CIMM Continues to Pave the Way for Cross Platform Measurement

CIMM, The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, hosted its 5^th Annual Cross Platform Media Measurement and Data Summit last week. The organization has accomplished a lot in the past five years. 

Jane Clarke, CEO and Managing Director, outlined CIMM’s mission which is to “foster innovation in cross platform measurement, bring more granular measurement to TV and look at measurement in new ways. We pilot test new measurement tools to meet the needs of users. It has been a multi-year effort of working together to drive change in media measurement.” 

Goals and Actions For Cross Platform Measurement

CIMM seeks to establish a clear understanding of consumer centric usage across all platforms, to measure exposure by pilot testing touchpoints and to evaluate the results. “Enriching media data quality is the key to ROI and data quality is increasingly important for enhancing the buying currency. CIMM is advocating for more passive measurement at scale, linking census based with shopping behavior,” Clarke stated as she announced a Measurement Manifesto that has three goals and eight actions.

The “must haves” for cross platform media measurement are:

      

       --Accurate representation of cross device universe at scale to use advanced audience segments.

Ø        --An efficient supply chain to real time, with timing comparable to digital.

Ø        --Comparable metrics across platforms with a standard video to average minute to measure ads.

The Actions taken to achieve these goals are:

Ø        -- Embrace competition.

Ø       --  MRC standards.

Ø       --    Move beyond panels, embrace big data and move to census measurements in TV and digital.

Ø       --  Bring more return path data to market for planning. Nationally represent SmartTV and STB data.

Ø       --Measure Out of Home in the ratings. Measure across all possible media points.

Ø       --  Measure both households and individuals.

Ø        -- Implement standardized metadata for content and ads.

Ø       --Demand transparency from 3rd party data companies, linking IDs across devices and channels.

The Impact of Data

Artie Bulgrin, SVP Global Research & Analytics, ESPN, moderated the first panel on Cross Media and Data and asked his panel whether we will see a move away from age and gender demos in buying and selling media across platforms. Michael Strober, in a new role as EVP Client Strategy and Ad Innovation, Turner, replied, “Currently there is too much of the business activating on age and gender.” But, he added, “We are working towards a variety of measurements.” Michael Piner, SVP Investment, MAGNA GLOBAL, was more open to change and said, “We are working towards it. If we can use and overlay third party data, then we don't need (to buy on) age and gender.”

Data rules, according to the panel, whether first or third party. Benjamin Jankowski, Group Head, Global Media, MasterCard, explained, “We have our own data which drives quantitative actions. We can create segments - not individuals because of privacy. The qualitative side is more ahead of the curve. We use social listening to know people's interests.” Piner said, “We use a tremendous amount of big data, are incorporating it into the data stack and ingesting it into our planning system.”

Progress on Cross Platform Measurement

Alan Wurtzel, President, Research & Media Development moderated a panel of end users. When asked how they were using the data to facilitate cross platform measurement, Don Robert, EVP Research and Analytics, A+E Networks spoke of his company’s recent efforts. “We are monetizing cross platform effectively by examining how each platform looks when you take out the commercial units. We are looking at program impressions by duration using currency data based on impressions,” he explained.

However, data delivery lag is a challenge for an industry used to overnight ratings. Ed Gaffney, Managing Partner, Director of Tactical Planning, GroupM explained, “While problems can be solved by research and good quality data, there also needs to be good velocity. The data can’t be six months old. We need it now so we can see what lift we get.”  This means that, for the foreseeable future, the industry is expected to stick with the usual data suspects for upfront buying.  “Nielsen is currency,” Gaffney said, “That is where we are going to do business. We work with comScore (for digital) and Nielsen (for TV).” And yet it is still an open field for more competition In the future. “No one can crack it to everyone's satisfaction,” stated Gaffney, “We will spend the money (for more services). We won’t be happy about it but we will spend the money.”

Participate!

Collaboration is key and George Ivie, Executive Director and CEO, Media Ratings Council is leading the charge. “Accreditation is a difficult road,” he admits, “but we hope to be done with a cross media standard by the end of 2016.” The MRC standard to follow is the duration-weighted viewable impression filtered for non-fraudulent, valid, human traffic.

The most important thing is for all of us in all areas of the industry is to get involved and help facilitate standardize-able measurement solutions. Ivie concluded with a plea. “Participate!” he said.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

comScores’ Big Acquisition of Rentrak Shifts Measurement’s Tectonic Plates

I have to admit that I was surprised by the news that comScore was acquiring Rentrak. While I expected more consolidation in the media measurement space, I didn't envision that it would be two big players joining forces but rather the continued ingestion of smaller companies by larger companies. But this acquisition is not only a brilliant tactical move, it is also strategic. This might finally move analytics and insights in such a way that the industry shifts from the proxy metric of age and gender and into a more standardize-able cross platform measurement.

