The Monumental Opportunity In Video Ad Measurement

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Ad measurement is key to proving a strategy is driving business impact, getting C-suite buy-in and optimizing strategies. Yet no more than half of US advertisers are satisfied with their campaign measurement across media types, according to an April 2021 Advertiser Perceptions survey. And only 38 percent are satisfied with their digital video measurement solutions.

A new eMarketer report explores the state of ad measurement, focusing on opportunities and challenges in the video space, including why advertisers are reassessing currencies to measure performance and how video ad measurement is expected to change through 2022 as the industry approaches a cross-screen and cross-platform solution.

The report’s three key findings include: 

  • Video ad measurement is a mess. Third-party identifiers are on their way out, which means greater challenges ahead for digital video measurement. Additionally, the industry is without a Media Rating Council-accredited currency as annual upfronts approach.
  • Video ad measurement is evolving. Advertisers stopped settling for siloed insights into campaign performance across video channels. Instead, they’re employing new directives that are helping facilitate cross-screen, cross-platform measurement by addressing challenges concerning data quality, compatibility and accessibility.
  • Video advertisers need to engage with the measurement problem. Though measurement is complicated, letting agencies, networks, measurement firms and ad tech platforms do the dirty work won’t benefit advertisers in the long run.

This year’s ad measurement discussion would be best addressed through the lens of video. With the 2022 upfronts coming up, there’s plenty of competition in the video ad measurement arena.

According to eMarketer’s 2022 forecast, US advertisers will spend just shy of $346 billion on media. Formats across linear TV and digital video—including connected TV (CTV)—will account for roughly 42 percent of total ad spending at $144.55 billion. 

But without a standardized system of measurement that connects the dots across mass and one-to-one advertising in online and offline ecosystems, it’ll be difficult to effectively allocate video budgets that align with changing consumer behavior.

According to an October 2021 Advertiser Perceptions survey, US advertisers ranked video as the most valuable tool for achieving advertising goals. As eMarketer notes, advertisers won’t stop investing in video while the industry works through the measurement challenge; video buyers and sellers will instead have to collaborate to face video ad campaigns this year, conquering ad measurement obstacles along the way. 

Before the industry can achieve cross-screen, cross-platform currencies (ie: those which allow for a fixed amount of inventory to be purchased in advance), that can facilitate holistic views of video investment, ad performance and campaign attribution, a few issues must be addressed. Until recently, it didn’t seem practical to adopt an alternative to Nielsen’s Gross Rating Point (GRP). Now, as eMarketer points out, there’s an array of alternative currencies.

For a transaction to occur, there must be a currency in place. For example, if a network doesn’t reach its forecasted viewership numbers, more ads are run at no extra cost in order to “make good” on the initial agreement. Measurement comes into play because an ad’s value is partially determined by how many consumers it reaches. Take billboards for example—those in high-traffic areas tend to be more expensive than those in low-traffic areas. Other than reach and frequency, the value determination can become subjective.

To constitute a measurement solution as currency-grade, VideoAmp chief measurability officer Josh Chasin cites two requirements: transparent and justifiable data-based methodology and that the output is perceived by the buyer and seller as fair, objective and as accurate as possible. 

On the other hand, television ad measurement data is typically sourced either from people or from machines. People-based panels are comprised of households and individuals whose viewership data is willingly offered. 

These panels come with their own set of challenges—for one, they’re regularly plagued by compliance issues and two, they’re often too small to correctly measure across all entertainment sources. Also, many advertisers activate against very specific and usually small audience segments. For these reasons, adequate measurement should be based on more than just panels.

Machines, on the other hand, include devices like smart TVs and set-top boxes that can generate massive amounts of second-by-second viewership data. And while big data regularly supplies the type of scale required to support analysis of smaller audiences, it comes with its own set of problems. For example, it must be cleaned and calibrated in order to correct errors, mitigate biases and secure accurate representation.

According to eMarketer, any holistic and useful measurement solution will draw from a combination of big data and panels. But data sources aren’t all advertisers have to go off of. Even given the exact same inputs, two measurement providers could reach two different conclusions. Each vendor uses a unique methodology, solutions for glitches in the data and models to apply to the broader population.

In designing and deploying holistic video ad measurement systems that can serve as a currency, measurement partners face several barriers, including:

  • Convoluted data infrastructures that make it difficult to unify disparate data sets
  • Chaos in identity – i.e., the “connective tissue” of ad measurement – resolution
  • Adaptability to the future of privacy compliance and new, disruptive formats and technologies such as the metaverse

According to eMarketer, there’s a seemingly endless supply of newly released or upcoming measurement solutions, which shows the magnitude of the current ad measurement opportunity.

