iSpot is making its biggest product bet since modernizing TV ad measurement more than a decade ago.
The company today introduced iSpot SAGE, an agentic AI-powered platform designed to transform how brands and agencies extract value from cross-platform TV ad measurement, creative analytics, and attribution data. Years in development, SAGE promises to convert massive, historically siloed datasets into actionable insights—without the manual reporting grind that often slows campaign optimization.
This isn’t a generic AI overlay bolted onto dashboards. iSpot is positioning SAGE as a purpose-built intelligence layer grounded in its proprietary measurement data across the TV and streaming ecosystem.
Built on Heavy Compute—and Heavier Data
To power SAGE, iSpot invested in NVIDIA AI servers capable of processing significant workloads. The scale is substantial:
- Frame-by-frame metadata and storyline extraction from 2.5 million ads
- Analysis of approximately 100 million verbatim survey responses
- Marketplace coverage spanning 185 TV networks and 500 publishers
- Data from tens of thousands of brands
That compute infrastructure enables SAGE to analyze not just impressions and outcomes, but the actual creative DNA of ads—down to story arcs, characters, product placement, and thematic patterns.
Developed over two years with input from major brands including General Motors and Airbnb, SAGE is designed to synthesize creative, audience, and outcomes data into a unified, AI-powered workspace.
“The market has made it clear that a trusted model, grounded in expert data, is the only AI they want for their video investments,” said Miles Drayton, Global Director of Marketing Intelligence at General Motors. He emphasized the value of pairing AI productivity with a measurement partner that deeply understands its own data.
Agentic AI for TV Advertising
The term “agentic AI” is becoming a buzzword in enterprise software, but iSpot’s implementation focuses on specialized, task-driven agents rather than broad generative outputs.
SAGE deploys AI agents trained on iSpot’s proprietary advertising intelligence, aiming to eliminate the repetitive manual analysis that has historically burdened media teams.
According to Sean Muller, CEO and Founder of iSpot, the goal is to extend the company’s real-time video analytics leadership into the AI era.
“Now we are putting our massive proprietary intelligence to work in AI models that the industry can trust,” Muller said, framing SAGE as the next evolution in modernizing the TV marketplace.
Trust is a recurring theme. In a market flooded with general-purpose AI tools, advertisers are increasingly wary of black-box outputs disconnected from validated measurement data.
SAGE for Creative: The First Wave
The initial release focuses on iSpot SAGE for Creative, targeting one of the most opaque areas of advertising performance: the link between creative elements and measurable outcomes.
Rather than offering surface-level summaries, SAGE promises frame-by-frame creative analysis combined with persistent consumer survey feedback.
Key capabilities include:
Expert AI Agents
- Creative Insights Analyst: Diagnoses ad performance in real time.
- Creative Planning Assistant: Generates strategic recommendations based on competitive and historical data.
Workflow Automation (Beta)
- Automatic generation of data-driven creative briefs
- Script outlines and storyboard directions
- Faster transition from insight to production
Competitive Intelligence
- Multi-brand analysis
- Direct comparisons across competitor ads and themes
- Cross-category creative benchmarking
For marketers juggling tight timelines, compressing research, analysis, and planning into one automated workflow could meaningfully reduce production cycles.
From Storylines to Purchase Intent
What differentiates SAGE from broader AI creative tools is its reliance on proprietary ad-level measurement metrics.
The platform combines:
- AI-generated storyline and transcript analysis
- Thematic categorization into “themes” and “super-themes”
- Direct consumer feedback from survey data
- Performance metrics such as Likability, Attention, Watchability (Ace Scores), and Purchase Intent
By tagging creative components—characters, narrative arcs, product features—SAGE attempts to correlate specific elements with measurable outcomes.
For example, marketers could identify whether humor-driven narratives outperform product-centric storytelling within a high-value “Intender” audience segment. Or whether certain emotional tones correlate more strongly with purchase lift among specific demographics.
Kyler Blackmore, Media Director at Balance of Nature, highlighted the emotional resonance angle, noting that stronger customer connections remain advertising’s primary goal.
Precision Targeting at Enterprise Scale
Beyond creative diagnostics, SAGE supports granular audience slicing. Users can filter results by demographic groups and high-value “Intender” segments—consumers planning to purchase within a defined timeframe.
The platform is also built for enterprise collaboration, capable of analyzing large volumes of ads across multiple brands and campaigns simultaneously.
That scalability matters as streaming fragmentation continues to complicate cross-platform measurement. With linear TV, CTV, and digital video increasingly converging, advertisers need holistic views that transcend channel silos.
Competitive Context: The AI Arms Race in TV Measurement
The launch arrives as the TV and streaming ecosystem undergoes rapid transformation. Measurement providers are racing to incorporate AI into analytics workflows, but not all AI deployments are created equal.
Some platforms layer generative chat interfaces onto existing dashboards. Others attempt predictive optimization without deep proprietary datasets.
iSpot’s strategy hinges on a different thesis: AI is only as credible as the data foundation beneath it.
By grounding SAGE in 14 years of video ad analytics and real-time measurement infrastructure, the company aims to differentiate itself from generalist AI solutions that lack validated cross-platform datasets.
As brands demand incrementality, creative accountability, and cross-screen transparency, AI models trained on trusted measurement data could become table stakes rather than optional enhancements.
The Bottom Line
iSpot SAGE represents a strategic evolution from measurement provider to AI-powered intelligence platform.
By combining frame-level creative analysis, persistent survey feedback, audience segmentation, and outcome metrics into agent-driven workflows, iSpot is betting that advertisers want more than faster dashboards—they want trustworthy automation.
If SAGE delivers on its promise, it could reshape how brands connect creative strategy with measurable performance in an increasingly fragmented TV ecosystem.
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