The Increasing Role of Data in Strategy in a Post-COVID World

Who could have imagined several years ago that data would play such a pivotal role in our industry? Today those companies poised to succeed in the media ecosystem must have an understanding of data and how it can best be used to inform decisions. 

At the recent 4As StratFest, a panel moderated by Raig Adolfo, Chief Strategy Officer at 360i discussed the increasing role of data in a post-pandemic world. Panelists included  Jennifer Clark, Brand Experience Practice Lead, Dentsu, E.T Franklin, President, Global Strategy and Cultural Fluency, Spark Foundry and Jonathan  Ricard, Senior Vice President, Resonate.

The Creative and Data Dynamic

One of the biggest trends is that data is making its way into all forms of decision-making elements, including creative. “One thing many people are grappling with is striking the right balance between creative intuition and data intelligence. Sometimes these elements are one and the same and sometimes they contrast and conflict,” began Adolfo who added, “The future is when these two side work symbiotically.”

How can the ephemeral, artistic aspects of media coincide with the structural quantitative aspects of data?  For Franklin, there is no dichotomy. Data is vital and has created a dynamic where, “Intuition is supported and informed by data.” She explained that, “In our industry we know that data is critical. We have to be able to understand how to size. We have to understand where the trends and the information are going and where are the opportunities and challenges are. Data helps clarify those things for us in ways that are precise and allow us to solve for things that are very specific and clear.” But balance is vital in the decision-making process. She warned that there is the risk of having, “an over-reliance on big data. It was all about the data telling us where we needed to go and what we needed to do.” A balance needs to be achieved.

Applications of Data to Inform Creative

When it comes to creativity and data, one can inform the other but each needs to be valued in its own space. “There is a concept of data-driven authenticity,” noted Ricard. “You are looking for facts. You are looking for insights that drive the ability to have an authentic conversation.” He believes that this approach has to drive the creative. “We could say ‘I think this is important’ shaped by our individual lens or perceptions. You have to validate that,” he explained, through data. “There has to be a data-driven approach to it.”

But for Clark, “Creativity should not be stifled by data. Data can be the foundation of a great idea but it typically serves as the foundation.” Sometimes it leads the effort as in Spotify where the data leads the creativity, “but that is rare,” she explained. “Often it is taking a human insight and amplifying it. You have to find that nugget that feels right and build on top of that. That’s when you will not break that creativity.”

Examples of the Value of Data

Clark described an Oreo campaign where one morsel of data revealed and informed the entire campaign narrative. “Data can be very small,” Clark noted, “One of my favorite campaigns was the Oreo Vote. The Oreo campaign started with a tweet which was ‘Who Will Save the Oreos?’ which was a small, tiny piece of data that someone picked up on and sent, ‘Wow this is interesting’  and started to look at the other data that the community was saying and built it out to a campaign.”

Franklin, when looking at data, strives to find what she called, “the sparks. You’ve got all of this information but what is sparking something you didn’t think about or a feeling of curiosity and make you say, ‘hmm’. And the other thing I think about with data is, where is the humanity? ” Make the explanation of data simple and understandable, “as if you are talking to your Grandma.”

Don’t rely on a sample-of-one to forge your insights. “We are all going into this work with our own lens and biases,” stated Clark, “You can get caught up in what you as planners think is the truth without examining what other people outside of the universe of what we do are thinking, saying and doing.” In talking to real people, for example, she was able to learn that consumers confused electronic vehicles with self-driving vehicles. It was by only talking to consumers that this important insight was revealed.

The Difference Between Data and Insights

“In any piece of data, if you can’t answer the ‘so what?’ then you probably don’t have an insight,” explained Ricard. “It’s interesting today to be thinking about persuadable audiences in what we think of as media bubbles.” The question is – how do you find the people within these media bubbles that you can persuade? “We know this population isn’t homogenous but we don’t know necessarily how to reach them. Data might be all those things like demographics, ethnicity, media consumption but that doesn’t necessarily indicate what they care about. That doesn’t give you that human element that is going to spark change.” You have to go from an understanding of facts (the data) to a fuller understanding of motivations and elements of persuasion (the insights). “A powerful, authentic response,” he concluded, “that could be driven by intuition.”

