John McCarthy explains what the forerunners stand to gain from their investments in people-based, integrated audience measurement – and how others can catch up and reap the same rewards
In February, Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer, Marc Pritchard, called on the media and advertising sectors to “reset the bar” when it comes to assessing reach, frequency and ad effectiveness.
Speaking at the ANA Media conference in Orlando, Florida, Pritchard said: “It’s not who spends the most that matters; what matters is who reaches the most consumers with the greatest media precision, the highest advertising effectiveness and the optimum efficiency to deliver sustained growth and value creation.”
Pritchard’s views, which are representative of many brands globally, speaks to various industry challenges, but for media owners, it hammers home how important it will be to effectively track their audiences across different platforms and showcase the true reach of their services.
This has certainly been a core focus for Kantar Media for some time, and our teams have already been working in 15 markets worldwide to expand coverage of our audience measurement services to meet the challenge of measuring both linear television and online video in a complete, consistent, and integrated way.
With streaming service adoption only growing, cross-platform measurement is no longer a question of if, but when. That is why, in an effort to consolidate and share our learnings to date, we’ve published two separate guides – addressing both the buy and the sell side – to demonstrate the many benefits of widening audience measurement to incorporate viewing across all screens.
Here, in the first of two accompanying articles, we’ll look at the benefits for networks and platforms. Next month we will spotlight the buy side, and explain what advertisers stand to benefit, and what challenges they must overcome.
This isn’t a binary challenge; rather it is a shared industry mission with many stakeholders and evolving complexities. Every player will find themselves in a unique position as they make progress on their journey towards cross-platform measurement, yet ultimately the destination – and the rewards – will be the same for everyone.
Guiding business strategy
The rapid adoption of streaming, driven particularly by smart TVs and IPTV delivery, has brought streaming past the tipping point. Widening measurement is driven by the need for content owners and distributors to be able to act rather than react in order to make the right business decisions and navigate a changing video landscape.
Early and reliable competitive intelligence is vital here to understand the real dynamics of the streaming market, putting the performance of SVOD (subscription video on demand), AVOD (advertising based video on demand) and FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) services in context using common metrics.
Indeed, cross-platform measurement ensures valid comparisons can be made across different viewing forms, moving the reporting of online viewing beyond impressions to actual impacts.
Stronger sales arguments
It’s now evident that cross-platform measurement is driving media owners’ digital transformations, ensuring that they understand how audiences on platforms complement each other, and providing opportunities to unlock the power of their own first-party data.
Expanding and improving measurement capabilities means that they’re able to generate stronger sales arguments for advertisers by helping planners understand how audiences really view, and how they can reach particular audiences, especially those deemed harder-to-find.
We’re in this together
Of course, this is just a broad snapshot of what cross-platform measurement means for media owners, and I encourage interested readers to make the most of the full guide, which offers in-depth and practical information, as well as video interviews from a range of media owners and advertisers.
Meanwhile, those businesses ready to make cross-platform measurement of viewing a reality in their market should feel free to get in touch with any questions. We also invite suggestions and observations – after all, we’re undertaking this journey together, and so collaboration and open dialogue should sit at the heart of everything we do.
Unlocking Value: the media owner’s guide to monetising viewers across platforms’ is available to download here for free. A separate guide helping advertisers to reach and engage cross-media audiences is also available for download, and will be the focus of attention in May’s Audiences Unlocked newsletter. Click here to subscribe.