By Harold S Geller, VP of Strategic Development, Advocado - An agency veteran driving industry relationships and spearheading new strategic partnerships.
October 17-20, 2022 was Advertising Week in New York. I have been a regular attendee for many years , and this year did not disappoint, excellent content, and from what I hear, an innovative new venue, The Market Line, on Manhattan’s lower east side. My only regret was not being able to attend in person after fracturing my foot a few weeks ago, but that may be another post in and of itself.
As usual there were lots of content stages, including hundreds of speakers, and panels covering topics ranging from creative measurement to the Web 3.0, the metaverse, and NFTs. I decided to spend most of my time in the track called “The Screening Room, Presented by Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) which focused on Advertising, measurement, and media platforms, and overall media consumption trends.
Here are some important themes for Advocado friends and family…
💡 Advertising measurement is no longer only about audience, but also about outcomes
- Takeaway: Advertising measurement is no longer ONLY about demographic Gross Rating Points, Reach and Impressions, or more generally the “upper marketing funnel metrics” of awareness, it is about mid to lower funnel metrics of action, attribution, and sales lift. This is a theme that was repeated by Advertisers, and Media Publishers.
- Why it matters: Advertisers are increasingly challenged to debunk John Wanamaker’s “Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half” by using technology to assigning credit to the marketing stimuli consumers encounter along the path to “conversion” – attribution and sales lift. The technology and connective tissue exists to make these connections, and allow strategic adjustments to campaigns in mid flight. The key message is to have solutions in this connection between advertising and the mid to lower funnel metrics, and it’s time to draw attention to this work, especially in challenging economic times.
💡 There are only two methods of Media Consumption Linear and On Demand
- Takeaway: For too long, new “consumption platforms” have created complexity, which has relegated the conversation related to media budget allocation, planning, trafficking and measurement to specialist groups at agencies and advertisers. This has created a serious disparity between where consumer eyeballs are, and where marketing budgets are spent.
- Among the consumption platforms are:
- Linear: Over the Air, Digital platforms, FAST (free, ad-supported streaming TV like PlutoTV,Xumo, Tubi, Roku Channel)
- On Demand: Cable Set Top box, App based mobile, OTT and CTV, like Paramount+, Peacock, Hulu, and Crackle
- Why it matters: Consumers see content, and marketers want to reach consumers wherever they are. Growing numbers of consumers are quick to adopt new ways of consuming content, especially if it is free, or less than legacy methods, take for example declining cable subscriptions, or SVOD (Video on demand from subscription services). Innovative technologists and entrepreneurs capitalize on these trends, and develop new consumption platforms. Marketers are slow to shift budgets to these new platforms, because they are sold and measured differently, processes need to be developed to address these differences, and allow advertising budgets to flow to where the eyeballs are.
💡 There is no new ubiquitous measurement “currency” on the horizon
- Takeaway: As Nielsen develops their new “Nielsen One” platform, it is clear that publishers and advertisers are looking to test and implement “best of breed” audience and outcome measurement methodologies that encourage vendors to collaborate, and develop methodologies that are transparent, and not proprietary.
- Companies are partnering to bring interoperability to ad supported media (buy / sell / platforms & tech) and documenting the common denominators between linear and on demand. These solutions combine audiences using multiple datasets from different vendors using common definitions, across platforms, and media consumption methods.
- Why it matters: Nielsen’s role in the audience measurement space will continue to be significant, but different than the past. We are at a stage where innovation and experimentation will be critical, and active participation throughout the ecosystem will drive greater insights into advertising effectiveness, which will translate into new ways to reach consumers, and drive results.
💡 The launch of Netflix and Disney+ ad supported options are being watched closely
- Takeaway: Two historically subscription supported services are launching ad supported tiers in 2022, Disney+ is launching an Ad-Supported tier In December, and Netflix is launching an ad supported tier in November. These two services have extremely desirable content, and it is yet to be seen how or if there will be an impact on other ad supported services. Leadership at both Disney+ and Netflix have stated that these services will not cause significant departures from the subscription options, however history has shown that consumers when presented with the choice between no ads at a higher price, and limited ads at a lower price, the majority choose the lower price.
- Why it matters: The larger question of how this development will impact other options for media consumption, is yet to be seen. All eyes will be on how they approach pricing at launch, in addition to collaboration with other cross platform measurement capabilities. News has surfaced that Netflix is charging significantly higher CPMs than existing streaming services, and the question remains whether this will be tolerated by the advertising community.
💡 Third Party cookies are going away, it’s an opportunity for better ad targeting
- Takeaway: By 2024, marketers will no longer be able to track customers using third-party cookies. While Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari blocked the use of third-party cookies several years ago, Google Chrome has allowed them to stay. Since Chrome accounts for around 60 percent of the web browser market share, not only are cookies disappearing, but so is a huge source of consumer data. This development is the result of the increased attention on consumer privacy, and the consumer trend towards more capability for personalization and relevance.
- Why it matters: The third party cookie was always problematic in advertising targeting, it was designed to connect systems to each other, and consumer privacy was never even a consideration. The shift in advertising audience measurement, to include cross platform outcome tracking, is forcing the industry to use methods to target relevant ads to consumers across all media with consumer privacy at the center. There are a variety of Customer Data Platforms, using common identification mechanisms, with both anonymized, and first party data available, including privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), Artificial Intelligence, and Machine learning, will be leveraged together with other data security technologies that will do a better job at identifying and activating audiences, making ads more relevant and less less annoying, which will drive results.