ADOTAT+ 🎥 Who is VideoAmp, and Why Should You Care?

A Founder Steps Down. Layoffs Roll In. But the $3B Measurement Challenger Isn’t Going Quietly.

Pesach Lattin (ADOTAT)
July 16, 2025

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A Founder Steps Down. Layoffs Roll In. But the $3B Measurement Challenger Isn’t Going Quietly.

🎥 Who is VideoAmp, and Why Should You Care?

Welcome to the measurement mutiny.
You’re watching the $70 billion TV advertising market get ripped from the cold, creaky hands of Nielsen—and VideoAmp is sharpening the knives.

On paper, they’re a tech-forward measurement company. In reality, they’re trying to rewrite the media currency script entirely—one deal, one dataset, and yes, one PowerPoint at a time. And they’re doing it while walking a tightrope between VC expectations and actual operational sanity.

But here’s where it gets fun:
Just when things looked up—record growth, huge clients, a $150 million Series G—the founder bailed, staff got slashed, and everything got messy. The kind of messy that usually gets papered over by press releases and LinkedIn posts about "new chapters."

So let’s do what no one else in the trade press will: look under the hood.

📍 The Premise

VideoAmp’s big swing?
Blow up Nielsen’s monopoly—and give the ad industry something it hasn’t had in decades: actual options.

They want to replace outdated GRPs with cross-platform, people-based measurement. Not just counting eyeballs, but showing impact. Not just impressions, but outcomes. Think of it as Nielsen, if it were built by engineers instead of 1970s broadcast dinosaurs.

This matters because TV measurement is the money. Get it wrong, and your media plan is toast. Get it right, and suddenly your budget works smarter—not harder.

🧠 The People

Founder Ross McCray was the guy who made VideoAmp happen—charismatic, founder-y, and endlessly available to agency leaders, CMOs, and reporters alike (yes, including us). When he stepped down in January 2024, he framed it as a natural transition. But… it wasn’t exactly that simple.

Peter Liguori stepped in as executive chairman—yes, that Liguori, the former top exec at Tribune, FX, and Discovery. Add to that a slate of Nielsen expats brought in to steady the ship, and you get the message:
🚨 This isn’t a startup anymore. It’s a grown-up trying to run with the big kids.

But what does it mean when your original visionary exits stage left right as the investors are asking where all the money went?

💰 The Pressure

Let’s talk headcount:
After raising $150 million in Series G, they laid off 10% of staff quietly, and then another 20% more just months later. That’s around 30% gone—not exactly the sign of a company printing money.

The Series G cash helped pay off some debt and keep the lights on, but behind the scenes, pressure was mounting. Investors wanted results. Faster growth. Better margins. Fewer slides and more answers.

And when the founder steps down, your president resigns, and you suddenly pivot hard toward “focus and profitability,” you know what that really means:
🔥 Something broke.

🧭 What’s Coming in Parts II–IV (ADOTAT+ Exclusive)

You think this was the juicy part? Oh, sweetie.

In the next three parts—available only for ADOTAT+ subscribers—we’re going deep into:

🧨 The inside story of Ross McCray’s resignation—what insiders told us, and why the founder may not be as “gone” as he seems.
⚖️ How VideoAmp is threading the needle between performance metrics and legacy media metrics—and who’s really buying it.
🧠 What agency holding companies actually think of VideoAmp’s “currency” claims (spoiler: they’re not all believers).
🚪IPO? Acquisition? Implosion? What the next 18 months look like—and who’s circling.

If you’ve ever been burned by bad metrics, miscounted impressions, or Nielsen’s inertia—this series is for you.

🪪 Want the real story?
Subscribe to ADOTAT+ to get the full series. No sugarcoating. No sponsor spin. Just the kind of industry reporting no one else will touch.

Stay Bold, Stay Curious, and Know More Than You Did Yesterday.

Editor, ADOTAT

🔮 What’s Next: This Isn’t a Hit Piece. It’s a Wake-Up Call.

Before someone pastes this into your agency Slack:
No, we’re not here to cancel VideoAmp.
We’re here to ask the only question that matters:What are you actually buying—and what fantasy are you being sold instead?

Everyone else is busy polishing decks. We’re flipping them over to read the fine print.

ADOTAT+ is for the buyers, founders, and CMOs who’ve had just enough “multi-currency momentum” and “clean room collaboration” shoved in their inbox.

Here’s what’s coming up:

📊 Coming Up in ADOTAT+ — The VideoAmp Files:

🎭 Currency Theater

Who's really using VideoAmp for currency—and who's faking it for optics? We mapped it. It’s messier than you think.

💸 Still Selling Media?

They say they’re not a DSP. We found signs they never stopped. Spoiler: some clients still get both.

🧬 The Advanced Audience Mirage

Great buzzword. Now let’s talk about how these segments are stitched, rented, and sometimes made of duct tape.

👀 AU Metric ≠ Their IP

Adelaide built it. VideoAmp is riding it. So who controls the scoreboard?

If you’re still relying on public panels and press releases to plan Q4, good luck.

If you want the unvarnished, uncomfortable, and actually useful truth?

👉 Subscribe to ADOTAT+.
We connect the dots they hope you don’t.

Stay Bold. Stay Curious. Know More Than You Did Yesterday.

👉 Join ADOTAT+.
We ask the questions you whisper behind closed doors.
We run the numbers no one else publishes.
And yeah—we’ll probably make you laugh uncomfortably along the way.

Stay Bold. Stay Curious. Know More Than You Did Yesterday.

Subscribe to ADOTAT+ to read the rest.

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ADOTAT+ 🎥 Who is VideoAmp, and Why Should You Care?

A Founder Steps Down. Layoffs Roll In. But the $3B Measurement Challenger Isn’t Going Quietly.

🎥 Who is VideoAmp, and Why Should You Care?

📍 The Premise

🧠 The People

💰 The Pressure

🧭 What’s Coming in Parts II–IV (ADOTAT+ Exclusive)

🔮 What’s Next: This Isn’t a Hit Piece. It’s a Wake-Up Call.

📊 Coming Up in ADOTAT+ — The VideoAmp Files:

🎭 Currency Theater

💸 Still Selling Media?

🧬 The Advanced Audience Mirage

👀 AU Metric ≠ Their IP

👉 Join ADOTAT+.We ask the questions you whisper behind closed doors.We run the numbers no one else publishes.And yeah—we’ll probably make you laugh uncomfortably along the way.

Subscribe to ADOTAT+ to read the rest.

👉 Join ADOTAT+.
We ask the questions you whisper behind closed doors.
We run the numbers no one else publishes.
And yeah—we’ll probably make you laugh uncomfortably along the way.

ADOTAT+ 🎥 Who is VideoAmp, and Why Should You Care?

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