The news has caused the otherwise politic and polite “non-competition” between Nielsen and Rentrak to publicly flare up during a panel at Advertising Week. This indicates to me that the measurement space is receiving a boost of attention beyond the usual suspects and even perhaps a needed ‘kick in the pants’ to get long-planned initiatives that are ‘still in the development stage’ out into the industry. I believe that competition is good and even welcomed in the audience measurement space today. It encourages evolution, fresh thinking and experimentation in an industry that is undergoing massive transformation with new challenges (and opportunities) to capture media usage behavior.

The Players

Serge Matta, CEO comScore and Bill Livek, CEO Rentrak released a joint statement in a press release saying, “The time has come to build this measurement system of the present and future, and that’s what the merger of comScore and Rentrak will allow us to do.” At the Rentrak Investors Day meeting this past Thursday, October 01, 2015 Livek announced that the joint efforts of comScore and Rentrak “brings two companies together with complementary assets – products, data, people and innovation. This helps us define the future of measurement.”

Upon the news, Nielsen released an official statement to all media outlets which said, "Nielsen has the only Total Audience measurement, comparable across all screens. All of our data is fully representative of the U.S. population, and we deliver truly independent measurement. There are myriad analytics options for the media industry, but Nielsen’s focus is on delivering the actual currency ratings data used for trading billions of dollars in advertising. This requires superior quality, industrial-strength delivery, and gold-standard audited processes and methods."

Industry Reactions

The reactions from the industry to the acquisition ran the gamut from elated to resigned. Some who did not want to be quoted for attribution felt that “despite the perceived benefit to the industry of an emerging Nielsen competitor and possible currency expansion to include consumer demos, from a methodological soundness perspective, it's a pretty unholy alliance.” 

But there were many who saw the acquisition as the opportunity for healthy competition and continued industry innovation. Here are a few quotes spanning networks, agencies, measurement companies and organizations:

Geri Wang, President ABC Sales said: “We support all industry initiatives that get us closer to a true cross-platform measurement solution. Increased resources and healthy competition are always positive things and the expertise of these two firms has great potential. We look forward to continuing and growing our relationship with this new enterprise." 

Alan Wurtzel, President of Research and Media Development for NBC Universal said, "Competition in the measurement space offers the opportunity to foster greater innovation among all the players. The introduction of a new measurement service which would offer a different way to crack the cross-platform code would be enormously beneficial to the entire media industry. It can't come too soon."

Colleen Fahey Rush, EVP, Chief Research Officer, Viacom said, "This merger paves the way for innovation in cross platform measurement to capture how audiences are consuming content on every screen and platform."

Howard Shimmel Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc said, “We are excited about the announcement and believe that competition is great and sorely needed. In the past, we have been vocal in our belief that there isn’t any one company that solves all of this. Like many in the industry with diverse portfolios, we need two different cross platform measurements – for a network like CNN, we need to accurately measure total reach across all platforms, including TV, Digital and Mobile. comScore offers that now and our hope is that the product gets better with the Rentrak data. But we still need the ability to see individual shows like “The Last Ship” on TNT and how they perform in live, DVR, C3, VOD, SVOD, which seems to be the focus of the Nielsen Total Audience initiative. Each product has a strength applicable to our business and it may be that we use both services for our insights and sales needs.” 

Dave Morgan, CEO and founder of Simulmedia said, “The comScore/Rentrak merger is certainly good for both of those companies. They gain scale and have a product set that complements each other well. The combined company will get more attention and grow faster than they could have on their own. It’s also good for Nielsen. The merged companies bring more attention into the marketing data and media measurement space and Nielsen will now get credit for the work that they've been doing in cross-platform that the market hasn't noticed. Plus, having a noisier comScore/Rentrak around will give Nielsen more firepower to push back on legacy media clients who may have slowed down some of their attempts to drive more innovation in the past.

Andy Brown, CEO and Chairman, Kantar Media said, “Separately both comScore and Rentrak are good partners in the US and globally. I think the merger of the two companies will only accelerate our current initiatives”  

Brad Adgate, SVP, Research Horizon Media “I think this will be the biggest challenge to Nielsen since AGB rolled out their People Meter sample nearly 30 years ago.” 

Jane Clarke, CEO, Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) said, “CIMM congratulates comScore and Rentrak on their announced merger which will help bring needed competition into the field of cross-platform audience measurement. This area is undergoing significant pressure to innovate in response to quickly evolving consumer content consumption habits.  The proliferation of available measurement options will help innovation.  But at the same time, we cannot have a fractured approach to measurement.  While the technology that companies such as the combined comScore and Rentrak will bring to cross-platform measurement are greatly needed, it is still the cooperation and coordination of our industry that will enable effective measurement systems to be adopted.  CIMM, as the industry’s R&D body to advance cross platform measurement, was created to help foster that communication and cooperation so collectively we can address the needs and challenges that await the industry through a unified approach.”

