Helping the Industry Move to Cross-Media Measurement. CIMM’s 10th Annual Measurement and Data Summit.

Every year CIMM launches its Annual Cross-Platform Video Measurement & Data Summit which brings together experts from the industry. This year, its tenth, is virtual and can offer insights into how the industry is adjusting during the pandemic and beyond.

Charlene Weisler: What are the biggest issues facing media measurement at this time?

Jane Clarke: Media and cross-media measurement is viewed differently depending if you are a buyer or a seller.  From a buyer POV (marketer/agency), the biggest issue is complete cross-channel ROI measurement, which includes all marketing, advertising and promotional aspects of a campaign or ongoing marketing effort.  Marketers try to link one common impressions metric across all forms of advertising and marketing, by connecting them to an ID-graph that can provide ID resolution across all touchpoints and link the impressions to an outcome KPI, such as sales, site visits, app downloads, offline store/restaurant visits or other metric.  From the POV of a media seller, they are typically trying to deduplicate reach across traditional and digital forms of their media, such as between all forms of TV/premium video, and prove outcomes for their inventory. 

Weisler: What initiatives are in the forefront of solving for these issues? 

Clarke: The Media Committee of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has published a Framework for Cross-Media Measurement, along with a Technical Blueprint.  The main goal is to deduplicate reach across the walled gardens and other digital publishers and TV, in a way that protects data security for the data owners.  The WFA design is being adapted to work as a Pilot Test by ISBA in the U.K. and the ANA in the U.S.  However, since the design was originally from a digital data security POV, it has been challenging to incorporate TV data, which uses different methodologies in different markets.  There are also many commercial initiatives to address these measurement challenges, as well as proprietary systems created or in development from agencies, media companies and MVPD consortiums. 

Additionally, the MRC launched their cross-media measurement standards, and the IAB is working on a replacement for the cookie.  CIMM has completed initiatives aimed at addressing some of the four building blocks for cross-media measurement: 1) Standardized and scaled granular Smart TV and STB data for content and ads combined to be as nationally representative as possible; 2) Standardized digital content and ad exposure data across sites and mobile apps; 3) A single-source cross-media measurement panel, or a linked combination of single media measurement panels, to calibrate the large “census-like” datasets; and 4) a solution for ID resolution to connect all the datasets and deduplicate them.  We just launched Best Practices in Combining Smart TV and STB Data, and last fall we published to our site a design for TV Data Interoperability & ID Resolution.

Weisler: Has the pandemic impacted any measurement issues and if so, how and what? 

Clarke: TO panel measurement has been more challenged than other research during the pandemic, since it’s been hard to recruit new panelists when they don’t want to allow home visits.  Existing panels, such as Nielsen, have had challenges replacing panelists and monitoring issues with current panelists and maintaining compliance with “checking in for person’s measurement,” as more panelists stay in the panels longer.  New panels have been challenged to launch, due to these same considerations. 

Weisler: What will be the most impactful efforts we can do to improve measurement? 

Clarke: Data owners need to agree with the methods being developed to protect data security, in order to agree to make their data available to industry solutions.  Standardizing digital video app and site player usage is critical to cross-media measurement.  Many companies use Conviva as a standardized mobile SDK for monitoring customer experience within an app, and it gathers second-by-second viewing data that is standard across their customers, but the data are still owned by the media company.  It would be great for the media companies to standardize around this solution. 

Weisler: How close are we to an industry effort?

Clarke: It has been a big change to get marketers involved in creating the solutions for cross-media measurement, since they have leverage.  However, the TV industry needs to decide which solution it wants to support.  The different media companies, MVPDs and consortia such as OpenAP, Ampersand and Xandr all have different proprietary approaches to creating a unified and standardized platform to plan, activate, measure and conduct attribution against all their TV/premium video inventory.  They need to come together around one solution before they can collaborate additionally with the walled gardens to deliver the solution that marketers seek.