There are two major cross-platform contenders on the third-party front. The first is Nielsen’s Nielsen ONE, which is set to launch in Q4 2022. The first operating version of this solution, Nielsen ONE Alpha, is in testing as of December 2021. The second is Comscore’s Comscore Everywhere product suite, which is rolling out in phases throughout 2022.

Other solutions can be seen also in linear TV’s move away from ad measurement based on programs to ad measurement based on the actual ad. The industry is also shifting toward outcomes-based measurement. While it’s important to know how many people were exposed to a campaign to contextualize any ensuing lift in brand affinity or sales, lift—not campaign exposure—is what advertisers are chasing in their media investment. 

One thing eMarketer is sure of is that the industry won’t be relying solely on Nielsen’s GRP in time for this year’s upfronts, where it estimates that US advertisers will spend $20.57 billion on linear TV alone. Networks are currently working with partners on in-house currency initiatives that are designed to streamline cross-screen, cross-platform measurement for all properties owned and operated by a single system.

Ad Investment In CTV Grows Faster Than Other Channels Within Digital Video

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As viewers continue to increase their use of digital video including connected TV (CTV), social media and short-form, ad investment is primarily following consumer attention. According to IAB’s 2021 Video Ad Spend & 2022 Outlook, ad investment in CTV is growing the fastest within digital video. However, CTV budget allocation continues to significantly lag viewer time spent with the channel. And despite its advantages, CTV comes with its own set of challenges, largely stemming from channel fragmentation.

The study, now in its ninth year, explores why CTV ad dollars aren’t keeping pace with viewer time spent, what’s driving CTV’s growth and the key challenges and opportunities within CTV and digital video. 

To quantify the size and growth rate of the digital video market, IAB, in partnership with Standard Media Index and Advertiser Perceptions, has included in this study the first-ever total US digital video ad spend estimates for 2020 and 2021 and projections for 2022. Here are the study’s four key findings. 

1. Due in large part to CTV, digital video ad spend is experiencing substantial growth, though ad dollars aren’t keeping pace with consumers. 

Digital video ad spending increased 49 percent YOY in 2021 to $39 billion. That figure is expected to increase by 26 percent in 2022 to reach a total of $49.2 billion, according to IAB’s estimates. 

As the fastest-growing video channel, CTV is considered by 76 percent of buyers to be a “must-buy,” the study finds. Spend increased 57 percent in 2021 to $15.2 billion and is expected to grow by an additional 39 percent this year to reach $21.2 billion. Plus, between 2020 and 2022, CTV ad spend is anticipated to increase by a whopping 118 percent.

According to Ayzenberg associate media director Kris Patel, there are a number of reasons for the swift growth.

“Targeting and analytics make CTV a great advantage when it comes to video advertising that reaches an audience as large as and sometimes larger than linear TV,” says Patel. “Because the data and analysis are not panel-based information—it is platform-based digital view information—media planners, buyers and analysts are able to determine optimal marketing mix, audience segments that perform better than others, and user engagement via other platforms like social media.”

This year, the amount of money allocated to CTV today isn’t proportionate to the 36 percent of total time spent with linear TV and CTV combined.

2. CTV’s growth is due to multiple factors, including KPI delivery, data usage, transparency and the fact that it doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. 

Additionally, compared to linear TV, CTV provides a number of advantages for buyers, who rate CTV as 57 percent more effective than linear TV at delivering website/sales actions and 46 percent more effective at delivering brand perception. CTV also offers buyers the ability to leverage first-party brand data (65 percent), location data (61 percent) and shopping data (50 percent) – all unavailable within linear TV buys.

It also provides more transparency into where ads run than that provided by other digital video types. Fifty-nine percent of buyers reported being “very clear” on where their CTV ads ran as opposed to 50 percent for social video and 43 percent for other digital video.

Given buyers’ ongoing privacy concerns and CTV’s mitigation of them, 73 percent of video buyers anticipated reallocating dollars from linear to fund their third-party cookie/mobile ID depreciation CTV spending increases.

