Can media measurement evolve to truly capture cross-media reach in a fair and equitable way?

Karen Light

Current and future leaders in media came together last week to debate and challenge the status quo at the Future of Media conference.

For me, one of the really interesting debates focused on media measurement - an area of significant & constant change. Media agencies and advertisers have been puzzling for some time on a unified approach to cross-device and cross-media measurement. As media planners, we want a tool that enables us to understand net campaign reach and frequency, in particular the ability to unite traditional TV with the plethora of digital channels that now exist. If only there was a simple solution to this!

ISBA, in conjunction with Kantar and Accenture, are now onto the third phase of Origin, the cross-media measurement initiative. This aims to bring uniformity to the way we measure media, particularly broadcaster TV and digital display and video. However, whilst the project has received backing from over 40 organisations (including big advertiser brands, media agency groups and the likes of Google, Meta and TikTok), the UK’s biggest commercial broadcasters, ITV, SKY and Channel 4 are absent from the mix. Why is this?

The major commercial broadcasters have expressed concerns about how measurement of TV ad audiences can be compared in a fair manner with video views on digital platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. It’s certainly a complex picture. Almost every platform has a range of different metrics. For example, some platforms count a video view as three seconds, others count a view as soon as users open a video. Some platforms play videos with sound-off. Some videos will be viewed on mobile, others on a big screen. Some views are counted despite only having 50% ad viewability. With so many different standards, a view on one platform isn’t necessarily as valuable as a view on another one. It’s easy to understand why the TV companies have concerns. TV audiences have been measured independently by BARB since 1981, whereas tech platforms’ have lacked the impartiality of third-party measurement.

But are TV broadcasters right to be opting out of Origin?

In the Broadcasters defence, they have been making inroads to improve measurement. C-Flight (the UK’s first unified TV advertising metric that captures the majority of live, on-demand and time-shifted commercial impacts and impressions across all viewing platforms) is providing valuable data on combined linear and broadcaster VOD viewing – albeit post campaign. But it doesn’t really go far enough to answer the full question. We need to understand how broadcaster TV compares with YouTube, Facebook and other network video and CTV channels.

So how do we evaluate the value of an advertising impact on TV versus Digital fairly?

There are three key areas that feed into this: Audience, Attention and Attribution.

We not only need to understand who is present and actively watching, but what their level of attention or engagement is. The ability to delve deeper and to connect more data is important, if we want to link viewing data to attitudes and consumer behaviour and be able to understand the context of impacts served. There is a need to dedupe devices, especially as we connect more data in future, including gaming, podcasts, CTV etc.

Attention is currently being heralded as a proxy for quality in terms of ad views – and we know from Lumen research and other studies that there is a strong correlation between attention and awareness. But if low attention is less valuable, then by how much? Some studies suggest that low attention can still be highly effective from consumers absorbing messages in a more passive, subliminal way. There is still an inherent value to those opportunities. What about other effectiveness factors that we know are also at play - trust, emotion and creative standards for example?

So what’s the answer?

There is no denying that the industry is facing a massive measurement challenge and there is no simple unified solution at present. In fact, we need to be wary about simply layering up multiple data points and condensing them into a single metric. The solution is not to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator. As media planners, we need to consider the different metrics and continue to make informed decisions about the value of opportunities.

Until Origin becomes available in 2024, BARB TV data will remain invaluable, particularly as Netflix and Disney+ have just signed up. Through Lumen, we can now calculate an ‘attentive cost per seconds viewed’ across TV and digital channels. It’s not perfect, but it does offer some levelling of the playing field to assess the effectiveness of broadcaster TV versus digital platforms.

The only way we can truly understand the relative value of one channel or type of impact versus another is through testing. There needs to be real consensus around what campaign success looks like and more time spent defining KPIs and outcome targets and using attribution techniques to understand response. This is particularly important when we want to understand not only the short-term impact of media, but the effect it has on long-term brand health drivers. This is where brand research and econometrics can help us evaluate the bigger picture and help us navigate this increasingly complex AV media landscape.

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In the words of the Rolling Stones… all I hear is Doom & Gloom. Show me a bit of sunshine!

