NEW YORK, June 15, 2017 – Today xAd, a pioneer in the location technology space, has rebranded as GroundTruth. The new name and positioning reflect the business’ evolution from a company focused on the advertising industry to a company empowering businesses through media and data.
Since 2009, GroundTruth has fast become the leader in its industry thanks to its ability to build off real moments with precise and accurate data. The rebrand comes at the right time for the company, which has seen tremendous growth over the last year alone. Today, the company operates in 21 countries and sees two out of three people who own a smartphone in the U.S., as well as over one billion physical visits to places globally each month, an increase of 80x from the year prior.
This growth is what’s moving the company to expand from an advertising supplier to one that will power decisions across a variety of industries and pillars, whether it’s through media, small-medium sized businesses, channel partnerships, measurement or data. GroundTruth has already begun to take these next steps and currently advises companies on how to use its foot traffic insights to make more strategic investments. Examples range from helping retail brands with store planning to predicting people’s routes in order to maximize billboard viewership.
“The name xAd was too limiting for our business,” said Dipanshu “D” Sharma, CEO of GroundTruth. “The power of location data doesn’t have to be limited to media and can be realized in other applications from real estate, traffic and out-of-home planning to layering in weather to determine its impact on visits, something we recognized after acquiring WeatherBug. As GroundTruth, we’re able to realize our ambitions beyond media.”
The rebrand was developed in partnership with global brand strategy firm, Siegel+Gale and comes with a complete brand transformation, including a new name, visual identity, and brand position: Build off something real.
“What we’ve found is that location goes far beyond helping to increase sales or store visits through ads. It can actually move markets, drive innovation and even save lives,” said Monica Ho, CMO of GroundTruth. “The rebrand represents our desire to strip away the complexity around our technology to clearly demonstrate how people across many industries can benefit from these services.”
As part of its commitment to accuracy, GroundTruth commissioned InfoScout, a third-party insights company built from the largest U.S. purchase panel to verify the precision and coverage of its data at select retailers. According to the independent survey based on a representative U.S. panel, GroundTruth is able to interpret physical location with more than a 90% accuracy rate.¹
GroundTruth currently partners with the world’s leading brands and media companies, including McDonald’s, Timberland, OUTFRONT Media, iHeartMedia and Univision, as well as four of the top agency holding companies.
¹The Accuracy Audit analyzed 10,000 matched panelists who shopped at a sample of key retailers, consistently submitted receipts to InfoScout, and used location-based services via GroundTruth.