As Brands Return To Television, Confusion Around Measurement And Addressability Remain Key Issues
Brand advertisers seem to be getting over their infatuation with digital display advertising—years of ad fraud, brand safety issues, viewability issues and the widespread adoption of ad blocking software will do that to you.
But the TV industry they are returning to looks a lot different than the one they left.
Yes, TV can now do most of the amazing targeting tricks that digital can do. Ads can be sold via automated (don’t-call-them-“programmatic’) systems. They can be targeted to specific audiences …and delivered only to those audiences, (e.g., addressable)
The problem, as we learned when we did our recent special report on ad-supported OTT, is figuring out how to measure them.
Why Measurement Is Such A Problem
Measurement is a problem for a host of reasons, not least of which is if you don’t know how to measure ads, it’s hard to figure out how to buy or sell them.
Especially across multiple platforms and time slots and sellers.
The issue is that there are a great many systems all using a great many different methods to measure how many people are watching each ad and then to measure what they did after they watched the ad, which ad got them to take which actions, and which platforms were the most effective at getting them to take said actions.
It’s important to note that that none of the existing systems are wrong. (Okay, maybe the ones that grade their own homework. Those systems are just wrong.)
The problem is that if you’re an advertiser, it’s impossible to figure out how to integrate all those disjointed measurement systems for all those various delivery systems in a way that makes sense and allows you to determine where to best spend your billions of ad dollars.
TV[R]EV’s New Measurement Report and Addressable Report
So given all this massive confusion, we thought it would be a good idea to turn our unblinking TV[R]EV eye to the twin issues of measurement and addressable advertising, both of which will be the subjects of our next special reports.
That's right--there will be two new special reports, one on measurement and one on addressable.
Our measurement report will further be broken down into three sections: innovations in measurement, data and attribution, and digital video measurement.
Our addressable report will look at how the entire process works from start to finish, the differences between linear and time-shifted (VOD) addressable, why it is (or isn’t) worth paying higher CPMs for addressable, how addressable advertising is being delivered and by whom, what the current standards are, how to measure whether or not it's working, and how an addressable future will affect everything from the upfronts on out.
What To Expect From These Two Reports
Our goal is not to solve all the industry’s problems. (We’d charge a lot more money for that) but rather to highlight the many innovations that are going on during this period of great change, to makes some sense out of the current landscape, to help guide brands, networks and agencies through the process so they can understand who is doing what, when, where, how and why, and offer some predictions on where it all goes next.
I will be joined on this journey by my trusted colleagues Jason Damata and Mike Shields, as well as a new addition to our team, Charlene Weisler, who had spent many years working in the field of TV measurement and brings a wealth of knowledge, a sense of humor and the ability to understand all those seemingly contradictory buzzwords the industry loves to throw out.
We still have sponsorship opportunities left and your co-sponsors will be just who you think they are: the biggest names in the business, the measurement companies, tech companies, agencies and networks who are at the red hot center of what’s going on today.