By Karen Light • 25 May, 2023

Winter is bleak enough, without a looming recession, high inflation and now the threat of food rationing. As consumers feel the pinch and businesses face soaring costs, a lot of brands are questioning how they can best connect with consumers at this time. ITV’s recent ‘Race to the Top’ webinar highlighted that despite the pressures, people are still spending, but assessing value in different ways. The ITV study found that whilst price is important, quality came a very close second as a factor of choice. Consumers were also more likely to purchase when brands communicated why prices needed to go up and didn’t mind paying for something if it made them feel good. This emotional hook could be rooted in the social or sustainable benefits from buying a brand, or simply by offering those everyday magic moments; like a home interiors advertiser suggesting little home lifts, or an indulgent me-time snack. TGI’s Global Quick View 2023 study shows that if UK adults had to reduce spending due to the cost-of-living crisis, they would prioritise holidays and going out to eat and drink. Consumers don’t want bleakness right now, they want uplifting experiences that enrich their lives. So, before brands turn to price discounting as a value incentive, perhaps they should consider their customers’ needs and how value may be added in other ways. Then communicate that in an entertaining but empathetic way. Karen Light Sources: Race To The Top: How brands should respond to the cost of living crisis (itvmedia.co.uk) GB TGI December 2022-© Kantar - “If you have to reduce your spending due to the cost-of-living crisis, which of the following would you prioritise spending your money on?” (top choices in Britain, by % adults): 29% Holiday/Short Break, 27% Going out to eat or drink System1 Group – Innovating in a Recession Jan 2023

All we hear is radio ga ga

By El Long, Planning Director • 07 Nov, 2019

Radio is a brilliantly effective media type but can often be undervalued and can admittedly be difficult to measure. So, radio, what’s new? Let’s take a look… Anyone who knows me, is well aware that I love a bit of audio advertising having worked for many years at a radio station group and headed up radio planning at a large network agency. It’s not right for every brief (but what is?) and it’s a specialist skill to write a great script for radio (we know some ace people who can help out in that area). Nine times out of ten though, radio can deliver cost effective reach volume against many key audiences, contributing to both short and longer term impact on sales and brand health measures. So why do many advertisers shy away from it? Like a lot of brand advertising activity, the bottom line is that it can be hard attribute and measure direct impact. This is never music to the ears of the finance department – nor helpful when you’re the marketing lead keen to seek budget approval. Growing numbers of people are tuning in to commercial radio Radio in the UK is having it’s finest hour - now reaching its highest ever total audience. The most recent Rajar figures revealed that commercial radio has overtaken BBC radio channels on share of listening for the first time in 23 years! The UK total radio weekly audience now stands at 49 million people, with a whopping 88% of the population tuning in. Within that, commercial radio now reaches 36.3 million. In contrast, the BBC’s total audience has declined from 34.9 million in Q4 2015 to 33 million in the latest figures. Great news for advertisers – the opportunity to reach high volumes of consumers via radio advertising is on the up! Couple this with the increased adoption of digital audio and the popularity of podcasts growing all the time, radio & audio platforms offer a prime opportunity for advertisers to take advantage of. We know it works; the largest advertising brands have invested heavily and consistently in radio over many years, often combining it with other media to gain that holistic multi-touchpoint effect. For me, the confidence in using radio comes from embracing both soft and hard metrics. There has to be a blend between the hard metric of “we spent this and got this back” with softer brand health metrics which you take time to build and to measure impact. RadioCentre have some amazing supporting studies for radio advertising. One demonstrates that digital activity, whilst measurable, has significant weaknesses in areas where radio excels, including increasing brand salience and maximising campaign reach. More importantly; radio sits above all media except TV in increasing profit ROI

Is it too soon to talk about Christmas?

07 Nov, 2019

It’s widely quoted that quarter 4 of 2022 will be a bit of an anomaly in the TV market, and potentially other media markets too. Not only do we have the usual noisy build up to Christmas bringing with it heavily demanded autumn airtime, but we also have a World Cup to deal with running from 21 November – 18 December this year, which gives many a media planner the need for a headache tablet and a lie down. Combine the two and we end up with a lot of clutter and some potentially very expensive costs for advertisers.