3. CTV’s challenges stem mainly from channel fragmentation-related issues.

Over 33 percent of buyers report that the challenges inherent in CTV are caused by difficulties associated with: 

  • the measurement of incremental reach across platforms/publishers (48 percent)
  • the management of frequency across platforms/publishers (43 percent)
  • the lack of transparency/interoperability within walled gardens (42 percent)
  • fragmentation of programmatic supply paths (35 percent)

Additionally, fragmentation-related difficulties further prevent video buyers from using sales and business outcome KPIs within their CTV buys. These buyers regularly cite sales lift as their ideal KPI for CTV despite not leveraging it due to measurement complexity, sub-par tool functionality and data lag, notes IAB.

Leo Hernandez, director of media at Ayzenberg, says this isn’t surprising.

“This is nothing new—new media, new challenges. As we develop new opportunities to connect with consumers, brands need to assess the pros/cons before activating on CTV as they would with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) or the metaverse. If we consider paid TV (cable) in its infancy, it too faced fragmentation concerns (the ratings/audience were consistently below those of broadcast, for example). The optimal approach to new media opportunities is to maximize the individual tactic with discipline and understanding. What are the limitations in reach and how can it help with generating consumer responses in awareness/branding/behavior/message retention?”

“Media is grounded on the scientific method,” Hernandez says. “When executed correctly we analyze the opportunity, generate a theory, test the theory, and review the results. Media opportunities will continue to evolve; marketers should not be focused on what these new media cannot do, but rather consider what these opportunities can do for your brand and determine if that is consistent with their objectives.”

4. Buyers are addressing CTV challenges by preparing for a converged linear TV/CTV market and leveraging creative and targeting tactics.

Eighty-eight percent of buyers expect a converged linear TV/CTV marketplace in the foreseeable future – a marketplace that would make the management of cross-platform and cross-channel video buys easier. 

Sixty-six percent of linear TV/digital video buyers currently have a single planning team for the two channels while 25 percent expect to have one in the future, according to IAB.

Buyers are also executing an array of creative and targeting tactics including leveraging multivariate creative to mitigate over-frequency and creative burnout (64 percent). And as many as 52 percent of buyers report increasing their use of contextual signals in place of open exchange-based audience targeting.

CTV will become more widely adopted as emerging ad formats are themselves adopted and finetuned. Of the users of emerging formats, influencer-based and shoppable are performing well across the funnel. Given that buyers have expressed CTV’s KPI delivery rate across the funnel is higher than linear TV, these emerging formats are ripe for CTV.

Advertisers From Pepsi, Allstate And More Join OAAA’s New Brand Council

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The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) has convened a Brand Council, a platform to encourage collaboration between media leaders in the OOH industry.

The network’s inaugural nine advertisers—from brands including Allstate, Diageo and Pepsi—will advise on and shape the future of out-of-home (OOH) and advocate for its place in an omnichannel marketing mix.

The OAAA Brand Council members include:

  • Cheryl Gresham, chief marketing officer, Visible
  • Greg Hamilton, vice president of media, insights and content strategy, Little Caesars
  • Todd Kaplan, chief marketing officer, Pepsi
  • Sophie Kelly, senior vice president of whiskeys portfolio in North America, Diageo
  • Keith Lusby, vice president, connections and partnerships, Inspire Brands
  • Dave Marsey, senior vice president, media and commerce, Allstate
  • Catherine Schenquerman, senior director of brand marketing and communications, GoPuff
  • Randi Stipes, chief marketing officer, The Weather Company; IBM Watson Advertising
  • Maria Givens, global head of media and digital, Logitech

The news comes as the OOH industry continues its pandemic recovery. According to OAAA research, OOH advertising revenue increased 16.7 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year, accounting for $7.1 billion. Q4 total OOH revenue increased 37.4 percent and in 2021, 79 percent of the top 100 OOH advertisers increased their OOH spend from 2020.

Leading Through 7X Growth With Qualcomm’s Don McGuire

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Don McGuire is the senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Qualcomm Technologies. Don leads the global marketing organization, supporting Qualcomm’s advancement into new and existing markets and growth areas. He’s redefining Qualcomm’s strategic approach to product marketing, leading to innovative campaigns and collaborative partnerships that are bringing cutting-edge products to market.

On the show today, Don and I talk about how Qualcomm has increased its total available market by 7X, what that means for their strategies, and how they’re managing the organization through growth. We also talk about the brand strategies they use for their B2C brand, Snapdragon, as well as the enterprise brand of Qualcomm itself.

