Vanessa Shanahan | Nov. 5 2020
COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on consumer behavior shifts in a period of just months. While the explosion in targeting OTT content via Connected TV (CTV) platforms creates exciting new opportunities to reach a tighter target, it can present challenges with duplicated reach and measurement.
Recently, some top industry leaders and I took part in Upwave’s Masters of Brand Measurement: How CTV is Disrupting TV Buying and Measurement panel to discuss the challenges facing TV marketers today. The Masters included: George Castrissiades – Executive Director Advanced Products & Partnerships, Crackle, Jonathan Bohm – VP Multi-Platform, NBC Universal, Dave Marquard – Head of Product, Premion, Sonia Vaidya – Head of Analytics, AKQA, and Jon Stewart – VP Measurement, Upwave.
It was super exciting to discuss the role of measurement in the evolution of CTV. The panel demonstrated the need for the standardization of metrics as it remains the most challenging and fascinating part of my job. As an analyst, my role is to help our clients quantify how their investment ultimately translates into consumer demand and is reflected in driving business outcomes that remain true across all channels.
The need for standardization of metrics is critical to the future of TV. The tsunami of data sources, driven by fragmentation in the media space, has had a critical impact on data measurement. It’s tough to define and calibrate ad buys and there is a great need for uniformity in data measurement across all platforms, a source of truth, something that is universal and trusted. Currently, there is nothing formally being used to measure the 300 million viewers. Instead, every company and source is using their own measurement system and reporting.
With CTV there could be a really great opportunity to measure the effectiveness and how to reach the consumer through innovative creative and messaging of different lengths depending on the type of content and device. The data allows us to better understand what type of content plays best for the consumer, at what time, and where, so we can deliver the right type of creative in the right environment. Just because one piece of content works on one platform, it does not mean it translates effectively to another.
As marketers and analysts, we want to lean into our learnings. However, we have to be adaptive and fluid to understand and optimize our creative to target and reach consumers. With a standardized metric system approach and an understanding of how each platform’s consumer behaves, the onus is on us to understand the data and to create creative around that to help us stitch together and build the story we want to tell in order to quantify the true impact we are delivering for our brands.
Watch the full panel below to really dive deep into the conversation!