 

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

 

605 and Inscape Make the Best Sandwich, According to Ben Tatta of 605

The data analytics company 605 just announced that its dataset will now include Inscape’s viewing data, expanding 605’s footprint to more than 20 million U.S. homes. Inscape is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VIZIO and a leading provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies and cross-screen metrics. Previously known as Cognitive, VIZIO is the largest single-source of opt-in smart TV viewing data available today.

According to the press release, this arrangement places 605 as one of the few companies in the industry to capture and measure set-top-box data along with other sources of TV viewership data, such as over the air (OTA) and basic over-the-top (OTT) viewing data from Inscape’s more than 10.5 million smart TVs. 

Ben Tatta, Co-Founder and President, offered further insights: 

Charlene Weisler:  What metrics are being used?

Ben Tatta: In addition to household-level impression and engagement metrics 605 maintains a library of over 5,000 household attributes (that are deterministically matched to the viewing data) that provide advertiser and programmer clients an unprecedented level of granularity when measuring and analyzing audiences and campaigns.  605 can also match digital data and 1st party CRM data to provide additional dimension on a cross-screen basis...and among unique customer types/segments.  The latter is essential in proving full funnel attribution to clients.  

Weisler: How will this partnership change, improve, enhance 605?

Tatta: With the addition of Inscape, 605 will now maintain one of the largest, matchable data-sets in the U.S.    By combining set-top box data and ACR data 605 will be in a unique position to measure nearly 100% of viewing in a household regardless of TV manufacturer, pay-TV provider or OTT service for more than 20 million homes nationwide.

Weisler: What are your expectations once this partnership is in place for a few months?

Tatta: ACR data and set-top box data are like peanut butter and jelly.  The two datasets complement each other perfectly.  Our hope is that in three months we will have the best PBJ sandwiches available anywhere.  

This article first appeared in Cynopsis

The Latest Trends from Nielsen’s Total Audience Report

Nielsen just released their findings from their latest quarterly Nielsen Total Audience Report (3Q18) which shows continued audience shifting and digital transformation in content preferences and streaming services. The report, according to Nielsen, contains, insights on how people are choosing the content that they’re streaming, as well as a section that examines which attributes of streaming services are the most important to consumers as well updates on traditional and digital media platform usage.

The highlights include:

Streaming Devices and Services Continue to Grow September 2017 to 2018

• Enabled smart TV penetration grew to 41% in 2018 from 32% in 2017 as users continue to replace their older television sets. Enabled smart TV ownership had the largest year-over-year growth for all races and ethnicities
• Internet enabled TV-connected devices — enabled smart TVs, internet connected devices (i.e. Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV), and enabled game consoles—are in 68% of U.S. households, up from 63%.
• Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) content is in 67% of television households, compared to 61% one year ago. Year over year growth is occurring among households of all races and ethnicities. Eight out of ten Asian American, seven out of ten Hispanic, and six out of ten Black households subscribe to an SVOD service.
• But there is only so much time in a day. U.S. Adults spend 10 hours and 30 minutes per day connected to media, the same amount as one year ago.

While Adoption of Newer Devices Has Increased, So Has Their Usage—Regardless of Age.

• Time spent on TV-connected devices and app/web on smartphones increased across all demographic groups. Time per day on smartphones increased by 23 minutes for adults 18-34, more than any other group or platform. And even older demographic group’s share of daily time spent with TV-connected devices and app/web on a smartphone increased from Q3 2017 to Q3 2018.
• Adults 18-34 spend over one-third of their daily media usage on smartphones while Adults 50-64 spend more time per day on media in general than any other age group.

Inundated with Choice, Streaming Video and Audio Users Are Making Their Preferences Known.