Conclusion

The conclusion through the panel discussion was, don’t be scared of data. “Data can feel and sound intimidating,” Clark admitted, “But think of everything around you is data. All of these inputs. Don’t get caught in needing secret big insights. Use your heart,” she advised.

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

Guaranteeing Attention by Tracking Eye Movement. A+E’s Roseann Montenes and Dentsu’s Cara Lewis Show Us How It’s Done.

The burning question in this media age of fragmentation is, does the current currency measurement capture true consumer behavior? More and more, networks and agencies are looking for metrics that are more precise for the KPI. This led to a fascinating and successful collaboration between A+E Networks and Dentsu to calibrate, measure and post against viewability for an ABI campaign.

“Our clients are continually looking for different ways to measure campaigns in marketplace and making linear TV as smart as it can be beyond the traditional behaviors that we have,” Cara Lewis, Executive Vice President Head of US Investment, Dentsu - Amplifi, explained.

First Steps and the Pandemic

According to Lewis, “ABI came to us. They have a partnership with the TVision data that we used for this test. They asked us to propose a partnership with networks to guarantee on viewability data that they have. TVision has eye tracking devices in 5000 households.” A+E stepped forward to be the first network to guarantee on viewability eye tracking impression data which can register exactly when eyes are on screen for at least two seconds.

As for timing, “I think the pandemic slowed us down,” stated Lewis, because the project hit a pause during Covid.  “We were on this path of auditing how to get there and talking to the vendors. It then took a bit of a back seat. But then, overall, we just picked up right where we left off,” she noted and added that it may have impacted adding other networks to the study. Roseann Montenes VP Precision + Strategic Audience Sales Partnerships, A+E shared that, “Even as we were noticing the ratings erosion, we were still able to get positive results out of the campaign. We were able to see a lift once we optimized against ABI’s historical data through TVision. We were still able to see improvement against every single network in our portfolio even in this challenging time, we were able to find positive results.”

Challenges and Opportunities

“There were a ton of challenges,” admitted Montenes. “To be very transparent, Cara and I started this conversation in March 2020 and we started to go down this path to figure out the feasibility. When we are working off of a panel size that is so small, it’s hard to get that confidence in stability. Do we trust that this small of an audience to actually give us the results that we are looking to accomplish? What are we getting out of this?”

But A+E is known for driving innovation and the opportunity to test case, as she explained, “Guaranteeing against metrics that mean the most to our clients, really interested us.” The risk was worth it and now the study is in its second wave and the partners are trading on this currency. “It’s proven, especially to us at A+E Networks that we really do believe that finding different metrics to guarantee off of is something that drives partnerships even further. Now, next time when Cara has an opportunity of a different metric that she wants to guarantee off of, maybe we will again be one of the first ones she comes to with it.,”

Successful Execution

As a result of the study, A+E was able to establish a new baseline and new benchmark with the agency. According to Montenes, “If you think about the way we traditionally do business, we have a starting point and for years, we traded off of CPMs. But now all of a sudden we were trading off of a new metric. So it took a lot of time to come up with that new benchmark and that new confidence level in guaranteeing off of a viewability score.” Her team analyzed historical information and attributed the new data to ABI specifically. They were then able to come up with a new scoring metric that could lead to tracking towards a guarantee. “We went to the highest potential possible so we could push our boundaries to over-perform and over-deliver for this first campaign,” she stated.

“GRPs are important. But there is obviously waste in the impressions that we are buying. So to make sure that the impressions are more viewable, and that is by using this data, was the main part of the structure of the campaign as well as making sure that the data was viable so that we could then build it out across the ecosystem,” Lewis stated.

