Is There a Future for Media Measurement Currency? The Industry Weighs In.

The issue of cross media measurement currency (and by currency I mean a standard metric that can be used as a comparison point between companies and platforms) has been a hotly debated discussion for a while. Now, with the ever expanding access of various data points and the de-accreditation of Nielsen’s local and national TV measurement services, the pressure to come to terms with the state of measurement has never been more pronounced.

In surveying the industry, there are many differing opinions on the future of measurement currency and what it should be. Many agree that some generally accepted metrics and methodology is table stakes. Yet, even beyond that general opinion, there are many divergent views.

When I posed this issue to Research Wonks, a forum for people who work in media and advertising research, analytics and data science, the response was immediate, well considered and over whelming.

Media Currency Agreement - Optimists versus Pessimists

“Currency removes friction in the market … until it’s at odds with what the market needs to function smoothly,” explained Stephen DeMarco, Head of Business Development at Tubular Labs. “Adults 35 and younger spend more time watching social video content than they do linear TV.”

For Aaron Fetters, Head of Client Development at Truthset, the ability to craft a currency in the current media ecosystem is close to impossible. “There is no solution for true cross-platform measurement,” he admitted. “Fifty years ago, the idea that it makes more sense for one independent, neutral party to count and define audiences was understandable. There was one dominant form of media at the time, television. It was not so difficult to apply a single methodology and process to the collection and interpretation of data across all major media owners.”  Now, with media fragmentation across platforms and devices, “the effort to produce numbers which somewhat realistically report the total unique reach (and frequency of exposure) of either an ad campaign or a piece of content and they all come up short for a variety of reasons, largely out of the control of the measurement providers,” he noted.

Arguably the most pessimistic is Chris Squire, SVP Head of Data, Samba. “The outdated, legacy currency measurement barely scratches the surface of advertiser needs via proxy metrics that fall short of measuring the business outcomes that are instrumental to campaign ROI. As the industry approaches a critical inflection point to rethink how advertisers transact with each other, we are excited at the prospect of multiple currencies based on these business outcomes for true ROI insight.”

Media Currency Solutions – Considerations

The ever increasing opportunities to push content across platforms can lead to new and highly creative measurement adaptations while at the same time, pose further challenges.

 “There's a massive move from counting delivery in the form of GRPs to measuring outcomes, whether that's advertising's ability to grow brands, drive engagement or sales,” explained Anne Hunter, VP, Product Marketing, DISQO, because of fragmentation, speed of consumer change and direct to consumer as well as one-to-one marketing efforts.

For Senior Insights Consultant, Laura Chaibi, the ability to form closed loop selling can make the discussion of a currency irrelevant. “In other parts of the world, it is almost problematic when the publisher is also the bank in places like China. They see how much money you have, how you spend it and what you can afford. This is the ultimate closed loops selling – do you need a currency in this market?” she posited and added, “Amazon seem closer to full end to end closed loop selling more than any other platform / publisher (if you can call them that) in the USA that is selling media.”

Setting priorities in measurement solution is the view of Daniel Slotwiner, VP, Measurement, Insights and PMM, Gopuff. He would like to, “See more of a discussion about explicitly measuring ads versus content. I think both need to be measured, for sure, but for trading purposes I think it's time we leave content aside and focus on measuring ads (with some meta data about the context in which/on which they are viewed).”  

Conclusion

In my opinion, some form of standard, generally accepted baseline metric is important for comparison purposes across properties, but just like any wildly divergent industry of competing self -interests, to get all interested parties in agreement is probably a pipe dream. Should we keep the traditional status quo of Nielsen, despite its limitations? Do we migrate to a Comscore with its own set of limitations? Or do we venture into new parameters with another company, TBD? Perhaps a consortium of industry organizations can form a special committee to address measurement standards to either strengthen the current or form a new standard protocol.

For Jane Clarke, Managing Director, CIMM, “There doesn’t have to be one solution for a new currency, because different marketers have different needs and will use different datasets.  We just need common standards to verify ad exposures across media.  Those who provide ad exposure data need to be willing to have that data audited and accredited.” 

As a closing but important added consideration, Ben Tatta, President of Standard Media Index concluded, “It wasn't long ago when there was no debate regarding the currency or any viable alternative for measuring TV.  I suggest that we bifurcate, "measurement" from "currency."   Even if it takes time to transition to a more unified impressions-based currency that doesn't mean we can't change the basis by which we measure performance and outcomes.”        

Let the conversation continue….

This article first appeared in the Hocus Focus Newletter.