A+E’S Precision and Performance Toolkit Advances Media Buying, Planning and Selling

In an industry that continues to adapt to new technology and an overwhelming choice of data options, A+E’s Precision and Performance toolkit stands out for its flexibility and measure-ability. Erica Barnes, A+E Networks’ Director of Strategic Audience Sales and Partnerships, is enthusiastic about the tool’s capabilities in delivering a true one to one marketing solution to brands.

Precision and Performance has been a critical part of A+E Networks’ toolbox since its launch in 2016. Since then it has continued to outpace media industry sales platforms in innovation and personalization. “When we initially came up with this offering it was rooted around the recognition of two things. One - that television is a mass reach vehicle. We needed to find ways to help people lean in and reach a specific audience to make their media impressions more efficient. Two - to help on the back end with performance measurements that prove we were driving real impact to customer engagement after being exposed on our networks. That was the impetus and those core values haven't changed,” she explained.

The toolkit is customizable and targeted with audience based applications that use a variety of datasets and platforms. “Our team is here to provide flexible solutions for our brand partners. What has changed is the quantity of ways in which we can accomplish those same key goals,” she noted. Perhaps the most important aspect of this latest version is the range of options for a brand. “Our biggest marketplace differentiator is that we are flexible. We offer one size / fits one solution. It is an incredibly collaborative process where our main goal is to help our brands and partners accomplish what they are specifically looking for, in whatever way, shape, or form that comes in,” she asserted.

The areas that the toolkit now covers includes, according to Barnes, “audience targeting capabilities and optimizing media proposals that include business outcomes, measurement for all various areas of the funnel all the way from awareness to search to foot traffic to actual sales of products,” and in addition, “we're continuing to offer business outcomes,” that are guaranteed to, “drive a certain amount of lift to whatever that business outcome guarantee is.”

Precision and Performance boasts range of data options that span linear, digital and addressable and activate in both Nielsen and Non Nielsen alternate currencies like VideoAmp. “We are overlaying content and using data to inform where our content is being placed and amplifying partnerships.  And we are now fully cross platform, offering across both our linear and digital properties,” she added.

An important factor in the value of Precision and Performance is that the results of a campaign are independently assessed. “We work with very, very trusted third party attribution vendors. We do not grade our own homework. It's something that we feel very passionately about. Every type of result that we have is validated and vetted to make sure that the statistical significance makes sense that the data is accurate,” she explained.

The results are then contextualized with results delivered to clients with insights and actionable next steps. “We're not just sending raw data back, saying, ‘Here you go, you figure it out.’ We are looking into what the marketplace was like, what the economy was like in that quarter, how their creative drove incremental value, which was more effective, which didn't work so well,” she noted. The download helps to illuminate, “how we can work to improve together and help media be more effective in driving the consumer engagement they're looking for.”

Arguably the biggest challenge is overcoming industry uncertainty and the rapid pace of change. “The biggest challenge,” she mused, “is industry adoption and standardization because when there are so many different options or paths or ways to look at data or analyze a media campaign it can be challenging to standardize. That's why A+E Networks is part of the Joint Industry Committee for Alternate Currency Development to ensure that we're approaching these changes in the industry in a uniform way and providing that white glove best in class service to our brand partners.” The key here is to be flexible. “We know that the marketplace is challenging. We know our industry is challenging and viewership is changing. How can we be flexible and offer solutions that gets (the client) what they need and not what we need?”

Looking forward, Barnes intends to, “continue to keep a finger on the pulse. Tools are constantly evolving so it's important to evaluate new partners and look into different solutions such as AI and alternate currencies. How can we make sure that we are moving at the speed and honestly little bit ahead of the speed of where our marketplace is going, so that by the time a brand partner needs something, we're already there, and we have those solutions in place.”

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

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

 

 

 

OpenAP Gains Firepower with Alliances, Advances and Scale

OpenAP is gathering momentum as new alliances and developments set the stage for greater growth. The advanced advertising company is engaged in some new initiatives and alliances that are expanding its strength as a cross-platform measurement solution.

