NBCUniversal Reveals Unified Measurement Currency Results with iSpot

If anyone knows media measurement, it is Kelly Abcarian, previously with Nielsen and now Executive Vice President, Measurement & Impact, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal. Along with NBCU’s Laura Molen, President, Ad Sales & Partnerships and Sean Muller, CEO iSpot, Abcarian presented the results of a pilot study that demonstrates how iSpot data can be accurately used as currency for OTT.

This year-long study is, “a major milestone to transform media measurement to reach consumers where they are,” according to Molen that helps to address the demand of advertisers for the ultimate cross platform measurement standard. Partnering with iSpot has enabled NBCU to contribute a new solution to the multi-currency future of the media ecosystem. “Some are stuck on legacy. Some are grading their own homework or measuring themselves,” noted Molen. But others are adopting new measurement currencies as evidenced by the large percentage of business that is now conducted on alternative measurements. “Already 40% of our upfront deals have been outside the traditional age and gender guarantees,” using a range of other data suppliers such as Adsmart, iSpot and OpenAP.

But the industry need at this point is to unify and codify a new currency using these alternative services and that is where the partnership with iSpot is pivotal to NBCU’s measurement goals. “They are our first certified partner and a trusted partner of the industry for over a decade,” she stated who has also received the seal of approval from many of NBCU’s advertisers. In fact, over 30% of the advertisers showcased in NBCU’s pilot study were already iSpot customers.

The ability to, as Molen said, “bridge the gaps between platforms and even across the buy and sell side,” to combine all of NBCU’s platforms with one unified method that delivers daily impressions within 48 hours is a major step in media measurement.

For Abcarian, this effort is all part of the bigger plan to, “move our industry forward with better measurement solutions and trying to keep up with the changing, ever growing consumer behaviors.” NBCU’s nine month journey to find the right measurement partner started with an RFP that attracted over 120 measurement providers across six measurement categories. This was followed by a test of 16 advertisers over the Summer Olympics across six cross platform currency partners. This was followed by a range of industry initiatives and announcements, the certification of nine NBCU partners further studies using the Winter Olympics and SuperBowl and finally, a 67 advertiser pilot test examining 158 brands.

“The key takeaway from our last nine months is that cross platform currency is here and it is ready to act and transact,” Abcarian concluded. A notable advancement was the mitigation of friction by using, “Direct server to server integration with iSpot so brands could measure all ads across all platforms and all ads fast.” After hours of training 800 users and testing across a three month period for the 12 brands, NBCU saw an average 546 million impressions per brand, an average mix of 9% on OTT and 91% on linear.

Advertisers were categorized by their mix of linear and OTT and fell into the following categories: Beginners with 10% OTT in their media mix, Experimenters at 10-20% OTT, Adventurers at 20-30% and Pioneers at 30%+. The results of the test were that brands with a rich mix of OTT did better with overall greater reach and acceptable levels of frequency.

NBCU’s goal of true scale integration cross platform measurement for brands’ unique campaigns was demonstrated by Muller who revealed the results of the pilot study which looked at a large retail brand. “Probably the overarching learning here is that linear and streaming can no longer be planned, measured and transacted in silos,” he explained. The retail brand began its campaign with a very low mix of OTT and over the span of the campaign, increased its OTT weight. The result was a significant increase in reach using more OTT, “as linear was saturated and more frequency was building up. And as they layered in streaming, there was pure incremental reach,” he revealed.

What did NBCU learn? All brands are underleveraged on NBCU OTT in driving reach. The pilot study proved that a careful mixture of OTT and linear, depending on the target consumer goal, can result in optimizing reach and frequency that can be smoothed out by moving media weight from linear to OTT.  “The power of premium (content) is both critically important across our linear and OTT platforms to drive reach and results for our advertisers. The ability to measure all viewing in a unified way,” enables advertisers to value and optimize all of their inventory across all platforms with an optimal mix in a frictionless and seamless way with de-duped reach and frequency, Abcarian concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

 

 

DISH Media Expands Cross-Platform Addressable With Best-in-Class Technology and Consultative Sales

To be successful in sales, one must monitor where the market is going while being flexible enough to respond. For Dave Antonelli, DISH Media's director for Sling TV, that includes taking a holistic view of all the services that DISH Media has to offer, from live OTT to traditional linear; programmatic to addressable.

DISH Media not only offers all of these services, but also generates its own first-party deterministic data to better measure all sales outcomes.

Antonelli's breadth of experience — from large companies such as Viacom (now ViacomCBS) to smaller start-ups such as Cognitiv (programmatic A.I.) and SessionM (mobile) — enables him to easily size up the media landscape and respond quickly to client considerations.

Responding to the Marketplace
Antonelli sees the current media market as fluid, open, and flexible, offering greater opportunity to companies such as DISH Media that can deliver across platforms. Clients, he explains, "are interested in impressions-based, one-to-one targeting or linear. The pipes by which those experiences are delivered are not as crucial as a distinction. It can come in over the internet or a satellite or over cable. It doesn't matter because it is still [the same] video spot reaching consumers, whether in a targeted or traditional linear fashion."

DISH Media technologies play a pivotal role in meeting these advertiser expectations. "Sling TV and DISH have the same overall goal of delivering video, but they are on different pipes," he says. "One is over satellite and the other is over the Internet. It is essentially the same content and a similar experience." How advertisers target or use inventory can vary, but the experience remains the same for the consumer.

Addressable Capabilities
With DISH Media's first-party data, privacy-compliant processes enable impressions-based targeting on a household level. "That is one of the beauties of online advertising, especially for Sling TV, which has a registered subscriber base," he says, adding that both Sling TV and DISH have "deterministic matches, which [are a] great way of targeting people with relevant ads that are more effective for advertisers."

Addressable is a huge part of DISH Media's business for both DISH and Sling TV. "It's a core function of what we do," Antonelli says. "We have the best technology that enables addressable advertising." Its addressable sales span every major vertical, such as automotive, pharma, financial, and retail. "We can match our deterministic dataset through privacy-safe crosswalks with a variety of data vendors that are focused on specific KPIs, such as Polk for Auto," he adds. This includes data such as foot traffic and sales lift for attribution assessments.

A notable advantage in DISH Media's sales arsenal is the ability to launch simultaneous addressable campaigns cross-platform. Antonelli explains that DISH was the first to market this capability. "We can run cross-platform addressable campaigns with targeting and reporting across platforms," he says.

Reach Booster
Another valuable asset in DISH Media sales is the newly launched Reach Booster. "Reach Booster," Antonelli explains, "helps turn a traditional linear campaign into one that is positively impacted by an addressable campaign. We look at reach and frequency from a national schedule for a particular advertiser and a creative unit. We are able to determine the reach and frequency across the entire national linear schedule for that spot and then pair it with our deterministic dataset to determine the actual reach and frequency within our subscriber base."
So, if a particular household has not been reached by the linear national ad to the degree that the advertiser would like, they can then be fed an addressable ad to attain that unduplicated reach and that desired frequency. Though only launched in January, Reach Booster's results are showing substantial increases in reach and frequency stabilization.

The Team is Everything
To succeed in media sales, "You have to be someone who is curious, and you have to understand a lot of complexity," Antonelli says, adding that this is where his team excels. Selling a static product isn't an option due to the ever-changing nature of today's landscape. "You have to keep learning and asking questions, know your product, and understand the landscape."
His advice for those seeking a place in today's media sales ecosystem is to strive to be someone who is "curious, thoughtful, and has a consultative approach, who works with agencies as a resource to navigate all of the change." Good advice for other media departments today, as well.

This article first appeared in MediaVillage.com