“Reaching the right audiences at scale is what continues to matter.” According to Lauren Fisher of Advertiser Perceptions, who delivered the opening keynote on Tuesday, advertisers’ measurement practices are feeling the effects of four major industry forces: macroeconomic impacts, channel shifts, identity changes and the rise of ‘new’ walled gardens. On top of that, three in five US advertisers continue to report shifting budgets into high-performing media to maximize ROI in today’s economy. Lauren Chaplin of Horizon Media said, “Competition is good for the industry, measurement and innovation,” while Tom Ziangas of Crown Media Family Networks called this “a little bit of a dance.”

Stuart Schwartzapfel of iSpot.TV announced the formation of the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA) with 10 leading independent streaming programmers. Three of those publishers joined Schwartzapfel on the panel – Tim Ware of Crackle, Jeffrey Imberman of Tastemade and Kevin McGurn of Vevo. Discussing representation, Schwartzapfel said, “In speaking about diversity, we mean diversity of the intended audience, but we also mean diversity in terms of the lifestyle and the interests that those streaming programmers cater to.”

“US adults are projected to share to spend four hours and 46 minutes per day watching TV, and nearly 40% of that is streaming,” said John Vilade, Premion head of sales, referencing an eMarketer report in February. In response, Premion Head of Product Dave Marquard called CTV “absolutely a must buy” that is complementary to linear.

ATTENTION

Speaking about attention metrics, NCM’s Manu Singh opened her panel with, “If you’re going to your neighborhood 40-foot screen, you’re probably seeing an ad in one of our theaters.” Joanne Leong of dentsu noted the tech developments to measure attention in recent years has accelerated signals such as eye tracking. “The awareness and the education of how it can be measured, and then how it can be applied, has then since grown, and I think that’s kind of why we’re seeing almost this revolution now with like how do we start to move beyond legacy metrics into attention.” Putting the concept into practice, Diane deCordova of Adelaide said, “There is a fixation on measuring reach and that is to detriment, possibly, to the quality of that reach.”

BRAND BUILDING

Sean Cunningham of the VAB brought up the tension between brand and business, within the context of economic uncertainty. He asked fellow panelists, “When you’re trying to sell more stuff, how do you counsel [your clients] about brand versus outcomes when there is the kind of pressure and scarcity that there is now?” Responded Kasha Cacy of Known, “I hate the idea that those two things compete.” In a crowded and commoditized industry, Cacy said companies should build a customer universe with a love that supersedes price.

Two big issues loom large and loud, according to CIMM’s Jon Watts: AI and privacy. George Ivie of the Media Rating Council (MRC) said we are “moving into a world that is privacy by design,” and, by placing identity at the front and center, the resulting gaps – such as missing data, loss of signal and accuracy of demographics – are more critical than ever. To offset consumers feeling that their data is being monetized and monopolized, Ameneh Atai of Nielsen said, “One thing is inevitable, and that is that there is going to be more scrutiny on privacy.” She said, “Let’s just do cool things for consumers, because we’re all consumers.”

Spectrum Reach’s SVP of Advanced Advertising Products & Strategy Rob Klippel observed, “We’ve had a data-driven approach for as long as I’ve been [at Spectrum], which is a little over seven years now. We have household-level insights and data for 30+ million US households, and over the years we’ve used that data in a privacy-complaint aggregated way.” Crediting the power of collaboration, Klippel continued, “We’ve also formed a series of really foundational partnerships… All of these partners are making our platform exponentially better than if it was just us working on our own.”

IAB’s Angelina Eng said, “The biggest challenge we have around measurement is privacy regulations that are starting to happen.”

By making first-party data the rule rather than the exception, Hyphametrics CEO Chris Wilson said we are in a “personalization revolution.” Therefore, a hybrid approach is available to understand audiences, with panels filling in the gaps. Jean-Marc Papin of Horizon Media said, “Privacy is intrinsically tied to anonymity.”

INNOVATION

Danielle DeLauro, executive vice president of the VAB, said, “We’re moving at such a fast pace, but we don’t always know what we say we know.” In a panel on using measurement as a catalyst for growth to empower the marketer, she and Stacey Stewart of UM Worldwide agreed that transparency, inertia and testing and learning are the ways to future-proof success.

Magid’s Mike Bloxham quoted his fellow panelist Jonathan Stringfield of Activision Blizzard when he said, “The advertising and media business loves innovation, [but] hates change.” Bloxham said, “And there’s kind of something to that – you would think there is something to that because when you look at the amount of innovation that we embark upon, and the amount that actually goes all the way through and has a meaningful, scalable impact on how we do and what we do, that’s actually not a bad statement.”