There have been a range of new developments in the past year, and more are in the works, said the company's CEO David Levy. "OpenAP has been, from the inception, focused on centralizing the process for television publishers around audience activation," he noted, adding that it measures digital with linear television to enable a consistent way to create an audience.

This offers a consistency in the data, unifying results. The company's ultimate goal is to create an industry standard for audience-based cross-platform measurement.

Interested inMedia Insights

READ MORE

To manage all the disparate data, OpenAP introduced its OpenID solution about eight months ago. "It is our own identity framework and identity spine that we use for all of that audience activation," Levy explained. It's the backbone by which OpenAP can seamlessly interweave de-duplicated data sources for campaigns.

After launching OpenID as a framework, the company then debuted XPM Measurement, which gives users the ability to pool and normalize audiences "through OpenAP. And it allows them to "transact that [audience] across any broadcasting publisher today," Levy said. "You can actually get de-duplicated reach and frequency not just across all of your publishers but also across platforms, which has really been an elusive thing across television."

This has been a quiet initiative. OpenAP has worked directly with all publishers on one platform. There has been a lot of focus on guaranteeing that all the internal systems are integrated and in sync to ingest and process the data into one central identifier.

ViacomCBS is one of OpenAP's investors. For Radha Subramanyam, President and Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS Corp., it is critical to prove the value of broadcast television in conjunction with all of the linear-originated programming on other platforms.

"As audiences seek programming they like, there are more opportunities for viewing. We need to capture and standardize the collection of all viewing on any platform, and OpenAP is a way to do move the process forward," Subramanyam said.

Steve Silvestri, Senior Vice President, Audience Solutions, Discovery, concurred. "OpenAP offers the market a simple, more scalable approach to audience-based buying across the premium ecosystem," he said. "It represents more than just standard audience segments. It has evolved into a company that is solving for industry challenges across cross-platform measurement and insights, data adoption and clean room resolution, and ultimately programmer addressable activation."

Structural Change

OpenAP has also undergone a structural pivot for greater agility. Levy shifted OpenAP from a consortium model to a standard company structure. In other words, it no longer requires membership dues or consortium fees. "It is all based off transaction fees today," Levy explained. That removes some bureaucracy, enabling more fluid decision-making and execution of clear-cut goals.

It also makes it easier to serve all video-focused companies, including digital and advanced video-on-demand services. "We work with every national publisher across the ecosystem today, including Disney, including Discovery," Levy said. "The ability of an advertiser to come to us, create an audience that can then be used and transacted across any publisher was true at the beginning of [2021] and is true today."

LEARN MORE

OpenAP's success is based on "how to make it easier for buyers to take one audience and have a good understanding of where that audience lives across all of these disparate screens," he noted. "It is important for the television community to come together and make it easier for buyers to do that."

With partners such as Discovery, OpenAP can go even further, faster. "Discovery is a large player in this space, and by joining OpenAP, we can accelerate the current efforts underway," Silvestri said.

More Growth Ahead

The changes are paying off. OpenAP is now a half-billion-dollar entity and is expected to become even bigger this year. Part of that is due to more widespread industry momentum.

"The growth in cross-platform advertising in general has been tremendous within the TV community," Levy said. "There was a significant increase in last year's Upfront, and we anticipate having an even larger jump in this Upfront. Most buyers now are really thinking about taking one consistent audience and being able to use that across both linear and digital.

"It is a very exciting time for us," he concluded.

 

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

Measuring Cross-Platform DOOH. An Interview with GSTV’s Eric Sherman

DOOH measurement solutions is one of the most dynamic areas of sales and marketing today which is why the partnership between GSTV and Comscore is so compelling. Their recent announcement helps marketers to better understand the impact of GSTV’s ad exposure on client business outcomes.