• According to the MediaTech Trender Survey, two-thirds of audio (67%) and video streaming (66%) users are influenced by recommendations from family and friends when making streaming selections. Meanwhile, 67% of video streaming users and 56% of audio streaming users refer back to existing programming they used to watch or listen to on broadcast media as that content is now more accessible.
• Users want access to a broad variety of content (57%) while using technology and an interface that is easy to navigate (56%). Niche content is also desirable, as 43% want access to local programming, 38% are looking for specific networks, and 35% want the ability to stream live sports.

This article first appeared in www.Cynopsis.com

Smart TV Will Evolve. Not From Apps But From Media Companies. Interview with Oded Napchi.

Oded Napchi, CMO of HIRO Media, is currently immersed in the world of programmatic video for brands and traditional TV content providers. His media career, which began in the 1990s in Israeli radio and television, soon moved into online with work on a start-up called Valis which was the first telecom based community in SMS. 

Napchi explains that his current firm, HIRO Media, derived its name from the protagonist of the book, Snowcrash, which is a science fiction novel mapped out how mass media will look in the future. HIRO Media, the company, founded in 2006, was founded to enable legal peer to peer downloads for content providers. “We always wanted to expand the numbers of sites that present video beyond the major five,” he added.

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about HIRO Media.

Oded Napchi: We are a programmatic distributor of videos with a network of over 20,000 sites, 3 billion video views and 3 billion ad views. We allow publishers to present videos from the top content owners without the need for technical integration. It is a seamless feed from their original site. We can target videos to the viewer and also target ads. These videos are not user generated. They are professional videos only from top content sites such as MGM, Discovery and BBC for example. These videos can be short – 15 seconds – or longer like a telenovela. You can click on the site and see full-length videos but usually cases the content providers put on shorter videos that then lead to the longer form videos on the content owners sites.

Charlene Weisler: How do you generate audiences and discover new sites for the videos?

Oded Napchi: We reach out to people via our distribution to over 20,000 sites. It is always a big challenge to build audience so we go to content brands that don’t have enough sites and partner with them too. We tap into sites and blogs – anything that has legitimate audience such as Salon, the New York Times and the New York Post. We also love vertical niche sites because advertisers often seek something specific like political sites or sports sites for example. Interestingly, we’re finding that many are seeking Republican-centric sites but also food blogs, pet blogs. Fifty to 60% of our viewers come from the larger sites and all the rest come from smaller sites.

Charlene Weisler:  What type of data do you collect and use?

Oded Napchi:   We collect anonymous data. No cookies. We tend to work with different type of data beyond the standard age and gender that is easy to buy from third party sources such as Oracle. What we want to know is how long someone spent on the site and how they scroll through the site so you know where to place the ad. We look at super users who look at the ad and have a high engagement rate. We keep data on all of the sites.

Charlene Weisler: You don’t use cookies?

Oded Napchi: No. There are pros and cons with audience targeting. We have found that analyzing sites gave us more predictive information about users, better than using cookies. When you buy on cookies, it is often the household computer and often there are discrepancies between different providers of data. Anyone can be using it. But by entering a site, you can be more confident that it is the individual who is interested in that site content. We have had some surprises handling data in this way. An example – young Republican men in their 30s were especially interested in female mixed martial arts … and trucks. Both of those types of ads worked well on Republican sites.

Charlene Weisler:  What about fraud and viewability?

Oded Napchi: Fraud is an easy problem to fix. There has been great advancement in the past three years on fraud. We work with several very good anti-fraud companies as well as our own proprietary technologies and best practices and as a result fraud is now less than 1%. Viewability is more challenging. But you can optimize against it.

There are two newer problems worth noting here though. The first is adware fraud where some creative has malware that hijacks sites. We developed technology to completely block this behavior. We have an exchange hotline to let others know about that creative. The second is that there are a huge amount of ads that do not play because of problems that could crash the browser or block the screen. This is not intentional. Sometimes it is a tech problem. Several industry researches claim that over 50% of sites have problems presenting ads.