Listen in to learn how to elevate your brand and prepare for rapid growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why partnerships can elevate your brand
  • How to develop a compelling brand narrative
  • Tips for restructuring your marketing organization and leading through change

Key Highlights

  • [03:00] Don’s journey to Qualcomm
  • [06:30] Splitting the Qualcomm and Snapdragon brands
  • [12:00] Elevating the Snapdragon brand with a Ferrari partnership
  • [18:00] Developing mutually beneficial partnerships
  • [22:30] Fueling explosive growth with connectivity
  • [28:30] Developing a compelling brand narrative
  • [34:30] Restructuring Qualcomm’s marketing organization
  • [41:00] Experiences that define Don
  • [43:30] Don’s advice for his younger self
  • [44:30] What marketers should be learning more about
  • [49:00] The biggest opportunity for marketers today

Resources Mentioned:

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

Twitch Considers Updating Its Creator Monetization Structure

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This week in social media news, Twitch considers changing how it pays top streamers, Pinterest adds 2 million users in Q1 2022 and YouTube Shorts reaches 30 billion daily views.

Twitch Weighs Changes To Its Creator Monetization Program

According to people familiar with the planning, Twitch is considering updating how it pays top streamers and offering incentives for streamers to run more ads, reports Bloomberg.

Why it matters: The Amazon.com, Inc.-owned platform’s changes may alienate creators and viewers given that it will cause its most popular streamers to receive a reduction in their share of subscription fees. 

In recent years, Twitch has provided an arena primarily for gamers to showcase their talents to the world, creating a new cohort of internet celebrities. Amazon has repeatedly expressed its desire to monetize the platform further and has released a series of new, profit-driven programs that some employees believe hurt its users and caused it to lose touch with its community’s needs.

The details: Twitch is reportedly considering implementing new changes to its monetization structure that would incentivize streamers to run more ads and reduce the proportion of subscription fees offered to the platform’s biggest creators in its partnerships program from 70 percent to 50 percent. 

Two of the unnamed individuals who claim to have inside information told Bloomberg that another option regarding streamers’ revenue cuts of channel subscriptions is to create multiple tiers and set criteria for how to qualify for each one. Twitch may then offer to release partners from exclusivity restrictions—meaning streamers would be free to stream on Facebook and YouTube.

Some of the changes could go into effect in summer 2022. A representative for Twitch declined to comment.

Pinterest Adds 2 Million Users In Q1 2022

According to Pinterest’s latest performance update, its revenue is increasing year-over-year and declining quarter-over-quarter, and it saw 2 million more monthly actives logging in in Q1 2022.

Why it matters: At the start of the pandemic while people were stuck at home and ecommerce surged, Pinterest reached 478 million users. That number has been dwindling ever since—it now reports having 433 million users.

Pinterest’s aim to be a key hub for shopping will necessitate that it retains these users and pitches them ads in order to keep its brand partners happy. Pinterest’s slowing growth, even as it expands into new markets, is not a good sign, though it remains to be seen how big it’ll become and how it’ll respond to the next Google changes.

The details: Pinterest posted better YOY performance, though it has declined on a quarterly basis, explaining that it’s the result of the decline in active users despite its success at better monetizing the audience it does have. Additionally, the number of Pinners engaging with shopping surfaces has continued to grow YOY.

In its performance update, Pinterest said:

“In Q1 2022, we continued to experience year-over-year engagement declines primarily due to pandemic-influenced growth in the year-ago quarter as well as lower search traffic (largely driven by Google’s algorithm change in November 2021). Time spent on competitive video-centric consumer platforms remains a headwind, particularly in our more mature markets. These declines were most pronounced for our desktop web and mobile web users, with mobile app users showing more resilience. The decline in global MAUs from February 1 to March 31 was primarily due to Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, and was particularly pronounced in Europe.”

YouTube Shorts Up To 30 Billion Daily Views As Shorts Ads Begin Testing

In its latest earnings report, Google confirmed that it has started running ads on its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, as it averages over 30 billion daily views.

Why it matters: In February 2022, YouTube Shorts reportedly reached 5 trillion all-time views. The news that it’s currently at 30 billion daily showcases the rising popularity of short-form content. Showing ads between Shorts will offer YouTube another means of monetization given that as more people watch more Shorts overall, less will watch other monetizable videos.

YouTube is TikTok’s most formidable competitor in the short-form video space. If YouTube makes the ad offering permanent, its competition with TikTok will intensify as marketers are given more options to advertise on Shorts and creators are able to earn more revenue as a result.

The details: YouTube is in the testing stage of a move that incorporates ads between YouTube Shorts clips, which now garner over 30 billion daily views. YouTube will have to develop ads as a new revenue pathway for Shorts content in order to get more Shorts creators paid and keep them happy and on the platform. 

