NEW YORK — It was a lively and remarkable panel discussion, led by one of the television industry’s most respected research executives. It saw TVB EVP/Chief Research Officer Hadassa Gerber ask hard questions to executives from Nielsen and Comscore about how to deliver data that will best support broadcast TV’s ad growth.
Panelists from Publicis Media and WPP Media were equally frank with their measurement desires, which today remain unfulfilled.
The discussion began with Gerber asking about the major barriers to maintaining and growing ad dollars — including attracting younger audiences, gaining metrics that show they’re consuming broadcast television, and meeting them where they are.
For Tracy Chavez, EVP/Managing Director at Publicis, the shift to a Connected TV environment is clearly impacting linear television, along with other issues and challenges as they pertain to measurement.
Chavez called for “one accurate methodology” that is not only easy to understand and not hard to teach but is also “timely and consistent.”
WPP Media Managing Partner and Director of Local Investment Danielle Medina agrees. “It is simple in theory but we have to get there … audiences are shifting.”
For Justin LaPorte, Comscore’s VP of Product Management, and Nielsen VP of Product Management Nick Mannion, emphasizing their respective offerings to stations and advertisers was seen across the session — even as Gerber pressed for better solutions for the industry. In particular, she and the two ad buying professionals questioned how “measurement” in the digital atmosphere can be 2-3 seconds, while in linear media a three-minute qualifier is the standard.
Taking a swipe at Nielsen’s recent efforts that have been lauded across the radio broadcasting industry, Gerber said, “We have to do what makes sense for TV. We can’t look at Radio and take cues from them.”
Regarding the large gap between linear and digital on what constitutes consumption, Gerber asked Chavez and Medina if the qualitative difference is factored into a buy. For linear media, the answer was No. Why? There’s no way to measure two seconds of consumption to a linear TV channel.
While one may argue that two seconds is hardly consumption, don’t tell that to OTT giants such as Netflix, which have used preview videos for shows that, even when on auto-play, are considered viewership by a household.
That debate, however, may be secondary to the clear friction seen between ad buyers and the two big TV measurement companies operating in the U.S. “We know there is a lot not being captured, but what we are capturing we are not doing right,” Gerber concluded.