George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director at Media Rating Council said, “I congratulate both organizations and wish them well. My hope is that comScore/Rentrak will continue to pursue accreditation of their existing products which remain very important, and that they will submit whatever cross-platform products they develop to the MRC process timely.  Project Blueprint (comScore’s initial cross platform measurement project) for example was not submitted to MRC, and there is a clear need to audit/accredit these types of new methods. Notably, the new combined entity clearly has a "big data" heritage but I caution about generalizing all of their data assets as "census."  Some sources are census, such as tag-based impression records (these require other actions such as IVT filtration), but others are not census and require specialized adjustments.”

Gayle Fuguitt, CEO & President ARF said: “We at the ARF issued a measurement mandate over a year ago, challenging the industry to deliver common GRP and ROI Metrics.  A valuable advancement is to see industry leaders like Comscore and Rentrak merge to connect their measurement onto one data management platform instead of relying on advertisers to stitch it together. We know that the fastest growing media are the least well measured today, especially mobile.  Further advancements are needed now in mobile measurement and measurement precision across the board for true GRP and ROI metrics for speed to decisions.”

Conclusion

I think that as an industry we should welcome this new paradigm of Nielsen as established measurement of television now getting into digital and a cross platform service versus comScore/Rentrak as established measurement of digital with TV measurement capabilities via STBs and a cross platform service. May the best solution become the standard!

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

CIMM Presents Cross Platform Measurement Solutions

There has never been a better time to explore solutions for cross platform measurement. New technological advancements have been embraced by content consumers and now in 2014, we mark the first year that we have cross platform unduplicated reach and frequency measurement solutions currently being tested. We are not at the currency stage yet but we are certainly taking the first steps.

Credit for these advancements includes measurement companies such as comScore and Nielsen, efforts from networks like ESPN, NBCU and Turner and the industry-wide effort of The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) which has focused on this issue since its inception in 2009.

CIMM’s Managing Director Jane Clarke noted, “The progress towards an open standard of cross-platform measurement made in 2014 is truly encouraging. It’s wonderful to see the industry testing, enhancing and ultimately embracing these initiatives and that CIMM’s mandate of cultivating projects that advance the discussion around these technologies has been fruitful thus far.  I expect the progress to continue and am eager to see a viable cross-platform measurement solution in the near future.” 

I moderated a panel at the recent CIMM Cross-Platform Media Measurement Summit that explored four differentiated cross platform measurement solutions:

Ø  CIMM and ESPN’s work with comScore’s Project Blueprint which brings five separate data sources together to measure simultaneous usage and de-duped reach for video, audio and text. Phase 1 was pioneered by partner ESPN and phase 2 in partnership with CIMM.  The next step is to expand Blueprint from custom study to a standard practice.

Ø  NBCU’s single source approach for measuring the recent Olympics at Sochi with a Day in the Life for three target segmentations – Millennials, Women and Alphaboomers.

Ø  CNN’s All Screen study uses custom data integration linking Nielsen cross platform data and internal digital data.

Ø  Nielsen’s roadmap for cross platform ratings that addresses the what, why, and how of extending their Ratings service to measure across platforms. 

These four solutions all approach cross platform measurement from different angles using different methodologies and data sources. And yet each approach offers a unique and illuminating way to combine data across platforms. A chart which compares all these solutions can be found on the CIMM website.

Some are poised for a fuller industry roll-out such as Project Blueprint. Blueprint sponsor Artie Bulgrin of ESPN says “We have a working measurement system that now needs to be vetted and tested by the industry, first by CIMM members as part of the phase two test.  Blueprint will evolve further and ultimately the MRC will review. Right now the first priority is establishing industry consensus.”

ComScore’s Manish Bhatia adds, “Blueprint’s cross-platform media consumption view combines single source, passive, persons' level measurement system with census level.  We are pleased with the support and guidance from the industry and look to provide fast, relevant insights on an ongoing, syndicated basis.” 

Other solutions like NBCU’s Day In the Life approach may not be easily scalable but it offers an ethnographic look at viewer behavior. Others, using Nielsen’s ratings, can help companies track back to industry standard metrics. Such is CNN All Screen where Turner’s Howard Shimmel anticipates that “Nielsen offers a syndicated service that combines TV in home and out of home data, so the data gets absorbed in agency buying and planning tools.” Nielsen has its own set of priorities according to Kelly Abcarian. "Right now our key areas of focus are on supporting all the clients implementing the Nielsen SDK with their video players to enable cross platform GRPs, and engaging the MRC on key accreditation efforts for these important expansions of our already accredited solutions."

What are the next steps that need to be taken for cross platform measurement, taking into account ingrained industry challenges? “My dream would be for all relevant parties to meet with CIMM to identify the best solution for the industry. No one provider can solve what the market needs, and it will only be through cooperation of various providers, “says Shimmel who adds, “The biggest challenge is companies who believe they can provide an integrated solution themselves.”

What the CIMM initiative proves is that when the industry shares knowledge and works collaboratively, it is possible to find several excellent solutions to challenging problems.