Google notes that more than 40 percent of creators who received payment from the Shorts Fund last year weren’t in the YouTube Partner Program, which pays creators billions annually.

Jordan Brand Hires Shannon Watkins As Chief Marketing Officer

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This week in leadership updates, Jordan Brand names Shannon Watkins chief marketing officer, Amwell hires Susan Worthy as chief marketing officer, PF Flyers appoints Lisa Lewis chief marketing officer and more.

Jordan Brand Names Shannon Watkins Chief Marketing Officer 

Jordan Brand has hired Shannon Watkins as its chief marketing officer.

Watkins joins Jordan Brand from Aflac Inc. where she served as chief brand and marketing officer for the last 10 months.

Amwell Hires Susan Worthy As Chief Marketing Officer

Amwell has named Susan Worthy chief marketing officer, according to a press release. 

Worthy was most recently senior vice president, provider marketing at Optum after holding marketing leadership roles at Aetna.

PF Flyers Appoints Lisa Lewis Chief Marketing Officer

PF Flyers has hired Lisa Lewis as chief marketing officer, according to a press release. 

Lewis was previously chief marketing officer of Piaggio Fast Forward. She has also held leadership roles at Sonos Inc., Chuck Taylor, Puma and Keds.

Shutterstock Announces Two New Marketing Executives

Shutterstock, Inc. has appointed Jason McClelland as chief marketing officer and head of customer care. McClelland joins Shutterstock from Algolia where he was chief marketing officer. 

In addition, Christopher ‘Skip’ Wilson is joining as the company’s vice president of brand marketing. He comes to Shutterstock from Peloton, where he led Peloton’s global brand and communications for its commercial business.

PizzaForno Hires Jason Lowder As Chief Marketing Officer

Jason Lowder has joined PizzaForno as the company’s chief marketing officer, reports QSR Magazine.

Previously, Lowder owned and operated his marketing agency FixAim Marketing.

Overstock Names Angela Hsu Chief Marketing Officer

Overstock.com has tapped Angela Hsu as its new chief marketing officer.

Hsu previously worked as senior vice president, marketing and ecommerce at Lamps Plus, where she also held the roles of vice president, internet business and marketing, and director, internet marketing.

Ad Council Elects 21 New Members To Its Board Of Directors

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The Ad Council has elected 21 new members to its board of directors, some of which are from companies joining the non-profit organization’s board for the first time including Major League Baseball, Pocket.watch, Spark Foundry and Vidmob.

The members join the organization’s chair Linda Yaccarino—chairperson, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal—and vice-chairs Jacki Kelley, chief executive of Dentsu, and Diego Scotti, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon.

The new members of the Ad Council board of directors include:

  • Jonathan Adashek, chief communications officer and senior vice president, marketing and communications, IBM
  • Michele Barlow, brand strategy, creative, content and media executive, Bank of America
  • Vanessa A. Broadhurst, executive vice president, global corporate affairs, Johnson & Johnson
  • Alex Collmer, CEO, Vidmob
  • Tina Davis, global chief marketing officer, Citi
  • Rachel Ferdinando, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, PepsiCo Frito Lay North America
  • Jim Habig, vice president, marketing, LinkedIn
  • Gail Heimann, CEO, Weber Shandwick
  • Lisa Ryan Howard, global head of advertising and marketing solutions, The New York Times
  • Kellyn Kenny, chief marketing and growth officer, AT&T Communications
  • Sarah Kramer, chief executive officer, Spark Foundry
  • Tammy Levine, head of brand management and sponsorships, Wells Fargo
  • Doug Martin, chief brand and disruptive growth officer, General Mills
  • Stacy Martinet, vice president, marketing and communications, Adobe
  • Ryan Mayward, vice president, Ad Sales, Instacart
  • Richard Parkinson, chief brand officer, Prudential Financial
  • Mary Ann Reilly, senior vice president, head of north america marketing, Visa
  • Karin Timpone, executive vice president, chief marketing officer, Major League Baseball
  • Kerry Tucker, chief marketing and franchise officer, Pocket.watch
  • Bill Watkins, chief revenue officer, Pinterest
  • William White, chief marketing officer, Walmart

In addition, Chris Kelly, chief executive of Upwave, joined the organization’s leadership council, which comprises a total of nine executives across media, tech, marketing and advertising whose companies activate campaigns and share key learnings, insights and capabilities to support the Ad Council’s work.

Most recently, the Ad Council’s board of directors led the industry’s response to the pandemic and launched a COVID-19 vaccine education initiative.