Here is my interview. Please check the link for the full report.
egta: To start with audience measurement, what do you see
as the state of the industry at present?
Charlene
Weisler (CW): There are a number of challenges that
need to be solved, and I think that there are a lot of efforts to that end. In
my opinion, one of biggest challenges is coming up with a standardisable
message for cross-platform measurement. That would be capturing usage across
devices and across platforms in a way that the industry can use the data to
ascertain actual deliveries and help content providers maximise their revenue
by capturing every single bit of usage. And it’s easier said than done. Not
just because we’ve yet to agree what the standard measurement might be, because
there is a difference between digital and traditional television at this time. It’s
also having to take into account print, radio, outdoor and so on. There are a
number of components, a number of media points that touch the consumer every
day. And its growing, its morphing, its evolving, and it becomes almost a
moving target.
egta: Are we talking here about all touchpoints across
all media, not just focussing on bringing traditional television together with
video but rather the whole scope of how a marketer could reach a consumer?
CW: Absolutely. I know that we’re probably starting with the basics of
television and video and digital, but there’s a lot more. There is a lot of
fascinating and very usable data being collected beyond the home in digital
outdoor, and if you were a CNBC or an ESPN, those collections of data would be
very important for you. So, yes there are the basic, traditional media points,
but then there are also the new technologies and digital place-based media,
which should be brought in as far as possible into the standard measurement.
egta: You have companies, such as Nielsen in the US,
that measure TV viewing across the whole population and more recent solutions,
for example collecting return-path data, that are very good at capturing
particular types of viewers or ways of receiving TV with high granularity. Is
it possible to move towards a hybrid model where you can extrapolate some of
that rich data onto the wider population that’s not so well measured?
CW: You have the whole area of OTT; it’s not through the cable box but
it’s fragmented to a certain degree because it’s being collected through different
points. There’s a lot of extrapolation, you’ve mentioned Nielsen, which is
panel-based, and they extrapolate off of a panel sample of viewers, people in
homes. So, extrapolation has been part of the industry for its history for more
than sixty years, and I think there will still be some of that. But I also
think that with STB data and with other ways of collecting other big data sets
that can be merged with TV usage data, we’ll have a larger base with which to
make extrapolations.
egta: With the companies that are now entering the
space, with comScore going into TV with the acquisition of Rentrack for example,
do you think that there could be a fundamental change to the way television
itself is bought and sold, or is it more an icing-on-the-cake type of
evolution?
CW: I’m going to give my personal opinion on this. Age and gender is a
proxy, and I think a lot of people would agree that not all woman aged 18-49
are alike. In fact, not all women aged 18 years old are alike. I think it’s actually
based on lifestyle and a variety of other factors. The age and gender proxies
that we currently use to post against media buys have always been an easy way
to ascertain delivery and that the contract was delivered to the guarantee.
Will we move away that? It would make sense that we should, because of the
limitations of proxies, but I’m not sure we will do so fast enough!
Everybody’s talking about segmentation, and
it’s a terrific idea to have behavioural segments, so that the advertiser as
well as the content provider understands who is really consuming. Maybe age and
gender doesn’t matter if you have a certain product, you just want that brand’s
aficionados, no matter how old they are, no matter what gender they are. That
would work better for everybody, because viewers would receive content that
really speaks to them, no matter what their age or gender. Advertisers would reach
people who are truly enthusiastic about the product they are advertising, and
content providers can provide the best in entertainment for that special
interest group.
It’s just very hard to standardise that,
and I think if we want to try and maintain some kind of traditional standard
metrics by which the industry is measured, it’s a pretty tall order to come up
with a strict set of behavioural segments. If you look at one particular auto
manufacturer, for example, different models will have different behavioural
segments, so it’s not just at the individual advertiser level, but at the
individual product level.
egta: You mentioned that we probably won’t move fast
enough, what would you say are the potential risks of not moving beyond proxies
into audience segmentation and actually pushing that further forward?
CW: I would think the biggest risk is that you’re leaving money on the
table and that you’re not maximising the benefits of your budget or your
inventory.
If you look at the recent claims about the
role of traditional television, it still commands the majority of viewership.
Whether that will erode over time remains to be seen, but I think more in the
short term the risk is just not maximising what you already have. And, of
course, in not really being able to fine tune to a specific behavioural
segment. In a way one might think that that might accelerate viewership to
other platforms yet to be developed or in development now, because they will
target more effectively.
egta: Would you say that the barriers we currently
face are primarily technological limitations or legacy attitudes to doing
business?
CW: It’s a little bit of both, I think. It’s easy to stay within the traditional
forms of measurement; your five-year plans are based on delivery of age and
gender. And all of the systems that are being used by the agencies and the
networks are built towards delivering along those age and gender targets. So,
you have an immense job to transfer over in an automatic way to a new standard.
It’s a bit of the traditional mindset and it’s also a bit of the technological,
because you would have to modify the systems to take into account behavioural
segments in a standardised manner.
egta: I understand there are companies like Simulmedia
that are focussed on finding the value in inventory that could otherwise we
seen as undervalued or even worthless. Do you think that there is quite a rich mine
to be tapped there, or does this approach have its limitations?
CW: I think it’s incredibly rich. Part of the challenge with proxy
measurements, with age and gen
der, is when you’ve crossed that threshold from
aged 49 to aged 50 you are suddenly not very valuable to advertisers. And in
fact, if you read the results of studies, the wealth is being concentrated in
the 50+ cohort. And just because you’ve turned 50 doesn’t mean you don’t want
to buy a car or buy a house, a vacation home, or furnish it, or take a holiday.
So, I think that there is a lot more value that is not being mined for
advertisers, and for content providers, and it’s diminishing an audience that
could actually prove to be very fertile in terms of variety of different
purchasing behaviours.
It’s not just the audience that might be
undervalued, but there might also be inventory that is undervalued. Maybe you
should be buying in overnight, as opposed to prime time. So, I think that there
is a lot of value in looking beyond and using the technology and the data sets
that are becoming available to recognise value where we may not ascribe it
right now.
egta: Are you seeing different types of skillsets
coming into broadcasters and sales houses to be able to develop some of these
new approaches?
CW: I have always believed that there is an advantage in being creative,
strategic and innovative, I would like to think more people are being hired
with those skill sets. But I also think that they are very hard skill sets to
find and to develop. I believe that the best media companies are those that
encourage innovation and strategic thinking and will embrace challenges in
order to overcome them. There are companies that are very traditional, and then
there are those that want to expand beyond. And I think that those who hire to
expand beyond the traditional will be the ones that will be around in the
future and thrive.
egta: It's sometimes said that the US might be more
advanced in the way they are able to collect and use data; what advice would
you give to European broadcasters order to be able to maximise the
opportunities of data in the next five to ten years?
CW: It's interesting you should talk about US vs. Europe. I think that
Europe has something I wish we had in the United States, which would be a JIC
to help set policy. It’s something that I think the time has come in the US, so
that we can all be heard at the same time and share ideas and solutions, and I
think that’s where Europe might have an advantage over the US. And my advice
would be to work with the JIC that you have and start to develop protocols
based on leanings internationally, and the data that you have on hand where you
are.
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