• by Tony Jarvis , Op-Ed Contributor, June 19, 2017

Here are some of the highlights of the event, now in its 12th year. These nuggets can be followed up via the referenced speakers and their companies or through ARF directly. To keep it simple, and hit the broad strokes, key points been summarized as follows:

X-Platform Best Practices – Josh Chasin, comScore and Bill Harvey, Research Measurement Technologies

• Hybrid methods key to today’s methods

• Integration of carefully cleaned ‘Big Data’ with probability sample (panel) “covers” survey non-cooperators

• Fusion hooks critically important

• Goals: Minimize bias; produce ad reach as close to truth as possible

• Measure beyond target audience impressions or exposure to outcomes - ROI

Making Cooperative Measurement Models Work – Jamie Power, one2oneZone Media; Jonathan Steuer, Omnicom MediaGroup; Megan Clarken, Nielsen

• Without age, sex, how do you trade?

• Avoid the race to the bottom on rates

• In moving to an impression-based world, impressions across platforms need to be harmonized

• Representative sample are required as a means to clean Big Data

• Addressable TV is the future, but still problematic in terms of target accuracy

• MRC accreditation across media data sets that drive comparability (harmonization) are critically important

This dialogue segued into the next panel.  

Can TV and Digital Currencies be Unified?  Ed Gaffney, GroupM; George Ivie, Media Rating Council; Manu Singh, Discovery Communications; Daniel Slotwiner, Facebook

• All impressions not created equal

• Conflict is between digital (viewable) impressions and C same day/C3/C7

• Vendors: Don’t protect legacy businesses, provide transparency and speed

• Panels can no longer do it all

• Eliminating fraud traffic; cleaning Big Data sets; de-duplication – very hard

• MRC working on digital & cross platform media audience standards

• “If we are using C7 or C3 in ten years we should be shot!”

Holistic Research Approach – David Poltrack, CBS & Leslie Wood, Nielsen Catalina Solutions

• Do a better job of executing today versus planning for the future

• Achieving meaningful reach in digital campaigns is extremely difficult

• Creative tend to drive loyal/repeat buyers that speaks to propinquity and the recency model

• Campaign effectiveness drivers: Creative is still king, but contribution is not quite as strong in today’s environment of higher quality executions

• Move to measuring results versus a counting (audience) house

Better TV Data for Better TV ROI, The CRE Study – Richard Zackon, Nielsen CRE; Dr. Jim Spaeth & Alice Sylvester, Sequent Partners

• Diaries are too blunt a measurement instrument -- most MMM -- marketing-mix models use AQH for spot TV

• Precise minute viewing (25 LPM markets) does not damage MMM ROI estimates in majority of cases

• AQH diary metrics do damage MMM’s ability to determine ROI in many cases

• Finding likely to speed Nielsen’s move to incorporating passive set tuning meters for Spot TV measurement – Fall 2018??

Can Blockchain’s Open Approach Clean Up the Digital Supply Chain?  Ken Brook, MetaX

• Industry losing trust exacerbated by continuing fragmentation and a “flawed backbone”

• Enterprise Ethereum Alliance via AdXchain attempting to address overall fraud and lack of transparency https://entethalliance.org/

• Blockchain based on immutable ‘smart’ contracts, where each impression event is encrypted and represented as a block

• AdXchain identifies and authenticates to eliminate fraud and verify impression

Continuous Media Measurement – Sorin Patilinet, MARS Inc.

• Foundation is performance measurement

• Simple KPIs and evaluation (just 4 stars)

• Always on HH measurement panel

• Mutual collaboration within company

• Creative is a growth engine and needs to be isolated from media effects

• Pseudo single source is gold standard to measure media impact (9 countries over 10 years ~ 3,000 ads including competitors)

• Repetition generates insights

• All cockpits have two seats

• Research investment relatively small versus marketing/media spend

• Results: Poor creative eliminated earlier; great creative extended longer than normal as they are demonstrated not to be worn out

Creating Effective Mobile Advertising – Dr. Manuel Garcia-Garcia, ARF

• Fundamental issues: Creative not unified across platforms and not customized to platform within that synergistic requirement

• Ad blocking the threat

• Findings of research study of 4 creative executions with 3 versions:

• 90% skipped!

• Early brand mention earned attention

• Payoff outscored pre-roll, in-stream & pop-ups

• Do not disrupt – give user control

Revolutionizing OOH Measurement – Kym Frank & Dylan Mabin, GeoPath; Ryan Kinskey, Airsage

• GeoPath extending current audience location measurement via MORE – Measurement Optimization Rating Enhancement.  “Understanding trips and paths” on a continuous basis

• Traveler home location and dwell times added to measurement approach

• Integrated approach co-mingling (not fusion as stated!) traffic counts; mobile data (device location/activity points/trip logs); HH demos; congested route speeds; further data sources; and presumably VAI and panel classification data

• Bottom line:  Provides estimate of every unique trip in US including direction and duplications

Privacy Compliance Gets Really Hard: Preparing for EU’s GDPR- General Data Privacy Regulation and its Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications – Reed Freeman, WilmerHale

• GDPR to be formally implemented May 2018 - prepare for compliance now if you operate in the 28 country European Union!  

• A host of opt-in requirements for EU residents’ data

• Draconian financial penalties for non-compliance

• New regulations potentially catastrophic for third parties

• The GDPR is “a bear requiring substantial investment”

Further information on this comprehensive ARF Audience Measurement Event can be found at: https://thearf.org/