• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, June 16, 2009

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece for TV Board entitled "See Spots Run? And Addressable Issue" querying our community about the efficacy of the current modes of television ad verification tracking. $70 billions worth. I sighted three companies -- Eloda, Nielsen's KeepingTrac and the 4A's Ad-ID initiative -- that all knocked on my door around the same time last month. They cited me back:

4As, Harold Geller, Managing Director/SVP Cross Industry Workflow

Ad-ID, a web-based, complete code system, is now the only advertising asset coding system authorized and supported by the 4As and ANA and is the foundation of a digital workflow across all media. This means, that by integrating with Ad-ID's platform, vendors like Nielsen and Eloda can become more streamlined, and provide a more integrated offering to advertisers and agencies.

Did you know that from the time that an advertiser gives approval to create an ad, to the time that the ad actually airs and is invoiced to the agency, information about the ad is re-keyed up to 20 times, that's a huge duplication of effort. Re-keying costs $80 million annually, this includes workarounds to ensure unique codes. Ad-ID's Web services interface with other systems, to eliminate manual re-keying of information.

Ad-ID and its associated metadata could not only be used to improve workflow, it can improve the accuracy of usage, reporting, and evaluation of advertising assets, and associated spending, in addition to facilitating shorter material lead times across all media, and innovative new opportunities.

There are currently over 700 advertisers singed up for Ad-ID, which includes 81 of the top 100, and 134 of the top 200.

Nielsen's Tracking Services, Kevin Svenningsen, SVP, Sales/Marketing Media Tracking

Managing campaign performance while a campaign is in-flight is the key benefit that KeepingTrac service provides to our agency and advertiser clients. Near real time auditing of GRP performance, buy requirements and commercial verifications are the key value drivers for our clients. An analogy of the benefits of this process would be a professional sports coach who can make decisions on a play-by-play basis during the game rather than only making decisions at the conclusion for use in subsequent games. With KeepingTrac stewardship occurs automatically as the flight unfolds providing efficiencies to this process. We have also extended this service to our media clients who are interested in managing their promotional material in a similar manner.

Commercial and promotion encoding is the backbone of our service enabling next day detections of these occurrences. In Mitch's June 2nd TV Board posting he pointed to the addressable future and emphasized the need for this information more so than ever. We definitely agree and we are ready to partner with our clients to provide efficient and effective solutions as technology progresses.

Eloda, John Gee, EVP, Sales

Most everyone will agree that the current system of ad verification is difficult to check for accuracy and certainly doesn't provide timely information, with invoice reconciliation typically taking weeks, if not months. And, of course, the reconciliation process consists of taking a self-reported invoice and affidavit from a broadcaster and comparing it to the latest version of the media buy, so you're validating self-reporting. Also network broadcast affidavits only report what their ad insertion equipment played out, which may not be what was actually seen by a viewer. By the time the advertiser becomes aware that a particular ad didn't run, or didn't run at the right time, most often the opportunity to take corrective action has passed and the advertiser has lost the market impact of that spot.

Taking an active approach to improving ad verification can have several benefits, particularly as addressable and interactive ads proliferate: it gives advertisers and agencies assurance they got what they paid for; within the advertiser's company it increases understanding between marketing and finance; it allows the agency to be proactive and preemptive in showing on-going campaign performance obviating the need for client mandated media audits; and it will allow the agency to focus on getting the best value for the client's ad dollar rather than spending a huge amount of time on managing preemptions, make goods and invoicing discrepancies.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Eloda, we provide real time verification, competitive intelligence and campaign management services for TV advertising. Using our patented ad occurrence identification process based on our proprietary electronic fingerprinting technology, we provide a campaign management interface that allows the advertiser and agency to monitor, validate and deal with discrepancies all in real time.