Innovation should be more than change for change’s sake, agreed panelists. DISQO’s Roddy Knowles said, “We talk about innovation a lot, we do some sort of innovative things, we think about different things that other people are doing and how we can piggyback on those, but actually backing out to understand what problem we are trying to solve… What are we actually going to do when it’s successful, then what?” Anthony Iaffaldano of Fandom observed, “Sometimes we don’t even know what we’re trying to accomplish with the innovation.”

ATTRIBUTION

Last year, new topics surrounding measurement emerged, noted Jim Spaeth of Sequent Partners. Attribution was forced to pivot in order to adapt, experiments came of age, machine learning and AI found their places. Machine learning continues to deliver as it develops, and, when supervised, it can overcome data management challenges and predict outcomes. As technique evolves, so do innovation and excellence, therefore providing unification through attribution for a full-funnel picture. Spaeth’s predictions for the future envision the evolution of data deprecation, DEI measurement, retail media, identity, personalization and more.

New York Interconnect’s Betsy Rella said that measurement today feels like “the wild west.” A joint venture between Altice USA, Charter and Comcast, NYI considers education, partnerships and geography to be key when it comes to understanding and leveraging data. “New York is kind of a microcosm of the total US,” Rella said. “Because it has these propensities for different behaviors, it allows you to target those segments.”

Pointing out his coworkers Danielle DeLauro and Marianne Vita of the VAB in the audience, company CEO and President Sean Cunningham said, “I can assure you that the third most dynamic of the three of us is up here right now moderating.”

Professional sushi chefs prepared rolls for attendees on the rooftop of the Hotel Edison during the cocktail hour following Tuesday’s sessions.

a4 Advertising perked up the conference with a coffee bar.

The panelists for “Advertising, the Final Frontier” had a spirited session. Mike Bloxham of Magid said, “We’ve done the most important thing, which is to dish out the whiskey… This is a fun panel with a bit of booze.”

Michael Shaugnessy of Kargo noted, “While the couch hasn’t moved, the media landscape has been upended.”

John Vilade, head of sales at Premion, said that a Hulk Hogan impersonator on Madison Avenue told him, “Make your dollars work harder.”

MEASURE UP! AWARDS

Cynopsis held its inaugural Measure Up! Awards on Wednesday afternoon, celebrating media campaigns and the changemakers behind them, and inducting three executives into the Measure Up! Hall of Fame. The full list of Hall of Fame Inductees and winners follows:

The 2023 Measure Up! Hall of Fame Inductees:

Kelly Abcarian, EVP, Measurement & Impact, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal
Jane Clarke, Former MD and CEO, Coalition of Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM)
Bill Harvey, Founder and Chairman, Research Measurement Technologies (RMT)

The 2023 Measure Up! winners (listed alphabetically by category):

Best Advancement in Data Privacy
“Blockgraph: Enabling Privacy-focused, First-party Data Connectivity for TV,” Blockgraph

Best Advancement in Data Utilization – a tie between:
“How DriveTime Boosted ROAS 26%,” iSpot.tv
“How Endeavor Streaming’s Growth Services Team Drives Customer Retention, Business Growth,” Endeavor Streaming

Best Advancement in Measurement
“Proving Behavioral Impact with DISQO Outcomes Lift,” DISQO

Best Cross-Platform Campaign
“Nestlé Professional AI Campaign Drives Sales with New Customers,” Mod Op

Best Data Use for Creative Optimization
“Spectrum Reach’s data-infused new creative helps drive a 25% increase in website visits for Pella Windows & Doors,” Spectrum Reach

Best New Tool for First-Party Data Utilization
“TEGNA AudienceOne,” TEGNA

Best Tool for “Real-Time” Reporting
“EDO’s Real-time Ad Outcomes Data,” EDO, Inc.

Best Use of Data in Planning/Buying
“The Use of tSNE for the Optimization of Linear TV Buying for Optimized Multi-demographic Targeting,” Ocean Media, Inc.

Outstanding Ad Fraud Solution
“Spectrum Reach’s Superior Ad Fraud Solution consistently outperforms industry benchmarks,” Spectrum Reach

Outstanding Advancement in Multicultural Audience Identification
“eMbrace,” Horizon Media

Outstanding Brand Safety Strategy
“Brand Safety as a Strategic Imperative,” Premion

Outstanding CTV Targeting Solution
“Sabio & Cracker Barrel CTV Campaign,” Sabio, Cracker Barrel and Carat
Strategus

Outstanding Example of Custom Data Strategy
“The WWE Universe,” WWE, Inc.

Outstanding Use of Attribution – a tie between:
“Gamut Insights & Analytics: Success Planning From Targeting to Attribution,” Gamut
“How Comprehensive Multiscreen Campaigns Drive Up Auto Sales,” New York Interconnect

We look forward to seeing you at That Big TV Conference and the Best of the Best & Rising Star Awards in September!