Charlene Weisler: What do you think the impact of Smart TVs will have on your business?

Oded Napchi: I have been thinking about this for three years and am always wrong. First I thought that app stores would rule Smart TVs but now I think Smart TV will evolve more from larger video companies such as Youtube, Netflix and Amazon as the way forward

Charlene Weisler:  What do you think the media landscape will look like 5 years from now?

Oded Napchi:  It is logical to think that traditional major media companies will merge or partner with the new digital upstarts because these newer digital companies are not really content providers and some major companies do not have major online offshoots. Comcast may be the one major traditional media company that has made this move into digital most successfully - with its acquisitions of Freewheel, Visible World and most recently StickyAds. The others may have to play catch up.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

The World of Outstream Video. Interview with Yoav Naveh

Yoav Naveh has a background steeped in building predictive systems for online advertising and internet security startups. Prior to launching ConvertMedia, he served as Captain in the elite technological unit of the Israeli Intelligence Corp and received multiple awards of achievement while there. 

Upon completing his service, Naveh went on to receive a degree in mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University. As a self-described expert in the programmatic industry, Naveh also has a passion for machine learning and big data.

As the co-founder and CEO of ConvertMedia, Naveh works in the world of outstream video which are, according to Cynopsis, video ad units that aren’t tied to content. (An out-stream ad can run between paragraphs of text, on the side of a page. They are presumed to be more valuable because they can guarantee 100% viewability.) ConvertMedia is an outstream video SSP that, according to Naveh, “enables publishers to strike an ideal balance between revenue goals, the exposure they afford advertisers and how they engage consumers.”

I sat down with him and asked him the following questions:

Charlene Weisler: What exactly is an outstream video SSP?

Yoav Naveh: SSPs have traditionally helped publishers connect to demand channels (advertisers via DSPs and ad networks) and sell real estate. An Outstream SSP makes that connection for outstream video supply. We believe that SSPs should evolve beyond demand management and offer user experience controls. In outstream, a high impact and effective format, publishers need to have tools to manage the user experience in a way that is respectful to the user, and measures not only the potential revenue, but also the user experience tradeoff.

Charlene Weisler: What type of video – length, origin etc, do you work with?

Yoav Naveh: Most ads are 15-30 seconds long. But we feel that outstream can be an opportunity for content marketers to play longer stories within outstream formats. This allows marketers to have a few seconds of high impact format that then stays active on the page only if users engage. If the user does engage, the marketer can now play a significantly longer story/ad (2-5 minutes).  This brings publishers the opportunity to deliver an experience similar to what Facebook created with in-feed with video.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of television?

Yoav Naveh : Television is professionally created video content that is made available for a mass audience through broadcasting or streaming

Charlene Weisler: How are you able to move TV dollars to digital?

Yoav Naveh: Advertisers are looking to reach their audiences, who are online, and in particular on their mobile devices. But they need to be able to reach those audiences at scale and in a viewable and reliable way if they are going to make the move from broadcast TV to digital. Outstream video opens up quality, viewable inventory at scale and will be the key to moving budgets so advertisers can be where their audiences already engage with content.

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about some of the data you collect and how you use it?

Yoav Naveh: We collect data on the effects of different video ad formats on the user experience and how it correlates with revenue to help publishers find the balance between revenue and user experience. We measure the load-time of the ads, the time the user spends on a page, how they move and interact with the page, where they came to the site from (i.e., whether it was from social media or organically) and if they immediately leave after the page visit. We also allow users to provide direct feedback on the ad with an opt-out option.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of programmatic?

Yoav Naveh: Programmatic is the automatic method of buying and selling digital media

Charlene Weisler: What happens when Smart TV’s gain critical mass? How will that impact your business?

Yoav Naveh: Smart TVs present an opportunity to create new video advertising experiences for users. We will need to develop smart and relevant ad experiences that enhance the user experience that such devices introduce beyond the pre-roll.