The Value of Conversion Guarantees. A+E’s Peter Olsen Reports Incremental Income Based on Their Attribution Model.

The recent A+E Networks announcement about the significant incremental revenue increase it garnered with its outcome based conversion guarantees to advertisers has sparked greater interest in the value of attribution-based sales for the 2018 upfront.  

“A+E Networks has taken a clear leadership position in embracing attribution reporting and truly highlighting the power of TV to drive results for marketers," said John Hoctor, CEO of Data Plus Math whose company is working closely with A+E to track and measure the results. 

Peter Olsen, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks stated, “We truly believe in outcomes as a game changer for the industry.  Everything we have done for decades has been creating proxies for what really matters – did my marketing campaign drive business outcomes.  Thus, we are taking the long view on this and didn’t expect massive changes in year one.  We are very pleased with the dialogue we are having with clients and agencies on this front.”

Olsen spoke at length about what this type of guarantee has done to service clients and spur their ad sales: 

Weisler: What was the reaction from the clients?

Olsen: They are just happy that we are listening and taking action on what really matter most to them and that’s providing true ROI on their media investments.

Weisler: What are the next steps to expand this?

Olsen: We’ve seen terrific momentum around our Audience-Based Solutions (Precision/Performance) since we announced outcome-based guarantees last spring. We’ll continue to partner with dynamic measurement companies like Data+Math and we are expanding the A+E Network’s team, which is now headed by Ethan Heftman, Vice President of Audience-Based Solutions, so we can keep up with marketplace demands. It’s an exciting time for us and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring to market this offering that we believe will drive our partners’ businesses forward.  There are a few additional announcements that will be coming out around the ANA on what comes next.

Weisler: Which industries were included in this study?

Olsen: We can’t get too specific due to client confidentiality, but these deals represent marketers within the auto and QSR categories among others.

Weisler: Were the results guaranteed and if so, what was the basis of the guarantee?

Olsen: The overall deals are a blend of traditional metrics (age/sex); strategic target guarantees and a portion of each deal is guaranteed on a business outcome.  We need to create benchmarks and then guarantee a lift off of that benchmark – which all takes some time.

Weisler: Were there differences by category or any surprises?

Olsen: Absolutely there are differences! And there should be. The business metrics for an auto advertiser are vastly different than those of a QSR. The biggest surprise we saw was that, regardless of the category, there’s an eagerness and openness among our partners to take a step in this direction. In each instance it’s been a collaborative effort from the start. As our partners on board more data sets, we believe ultimately this offering will be available for virtually all categories.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillag

A+E Proves the Ability to Measure Multi-Touch Attribution

Attribution is getting much closer to a standardizable measurement capability with the announcement by Data Plus Math of The Attribution Council (previously known as Thor). Nine broadcast and cable networks have signed on so far and testing has begun. 

While the name may still evolve, one network that has made solid strides in quantifying attribution for advertisers using this protocol is A+E Networks. Marcela Tabares, Senior Vice President, Strategic Insights, Revenue, and David Ernst, Vice President, Advanced Television & Digital Analytics (pictured above), presented an initial test campaign to MediaVillage, showing proof of the efficacy of television as a driver of all attributes of the consumer journey to purchase.

The Issue and Opportunity with TV
Despite the growing range of device and viewing options, television remains the dominant form of content consumption. "Traditional TV impacts video viewing," noted Tabares. "TV's average weekly reach of all adults is 88%. Americans spend a significant amount of time with television 1911 hours, which is 80 days of their lives in an average year."

But TV doesn't always get the love. "Clients know TV works but it has lost its cool factor," explained Brian Joyce, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks. Despite its perception challenge compared to digital, television is not only very relevant but pivotal to an ad campaign to drive higher emotional connection, greater attention and stronger ad recall and purchase intent among viewers. Previous studies by the Council for Research Excellence on attention to ads, by the ARF on the kicker effect of TV and by the IAB on cross media effectiveness attest to TV's strong connection to consumers. Now, through the use of Data Plus Math, TV's attributional strength to drive metrics across the purchase funnel can not only be measured and quantified, it can also be compared and standardized.

A+E results show that the inclusion of television in a buy, "lifts in brand familiarity, purchase intent, brand opinion and recommendation increases awareness, attention and engagement; enhances the brand effect drives effectiveness of other media, and motivates consumers to action and brand sales," concluded Tabares.

Proving Television's Attribution Prowess
The main purpose of A+E's study was to confirm television's attribution strength. "Many previous attribution models are based on the last click," noted Ernst. "But this distorts the way effectiveness is judged. TV can drive sales on its own." The study in multi-touch attribution offers full transparency and proof of performance and therefore a fairer method of measurement. Unlike digital, which grades its own homework, this is a way for TV networks to join with an independent organization and work with all cable and broadcast participants to arrive at one measure across multiple partners. Data Plus Math also enables customization based on advertiser relationships and certain first and third-party datasets.

"We are very interested in talking to clients that have grown up in a digital-only marketing environment," explained Peter Olsen, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks. "Perhaps they have trepidation with regard to getting into the TV market. We aim to become a first TV partner using this attribution model to help prove the effectiveness of their investment."

How it Works
According to Ernst, Data Plus Math attribution uses viewing data through Vizio, mapping data with Acxiom or Experian to measure outcomes including the digital conversation, store visits and actual purchases using geolocation and actual first and third party data. All of that is "passively collected using ACR and is anonymized so there is no personally identifiable information," he noted. "Results are then matched on a one-to-one basis using Smart TV and STB data for 10 million plus units," he added, which enables analysis on a network, program, genre and network by daypart levels. In fact, this also allows advertisers to measure the true impact of their creative by day of the week and how that impacts the overall campaign.

The example shown for a quick service restaurant revealed the best advertising message fit to drive more consumers into the store. In this case, television drove incremental store traffic by over seven percent among those that had seen ads for the brand, while response among those viewing A+E Networks was even higher. The analysis was able to prove that incremental traffic was driven more on certain days (Thursday and Friday) and in specific dayparts (weekend and late night). The advertiser is able to then retool their marketing plan to retarget the most responsive viewers in the next planning cycle taking advantage of the effectiveness of A+E.

"We want to see more case studies to discern the patterns across categories and executions and then make recommendations in real time in confidence," Tabares said. "In addition, we want to look at the overall effect of one network over another and dig deeper to find differences by day of week or time periods." The future will also bring more digital ethnography into the analysis to provide more consumer behavioral insights to the impressions that Data Plus Math delivers.

"We know television advertising works better than any other medium in driving not just upper funnel metrics like awareness but lower funnel metrics as well," noted Olsen. "Now, we finally have a tool that can prove it. We are thrilled to be rolling this out in this Upfront market and look forward to partnering with clients that are interested in this space. Clients are being pressed to provide more proof that every penny spent in marketing drives specific outcomes. We have listened, and we believe this product helps give them what they need to keep premium video as the centerpiece of their marketing plans."

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com