Changing channels: harmonising TV measurement
Comcast Advertising and Freewheel created the Agency Leadership Council (ALC) as a forum to exchange ideas and thought leadership amongst a broad set of buy-side television and digital experts, including senior executives across the major and independent agencies
Changing Channels is a series of articles that together look at the changing and evolving TV ecosystem - built from the direct insights and perspectives of the ALC membership - and spans some of the most salient issues impacting TV right now, including: fragmentation and convergence, ways to harness the power of TV in all its forms, and the challenges and opportunities facing the subject of effectiveness.
Part 3 – Currency conversion: can we harmonise TV measurement?
The front end of television has changed beyond recognition for marketers and audiences - fresh new content, on demand, on multiple screens, and via multiple platforms. But the revolution of TV that we are witnessing is happening "behind the screens”, where at the back end, the operations that underpin and form the ecosystem are in rapid transition too.
This presents a tremendous opportunity to marry the strengths of existing structures and processes with the capabilities that technology and data enable - moving towards the potential of a single planning, buying and measurement currency. But, are these interests compatible, and are incentives aligned to realise this ambition?
A revolution from front to back
Things are changing, and in many ways, there's no turning back. The recent US Upfronts - typically the singular event for placing forward investment commitments to shows and stations - were marked by a clear statement from P&G's Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, who declared that "the system must change" and that P&G will no longer participate in this current format of buying and selling media.
What we are seeing as very visible change for audiences in TV consumption and content - driven by the different broadcast and on demand TV solutions and environments - is drawing an equally comparable call for change in the way the industry transacts as well. The data and technology enablement of TV simply sets very different operational expectations for brands and agencies.
"With convergence comes a requirement for better planning, buying and measurement" says Mihir Haria-Shah, Head of Broadcast at Total Media, a statement echoed by Dan Larden, Managing Partner, Product and Partnerships at Infectious Media, who states "When the lines of measurement get blurred, it creates excitement (for brands)" He follows on , "but the search for a single source currency and solution might not end with an outcome." It is this note of caution that underlines the challenge of bringing the different parts of the industry together to resolve these shifting requirements. Let's explore why.
Two worlds collide
The answers will be of no surprise of course - It's a well-told story of old versus new, legacy versus innovation, established norms versus the desire for change.
On the one hand, we have linear or broadcast TV. Linear commands the bulk of audience attention in TV and ad investment - despite the current disproportionate industry focus on non-linear viewing, 90% of the £4.9BN UK TV advertising industry is delivered via linear. This is a world built over decades to deliver economic confidence, where the audience currency of GRP's (gross rating points) drives long-established broadcaster share-based deals, cyclical spend commitments from advertisers and agencies, and a system of supply and demand for premium content that remains in absolute equilibrium. Critical to our analysis though is audience measurement, where a carefully managed, nationally representative and statistically proven panel provides our viewing and performance data.
On the other hand, there is new TV: internet and platform enabled, streamed, on demand and data rich. Although clearly in rapid emergence, these different forms of connected television create new expectations for an industry operating system - flexible and controllable, offering greater addressability to individual households and devices, with the automation of trading aligned to standard "digital" metrics. However, to focus on audience measurement, it is here where the greatest change is apparent - real time, deterministic, and granular data is now available that can connect both inputs and outcomes much more clearly, serving the needs of marketers who must demonstrate the effectiveness of their investment.
Seemingly, the established and the new systems that drive TV measurement (and subsequently planning and buying) in its different forms are at polar and incompatible ends of a spectrum - this will inevitably present challenges. "Clients need answers to the measurement problem, but equally - in this transition - they have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable," agrees Harriet Perry, Chief Digital Operations Officer at Omnicom UK.
To Harriet's point, if we can see things more pragmatically, then there are points of immediate adjacency to be found. The existing measurement methodology for linear TV - although limited in some aspects, i.e. panel and probabilistic-based, rather than census and identity-driven - is incredibly rich in insights beyond pure demographics, offering deep behavioural context, lifestyles, passions etc - all of which could augment existing digital CTV measurement practices.
Equally, identity-driven device-side measurement can benefit linear TV. For example, over 60% of all UK TV panel-measured spots are classified as zero rated (having no viewing audience), the application of scaled device-data could help bring actual rather than predicted viewing attribution to this ad inventory. Dan Larden gave a further illustration, suggesting that ‘’Device data can allow us to understand which TV sets have a gaming console plugged into them, to offer a clear, incremental audience targeting capability."
A spectrum of choice and coexistence, rather than conflict
The inevitable question that follows is whether the industry should be driving towards one universal form of measurement, or should we be looking instead to create harmony and interoperability between the different systems.
The ALC membership are unanimous in their perspective: "The reality is going to be complex, but we have to accept that different forms of media have been measured differently for a reason, and that we have to be comfortable with these working alongside each other" reflects Tim Willcox, Managing Director, Programmatic Hub at Dentsu. Simon Thomas, Global Director Audiences Research at GroupM supports this position, stating ”The different forms of measurement and currency play complementary roles, reflecting different buyer and seller requirements, so why should we force a single solution?" It is this realism that suggests that there will be multiple sources of measurement and trading for some time to come. Linear TV will remain a constant in the ecosystem, even as On Demand TV becomes a larger part of it. Just as audiences will embrace both elements in combination, so should we.
There is now a responsibility on all stakeholders across the industry to support and enable this more balanced approach to measurement as the dynamics change. We are seeing this already through initiatives like ISBA's Project Origin in the UK, that is seeking to simplify and consolidate media planning and reporting across video and display advertising. Further still, there is a particular requirement for marketers, that Dan Larden called out, which is that "Marketers should be aware of different stances and views and take control of the agenda - holding all parties to account, harnessing technology, controlling the inputs and managing the differences." This of course won’t be easy to do, but this is where having the right agency partner with a focus on measurement will be vital.