Barometer

Barometer is a marketing data and analytics platform that provides brand safety and contextual targeting solutions for digital audio advertising. Leveraging AI algorithms and natural language processing (NLP), it analyzes podcast content to determine sentiment and relevance. Its flagship product, the Brand Integrity Cloud, includes a media planning platform, allowing advertisers to assess content scores from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and sentiment scores from host intelligence. Additionally, Barometer offers a contextual targeting solution that categorizes podcasts using contextual signals based on the Internet Advertising Bureau's (IAB) content taxonomy.

Barometer claims to provide brand safety scores and contextual classifications specifically for podcasts that are part of its publisher network or have a public RSS feed. This approach is designed to address concerns about third-party tech vendors scraping and selling intellectual property as contextual segments to advertisers.

Key customers and partnerships 

In March 2022, the company collaborated with ad agency Oxford Road to create a brand safety tool for ad buyers, with Oxford Road being one of the launch partners for Barometer's brand safety solution. It has also established partnerships with various publisher networks, including Katz Digital and Gemini XIII. Additionally, it has formed partnerships with demand-side ad platforms (DSP), such as Audiohook, Gumball, and The Trade Desk. 

Funding and financials 

In April 2023, the company raised USD 2.25 million in a seed funding round co-led by Knoll Ventures, BDMI, and HearstLab. It planned to use the funds to expand its direct sales and engineering teams as well as develop more partnerships with ad agencies and audio specialist DSPs. The company also aimed to improve its platform by adding more contextual targeting functionality and campaign personalization, make its brand integrity and contextual signals available in the bidstream, expand its publisher network, and expand its global reach by developing its foreign-language parsing capabilities.