Delivering Results on the KPIs

Among the KPIs for the campaign, “One was to get the campaign greenlit and guaranteed,” Lewis explained, “The other one was to see an increase or incremental lift in the overall viewability percentage. The third was to get a like-minded client counsel; We’ve been having a lot of client conversations across the Dentsu clients, many of whom have said they want to see how the test goes.” In addition, it was important to be able to build it out and make it scalable across the media landscape especially within linear TV.

The fourth quarter result, according to A+E, was a 7.6% lift. There has been a second campaign in first quarter and they are in discussion for a third campaign for second quarter. “We want to show our clients that it is a viable way to guarantee,” Lewis concluded.

For A+E, “We were the first to announce three years ago that we were the first to guarantee on business outcomes,” stated Montenes who added, “We are not slowing down in the space. We are going to continue to make sure that we are talking to the right audiences at the right time at the right places. Next steps for us and ABI is to continue to do everything we can to help them rise.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

The Big Push to Impressions for Local TV is (Finally) Reaching Critical Mass

As an NBC affiliate researcher many years ago, nothing disappointed me more than opening up a local market sweeps book and seeing hashmarks instead of ratings.  That meant that the ratings performance fell below minimum reporting standards. But we all knew that there were some impressions there that could be reported… if we reported on impressions.

Local TV has traditionally relied on ratings for transactions, understanding that the reliance on ratings obscured some of the valuable yet smaller audiences delivered in certain markets. This is why I am happy to report that, finally, there is a cogent industry movement afoot to change the transactional measurement from ratings to impressions in Local TV. The TVB recently announced their commitment to the cause along with support and advocacy from Nielsen. 

For Catherine Herkovic, Executive Vice President, Managing Director Local TV, Nielsen, a movement to impressions based transactions is not only common sense but also part of Nielsen’s value as a measurement company. “Nielsen has always done impressions based measurement. Impressions are the foundation of all of the calculations of everything we do. The raw materials we send out is impressions and always has been,” she explained.

Why Then Ratings? Why Now Impressions?

“National has always transacted on impressions and some ask, so why hasn’t Local?” Herkovic queried. “That’s because ratings percentages provide a relative understanding of performance across different size markets. And that will still be used for planning purposes. Ratings won’t disappear but impressions will be used for transactions,” she stated.

A move to impressions will facilitate the easy inclusion of Local TV into multiplatform buys and offer proof of performance. Currently most media, such as National TV and Digital, transact on impressions. Local TV is one of the few still using ratings. Local Radio is another. In addition, “Given the fragmentation of audiences, when you round ratings you are losing audience and so impressions allow us to capture the total audience,” Herkovic concluded.

While a move to impressions makes sense, Nielsen must remain measurement agnostic. “Advertisers and agencies want to buy engagement with people, not households, not devices,” noted Dave Hohman, Executive Vice President, Demand Side Media, Nielsen, who added, “Even though the measurement exists, it is up to the buyers and sellers to agree what the transaction currency is going to be. Nielsen can develop it and make it available but the industry has to adopt it.” 

The Agencies’ Position

So where is the industry at this point in time regarding Local TV impressions-based transactions? Many agencies are already using impressions. Kathy Doyle, Executive Vice President Investment and her team at Magna Global, “buy all of our local television and radio off impressions. We’ve been doing it for a few years.” She noted that Magna has been ahead of other agencies in this effort. “Yes,” she affirmed, “This has been our baby.”

Other early movers include, Jenifer Weldon, Owner and President, whose company Fat Free Media, “has utilized impressions in planning and buying for our client, Morgan & Morgan, for 15 years,” and Jennifer Hungerbuhler, Executive Vice President Managing Director, Local Video and Audio Investment, Dentsu Aegis Network who changed over in January 2017. “We primarily use it for buying and research,” she noted.

