The Expansion of Measurement from Creative to Children at The ARF Conference

We talk a lot about data in media measurement these days but often in the context of improving the current measurement of usage. The recent ARF Measurement Conference, held last week, has begun to expand the range of measureable actions and audiences through the use of not only data, but also through advancements like neuroscience.

Taking on the Issues

There are many challenges in the market. “Ad blocking and fraud are big issues,” explained Fuguitt. And there are also questions such as the sequencing of ad messages cross platform. What is the optimal order? What is the optimal customization of ad formats across platforms? “Context is vital as timing a message to the consumer at the right time in the right place is everything,” she stated. How do we take big data and translate into emotional advertising? “We are offering audience measurement survival kits, because creating creative is more important than counting. We are measuring consumers’ feet. How do we make their hearts beat faster? Brands are built in the brain. We have fine-tuned quantification to neuroscience. We need to build emotional connections with consumer with unbiased research that finds and identifies consumer needs. We can’t take years to answer these questions,” she concluded.

CIMM’s Initiative to Measure Kids and Teens Cross Platform

CIMM, The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, has embarked on an initiative to solve the challenge of measuring kids and teens cross platform. Hampered by legislative, data, compliance and sample challenges, “it is even more challenging to measure for kids and teens than adults and the young are the future,” explained Marc Normand, VP Research, Disney Media Sales & Marketing. Why would CIMM embark on a kids and teens measurement initiative? Normand explained, “Imagine that when you start a family and you are at the hospital when the baby is born, you actually see room full of 18 year olds. That's what was happening in TV measurement. We are missing all of the growth.” Jane Clarke, CEO and Managing Director CIMM put it all in context and said, “We want to measure everything's that is happening in the household and attribute it properly. We want to capture usage on all devices in the house and measure as passively as possible.”

The first steps in the study involve 500 households. Starting small was important. “The data analysis challenge is something that you cannot imagine,” she continued, “Streams coming in via the router is a firehose of data. Making sense of it and attaching and linking from the source and time code is unbelievably complex challenge. It makes sense to start small.” As far as next steps are concerned, Rolfe Swinton, Chief RealityMiner at Reality Mine, stated, “The first phase is done. Next we will scale up and remove the check in process. We want to be clear about who is exactly watching but make it passive.”

Measuring Creative Using Neuroscience

The ARF has embarked on an initiative to measure the efficacy of creative using neuroscience. Dr. Manuel Garcia-Garcia presented the latest “neuroscience methods that can identify those creative elements that help to make advertising more effective.” What he found was that a unified creative approach that is cross platform and customized to each platform are “neural pathways to great creative. You can amplify consumer engagement if you customize your creative for the platform and don't simply repurpose it,” he explained.

His work also found that two platforms are better than one and that optimal sequencing – whether a TV message should be first or not – depends on the focus of the campaign. “We generally recommend starting with TV because if you start first with digital and then go to TV, there is less impact. But starting first with mobile is better if you are customizing your campaign for mobile. Mobile before TV equals higher memory. If TV is preceded by different platform the neuroscience suggests that there is higher brand consideration.”

Elements within the creative can impact viewer response. Garcia-Garcia explained, “A TV ad that explains benefits of the product or service results in higher purchase intent. And adding digital to TV raised brand consideration up three times. Your creative strategy is key to optimizing impact. In short, the platform does not determine strategy. The strategy should determine platform.”

Conclusion

As with past ARF Measurement Conferences, one walks away with new insights. This year it seemed that measurement has expanded its boundaries with new datasets and research techniques. Gayle Fuguitt, President and CEO of the ARF summed it up, “We need to be fearlessly facing forward. Media is being redefined and consumers want media on their own terms. We need to serve it up to them as they want it.” The time is now to take bold steps.




This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com