GSTV and Comscore

Out of home offers a myriad of opportunities to interact with consumers in more intimate and engaged ways. GSTV, (short for Gas Station TV), offers, “A national video platform reaching one in three adults 18+ on a monthly basis and we reach consumers in a unique moment in their consumer journey. We have the reach and scale of linear TV and targeting and attribution capabilities long associated with digital media,” explained GSTV’s Senior Vice President of Insights & Analytics, Eric Sherman.

The network’s partnership with Comscore is expanding with a new measurement initiative. In the past they have collaborated in advertising effectiveness studies. For Sherman, Comscore’s leading reputation as a, “global leader in cross platform audience measurement was the main reason why GSTV took the partnership even further. Comscore, according to Sherman, is known for, “Their standard-bearing online tools and also their trusted television audience ratings service. And trust is paramount.” Sherman added that Comscore offers holistic video measurement offering business measurement, “that is as inclusive as possible and considering all video touchpoints throughout the day.”

GSTV OOH Measurement Methodology

For this next step in OOH measurement, Comscore will provide network level reach, frequency and impressions by demo and market for GSTV’s 26,000 locations, Sherman explained. “So basically the foundational planning metrics for agencies,” he noted. In addition to the full footprint, the data can also be broken down by market area and by the classic demographic breaks.

“The measurement will be comprised from a number of different data inputs. One data input will be census level transaction data so we have a precise view of each and every transaction that occurs. We know when somebody is in front of the screen, seeing the ad or a piece of content. That is a foundational piece of data. Layered on top of that is mobile device data and from that data you can get demographic information,” he stated and added, “Also we will be doing a national survey to calibrate everything to make sure the demos align.”

All of data is part of a planning tool for agencies so further datasets can be merged into it to obtain a full consumer journey. Initially it will answer the basic questions of reach, frequency and the demos but, “going forward, Comscore will integrate us into their various other tools, plan metrics, for example. So you will able to combine the GSTV data with data for various digital properties such as mobile apps and websites so advertisers can understand what is the incremental reach in digital,” he shared, enabling advertisers to better understand overlap and reach.

“Going forward even beyond that,” Sherman continued, “As Comscore builds a holistic cross media planning tool, we will be able to do that same sort of thing with TV networks or CTV networks. What will be through the singular view of GSTV will ultimately be cross platform views of GSTV as it intersects with other media properties.”

GSTV Future

GSTV is poised to enter the cross platform marketplace at a time of changing consumer preferences which, as Sherman noted, offers the company a rich opportunity for growth. “There are two trends driving opportunities,” he began, “One, the decline of linear television and the rise of streaming and two, increasing concerns about consumer privacy.” For GSTV, he explained, “As linear TV ratings decline, ad supported streaming isn’t growing fast enough to make up the difference in ad inventory. This is pushing down supply of video inventory pushing prices up. Marketers are frustrated and paying more for less, offering a perfect opportunity for GSTV as a real alternative for advertisers.”

With privacy, 84% of Americans are worried about what advertisers know about them, he posited that, “Digital is losing its superpower. Digital advertising is going to shift more to contextual advertising.” For GSTV, knowing what the consumer is doing at the time of the ad exposure and what they are buying, can offer advertisers a more accurate picture of consumer intent without having to collect any sensitive personal data.

“I think we are seeing a convergence of all different types of media,” Sherman predicted, “I think we will see digital out of home become a much more important part of the media mix particularly as video starts to fragment.” As far as GSTV is concerned, the implementation of this cross platform capability, currently slated for late 2021, will place it in the sweet spot for advertisers. “It is foundational. It is table stakes for any media platform. But just as important and even more important, are business outcomes. We’ve spent the past few years really focused on helping our clients measure actual business impact. We’ve seen that our platform is really effective in driving those outcomes,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

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

 

Optimizing Your Cross Media Planning. An Interview with a4’s Kevin O’Reilly

Cross media planning offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the range of media and datasets available to marketers. This is why a seasoned professional like Kevin O’Reilly, Senior Vice President of Product, Data and Monetization for a4, is the go-to person to help optimize advertising messages in the planning stage through sales enablement across cable, OTT and digital.