For Kevin Gallagher, Executive Vice President Managing Director, Spark Foundry, the move to impressions for Local TV has not yet occurred in his agency. “I would say that we are in the preparation stage. We are not currently using impressions specifically to spot TV but we use it in other media channels. National TV, Digital. It is the common currency in every channel except Local TV and Radio right now,” he noted. His team is working on capturing impressions data for all four quarters of 2020 in all of their systems and tools before they make the switch. 

Advantages and Disadvantages in Local TV Impressions

When asked about the pros and cons of moving to impressions, the general response was that it was advantageous to do so. “I really do not see any disadvantages at all (in moving to impressions),” noted Doyle. “There are areas (of the country) that don’t deliver ratings. Now there are impressions that we can buy that help with reach and pricing.” And she added, entre nous, “if nobody else is buying on impressions, we can buy it and nobody else can.” But the main reason why Doyle pushed for impressions was because she saw the need early on to adapt to a cross platform media world. She wanted her buyers to, “get used to the vernacular of buying off of impressions rather than ratings. Getting to a world where we are buying video, audio, cross device and screen,” she explained

An advantage for Gallagher is that, “It puts spot TV and radio on a common currency with all of the other media channels. It will be easier from a planning standpoint and in aggregating all audiences across channels.” But, “the downside is the conversion process moving from traditional pricing benchmarks for our planning teams and clients. Right now those (benchmarks) are on a cost per point basis.”

For Weldon, “The main advantage is the ability to compare costs across all media forms based on the cost-per-thousand, or CPM.  All media is brought to a level playing field for cost analysis.” But she also sees that, “GRP-based planning and buying (needs) to adapt and adjust to impression-level buying” is a challenge. “Broadcast television impressions are not the same as digital impressions,” she explained. “Nor should agencies be lulled into thinking they are - either from complacency, urgency or lack of understanding.  There could be a disservice to clients if agency acceptance of impression-based buying leads to a lack of understanding of what type of impressions are being purchased, where those impressions will run and the guarantees against those impressions,” she warned.

“I certainly see far more advantages than I see disadvantages,” stated Hungerbuhler. “Impressions give us a common currency that allows us to take a more holistic approach to tracking audiences within a market across screens, allowing for easier cross platform executions. Impressions also give better insight into the actual number of people viewing, instead of a percentage of people viewing, and in this day and age of fragmentation, every eyeball counts.” For her, “Capturing more viewers will ultimately increase inventory, also increasing the potential for rates to decline. Lastly, impressions make it easier for local buyers to combine multiple markets into one buy, such as an unwired regional buy, or to report metrics across multiple markets. Impressions are added up with simple addition, as opposed to ratings which are weighted by audience populations and are not easily comparable to each other.”

What can Nielsen Do to Facilitate the Conversion?

All agreed that Nielsen should play a major role in navigating the industry towards impressions based transactions. “I think what Nielsen can do to help in this conversion is to advocate,” suggested Gallagher, “to anyone in this ecosystem who uses Nielsen ratings to make the move into impressions.”

Nielsen must get involved, explained Weldon, and “work closely with agencies to provide education and support in the process of transitioning from GRP to impression universes via in-house training or online webinars.” In addition, she continued, Nielsen should also, “Engage leading software providers to ensure they are providing training tools or quick step guides on defining the new universe specific to their software and encourage stations to lead the charge in education of sales teams.”  This sentiment was echoed by Hungerbuhler, who added, “NSI can send out thought leadership, educating clients, planners and buyers (by) explaining the difference between ratings and impressions and showcase the benefits of cross platform and what more precise measurement can mean to advertisers.”

The overall feeling was that the move to impressions could reach critical mass at the agencies sooner than later, perhaps by 2021. But the most important thing is to, “Keep the conversation going among clients,” advised Doyle to Nielsen, “And I think there is some work that can be done to show the benefit and stability,” of using impressions.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com