The speed of change in the media industry is exciting – and in some cases “more than a little scary,” says Ed McElvain, Mediahub’s EVP, Director of P3 (digital platforms and data-driven media buying). McElvain, who will be speaking at the Cynopsis Big TV Conference on a panel about attention measurement, offers a preview of that conversation.



What are brands’ expectations now regarding measurement? How do you anticipate that changing over the next year?

Brands always want to be able to prove ROI by linking media exposure to business outcomes. This will not change but the methods for doing so are becoming more challenging with the proliferation of media choices, walled gardens ecosystems, and privacy restrictions in tracking.

What are new strategies Mediahub has employed that have been successful?

We are focused on identifying durable data that provide strategic advantage in the marketplace. We have developed tools that enable us to identify audiences to drive growth, understand how best to reach them, and then apply filters and algorithms to make sure we’re doing it in quality media for the right price. Specifically, Attention data has emerged as a key pillar of this layered strategy.

What about the media landscape is proving the most challenging right now?

There’s a lot of complexity and change happening, and fast. Privacy and AI in particular are really reshaping our industry. I’m optimistic that we will be a better, stronger industry because of these changes – especially if it moves us away from breaking consumer trust and bad attribution models. But the accelerating speed of change is challenging and it’s more than a little scary to embrace opaque AI models when we don’t really understand exactly how they work… they just do.