The Value of Cross Media Planning

Cross media planning involves, according to O’Reilly, “reaching households that you need to with the appropriate efficiency and the appropriate frequency for targeting.” This process requires deftness. “When you build a plan,” he explained, “there are many options such as targetable media, which is one-to-one. But with that there is a trade-off in cost and, to be honest, accuracy. How do I make sure that I am achieving the greatest efficiency that I can? I want to make sure my clients are reaching their correct audiences without waste. So when it comes into that full sales process, it’s about the conversation. ”

Balance in a plan is vital. “When you look at cross platform you have to ask the question, how do I establish the most efficient base? How can I get, from a good pricing perspective, the majority of my reach? And then when I start paying for incremental reach, I start using the targeting platforms, while controlling the frequency.”

The Components of Cross Media

The two big core pieces of media in a4, “are local linear, a commercial ad on a spot, in a market, on a station on a specific point of time in a day. But that might be delivering to a couple of thousand households – it depends on the size of the zone. Then there is OTT and to a lesser extent OLV into devices like iPads etc in the house,” he stated. And, when the client requests it, household addressable, which, “gives us the ability to reach a set of target households with a specific piece of content back to the zone.” For a programmer, the remaining households in that zone would see a different piece of content, a PSA or a different commercial.  

There is also Direct-to-Mobile, which O’Reilly explained, “is our own messenger product which has the ability to target very specific households within a very local region.” Content here can be text messaging as a bottom display with an ability to click on it. “It can take you directly into the video that we have been showing on the big screen or, if you are a local retailer, could actually be your address on Google maps or some other form of sequential messaging that you would want to put in front of the customer,” he added.

The Importance of Data and Metrics

The wealth of data Available to a4 is focused mainly within their footprint although there are also opportunities to work with data from outside partners. Within a4, “we have deterministic device graphs,” he noted, “we have anonymized unique household IDs which are obviously router ID addresses. So when it comes to targeting, we are leveraging this anonymized key to reach across all of our various digital assets.” And he added, “On top of that we have our set top box data and we also supplement with ACR data with vendors.”  All of this revolves around privacy which is secured through an anonymized key. “We never see the household data,” he assured.

When it comes to metrics, “a lot of our clients and agencies out there are still relying heavily on ratings and reach,” he revealed. “For me, I try to understand the cost of incremental action that we are generating whether that is reach or frequency or further down the attribution funnel. But also what is really important to me is the concept of effective frequency – not average frequency.“

But, he advised, “it’s becoming increasingly important for advertisers to understand the data that are being used inside the ecosystem. Understand the source of the data when you are talking with your partners about doing targeted ads. Make sure that the data reflects that you are reaching who you think you are reaching.”

Perfecting Cross Media Planning

When it comes to launching a cross media plan, O’Reilly offered some cogent advice for advertisers. “Understand what it is that you are trying to achieve,” he noted, “What are the critical business metrics that I am looking to achieve? Am I trying to get more people to buy my product? Am I trying to get people to the top of my funnel? What is my internal sales cycle? What is the business outcome I am to achieve?”  That is the starting point. Then you need to find media, “that activates customers from this part of the funnel, to have a conversion event to get them through the next part of the funnel,” he explained.  

Ultimately it comes down to perfecting timing, “how much business activity am I trying to drive to a point in the future. Then there is a work back calendar when you start to think about how to best treat specific customer segments, when does that campaign start, when do we have a flighting structure, maybe building up to crescendo in the final two weeks reiterating the message,”  he stated.

When it comes to the future, with the impact of the pandemic taken into account, O’Reilly is bullish. “It will definitely be more digital. The way people are consuming linear is changing as is the increase in bandwidth which creates even more opportunities. Two years from now, IPV6 will be ‘a thing.’ We will make that move from being just household addressable into individual devices beyond the router.” His enthusiasm is infectious. It looks like the future of cross media planning will be even brighter.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com