In the past three months—though in progress for years (see the Octopus deal in 2022)—T-Mobile has aggressively expanded its adtech footprint, moving well beyond its core telecom business. Today, the company’s adtech division, T-Ads, announced a $175 million all-cash acquisition of UK-based adtech firm Blis and confirmed the completion of its acquisition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) leader Vistar Media.
“Acquiring Vistar Media and Blis marks a significant step forward in T-Mobile’s strategy to create truly transformative advertising solutions that are built by marketers for marketers,” said JP Colaco, SVP and Chief T-Ads Officer. “Advertising is at its best when it cultivates deeper, authentic connections between brands and consumers. With the addition of Vistar and Blis, T-Mobile has an incredible opportunity to deliver this experience along the customer journey with privacy-centric solutions that drive targeted, measurable outcomes.”
Blis offers what it describes as a privacy-focused platform for campaign planning, buying, and measurement, available as a managed service or self-serve. Instead of relying on cookies, Blis builds audience profiles by combining geographic data with socio-economic, demographic, and spending data, among other signals. This “first-party movement data,” sourced directly from customers, forms the core of its services.
Blis applies AI to this data for targeting, identifying patterns across locations, contexts, and content. For measurement, it segments audiences into geography-based A/B testing groups, making direct performance comparisons possible. (If any of what we just said doesn’t make sense, Blis/T-Ads, DM us.)
According to the announcement press release, “Blis will bolster [our] ability to deliver more addressable… advertising with future-proof, cookie-less technology and targeting capabilities, enhancing T-Mobile’s own marketing efforts and offering a comprehensive, privacy-centric solution for other brands.” T-Mobile also highlighted the broader omnichannel opportunity, particularly with the Vistar Media deal expanding its DOOH capabilities. “By directly connecting advertisers to ad inventory across any screen, the Blis platform” is “making the company’s campaigns more efficient and empowering advertisers to reach more consumers in a fragmented advertising landscape.”
Digiday first reported the T-Ads and Blis deal, with a story yesterday that predicted the acquisition. Give them their flowers, please, and check out the story here.
Why This Matters:
Are telecom companies making a comeback in adtech? It’s worth considering, especially as more retailers talk up and show off the value of entering the adtech space.
Experts React:
Here are some of the most interesting posts on X about the deal:
Our Take:
Is anyone else surprised that T-Mobile is acquiring a company focused on “geo data”? That space has often been tricky from a regulatory standpoint. Ericsson and its adtech division, Emodo, for example, seemed to struggle to make a similar model work. Blis likely understands these challenges, which is why it positions its geo data tech as privacy-friendly rather than privacy-intrusive. (The word privacy is mentioned seven times in the deal’s press release.)
Also, the year of M&A continues. The only people more tired than the adtech reporters and journalists are the bankers. Who’s next?
