Delivering cross media measurement tools for the addressable age

The report can be downloaded here.

The European Addressable Media Initiative has outlined a series of recommendations to drive growth in addressable advertising, including support for cross-media measurement and measurement innovation, and best practice guidelines for data management, ID solutions and publisher alliances.

One of the key challenges raised by the shift to addressable media and highlighted by the report is developing cross-media approaches and solutions that work for advertisers and media owners.

Despite increasing convergence, TV remains inherently different to other media, delivering mass-market reach and high-quality engagement in brand-safe environments.

At the same time, viewing of linear TV is falling in almost all markets, especially among younger audiences, as viewing becomes more fragmented. As a result, building reach and frequency solely with linear ad spots is increasingly difficult and expensive, with broadcasters seeking to deliver campaigns across linear channels and streaming services.

Futureproofing the TV ad market

Addressable TV can help advertisers reach light linear viewers and build reach and frequency, as well as bring new advertisers to TV, through more precise targeting, smaller-scale campaigns, data-enablement, and self-service platforms.

In addition, addressable TV has the potential to future proof and grow the TV ad market, enabling advertisers to leverage their own data assets and to target specific regions or tightly-defined audience segments. In effect, it lowers the entry barriers for TV advertising, attracting advertisers who have grown up with Google, Facebook, and Instagram.

According to Finecast’s managing partner, global innovation, Kristian Claxton, the ability to target TV audiences via addressable platforms means there is huge potential for performance-based as well as brand advertising on addressable TV. He says: “In the UK, Finecast has delivered significant increases in reach and sales consideration as well as store visits, online engagement, and sales through addressable campaigns.”

Addressable TV’s value as a direct response medium is underscored by a growing body of research indicating ‘intent to purchase’ and other sales indicators are significantly higher for ads viewed on connected TV services than on traditional TV. For example, a recent survey by Magnite found European connected TV viewers are nearly 2x as likely to make a purchase after seeing an ad as viewers watching linear TV.

To unlock this potential, TV inventory needs to be both addressable- and data-enabled. Broadcasters need programmatic solutions, self-service platforms, and new targeting and measurement capabilities. Advertisers want consistency and interoperability, not a fragmented ecosystem of different sales channels and inventory sources.

As Jamie West, PXI advisor-in-residence and ex-deputy managing director, Sky Media, points out: “Addressable TV has opened up new pools of advertisers from local advertisers to SMEs to niche brands using TV to reach their customers efficiently. To make the most of these opportunities requires collaboration, shared standards and consistency in proposition, capabilities, and audience and effectiveness measurement. If the industry delivers these, addressable TV can be the springboard for a new era of growth.”

New cross-media and cross-broadcaster measurement approaches

Simon Thomas, GroupM’s global director, audiences research and media investment management, puts the measurement challenge succinctly: “Advertisers invest billions of euros, pounds and dollars in advertising campaigns and need to be sure they’re reaching the right audiences as efficiently as possible. So as an industry we need to deliver cross media measurement tools for the addressable age that enable them to do exactly that.”

The UK’s Project Origin and creation of the Nationaal Media Onderzoek (NMO), the combined Joint Industry Committee (JIC) in the Netherlands, are good examples of new cross-media approaches in Europe. However, both initiatives have taken years to get to this stage, still face a number of challenges and limitations and are yet to launch.

Our recommendation therefore is for key players on both the buy and sell sides of the market in each country to support cross media and cross-broadcaster measurement initiatives such as Project Origin and CFlight.

In smaller countries such as Italy and Spain, as in the Netherlands, this may mean aligning existing JICs around common approaches. Further funding may be required to support these initiatives. Project Origin, which proposes to charge advertisers a levy on ad buys, offers one funding model but there are others.

As digital media and consumption on connected platforms continue to grow, measurement requirements for media planning, ad exposures and attribution are changing fast.

Incumbent and new measurement providers are investing in a wide range of new solutions in numerous areas, including attention, verification and viewability, clean rooms, brand measurement, sales impacts, media mix modelling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution.

However, individual publishers and broadcasters are partnering with different providers and the marketplace is fragmented and inconsistent.

A common framework to measurement innovation

Common approaches to certifying measurement partners could play a powerful role in supporting innovation across the addressable ecosystem, supported by different trade bodies and media owners.

This would give buyers the confidence to work with different partners and would deliver important efficiencies, reducing the requirement for every buyer to perform their own detailed due diligence, at least in part. The costs of accreditation could be covered by research providers seeking certification.

Such a framework could be rolled out across different territories, although, given the differences between markets, we would expect media owners and others in each country to localize the certification process. This recommendation builds on the principles set out by the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM).

For more details on this and other recommendations to help European advertisers and media owners maximize the opportunities from the shift to addressable advertising, download the Initiative’s report here.