rooms helping to solve the challenge of fragmentation in advanced TV advertising?
EH: Cleanrooms provide a glimpse into many of the holistic dreams we believe our fragmented media universe so desperately needs. They allow you to see not only where your audiences are across screens, channels, and devices but, as importantly, how your media is performing on all of them. Cleanrooms are not only an audience targeting mechanism—they are also measurement tools.
Ab: With the proliferation of cleanroom solutions, some industry professionals worry about the potential for data silos and fragmentation. How can the industry work towards standardization and better integration of cleanroom technologies?
EH: I think a world where cleanrooms can coexist and speak with other cleanrooms would be a great world to live in. However, I want to make sure the industry takes advantage of what is available today. As stated above, cleanrooms can greatly help today’s challenges. If we get stuck dreaming about a better tomorrow, we won’t take advantage of today’s solutions.
AB: Can you share an example of how Ampersand has used data clean rooms to provide more granular insights or improve targeting for a specific campaign?
EH: We worked very closely with a leading pet food brand to build their cleanroom architecture, collaborating with our partners at LiveRamp and Numberly.
Within our cleanroom was an orchestra of Ampersand viewership data, client first and third-party data, and retailer data. The client was able to assess the entirety of their media investment and leverage Ampersand’s addressable capabilities to reach missed or under-exposed audiences.
By the end of our most recent campaign, the client found a 50% reduction in media waste while driving reach 40%, conversions by 17%, and a 3% increase in new buyers.
AB: Some critics argue that data clean rooms can be costly and require significant technical expertise to implement and manage. How do you respond to concerns about the scalability and accessibility of cleanroom solutions for smaller advertisers or publishers?
EH: I won’t sugarcoat it: setting up a cleanroom takes a lot of hard work. However, leaning on partnerships makes it more accessible.
You need to ensure you have all the proper data assets. If you can assemble the right data and, just as importantly, the right partnerships (e.g., LiveRamp, AWS, etc.), you will be well on your way. But it is definitely a journey. As our client put it, “Clean rooms have a tough beginning, a big messy middle, but in the end, it is all worth it.”
AB: Looking ahead, how do you envision data clean rooms evolving to enhance further audience insights and campaign performance in the TV advertising space?
EH: I think we’ve left the concept phase but are still in the adoption phase. It’s a big buzzword across all the conferences, but there are few real, tangible success stories. I would encourage brands to jump in. Once we have more use cases, we can better anticipate how to improve what is already a great resource for marketers.