• by Wayne Friedman , December 9, 2021

Heeding the call for better cross-screen media measurement marketers, OpenAP, the supply-side advanced advertising group, is launching a cross-platform measurement framework.

Backed by national TV networks, the framework, called XPm, will provide a more standardized approach to metrics and technical requirements -- one where there is sharing of campaign exposure data with third-party measurers in privacy safe environments.

Among other metrics, the framework will work on unique deduplicated cross-publisher and cross-platform reach and frequency -- increasingly a key need for marketers.

Media agency companies -- GroupM, Dentsu Group, and Horizon Media -- are among the first agencies to participate in the beta program.

OpenAP supply-side members include Fox Corp, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Walt Disney, Discovery, WarnerMedia, The Weather Channel, AMC Networks, Univision, A+E Networks and Crown Media Holdings.

Measurement companies working with XPm include Comscore, iSpot, Nielsen, VideoAmp and 605. Another company, Innovid, will offer enhancements to digital measurement for use in XPm reporting.

Marketing and media agencies have been clamoring for cross-platform measurement -- from everywhere. Now, there is a need from proposed cross-platform measurement efforts over details.

David Levy, CEO of OpenAP, speaking with Media Daily News, says media and marketing executives have questions such as: “What’s the granularity of data we are going to get, and how actionable is it?”

In response, he says: “We are going to provide tremendous insightful data at an aggregate level. Then there will be publisher specific level data that publishers will then own and have the ability to grant permission, if they want to, to the buy side.” Levy also says marketers want to know how this will change their planning and buying procedures.

Key for the plan is the 290 million identities in OpenAP's identity graph, OpenID, which is based on TransUnion/TruOptik data, combined with TV publishers' first-party data.

“We actually know the specific IDs that are reached. [However], we aren’t able to pass that data for privacy reasons directly to the buy side.” But he says OpenAP is setting up privacy-compliant ways to share insights at the ID level, such as over- or under-frequency, demographics, and household income.

Publishers have concerns the granularity of the data shared with marketers could harm them.

Levy says data is shared with marketers “to be used to move to cheaper inventory without any quality controls. Standards around how you equivalized impressions and [determine] premium versus garbage sites -- that’s a big question mark.”

The VAB will operate as the “governing body of XPm” to create common standards on behalf of TV publishers. Measurement company requirements will be defined by the VAB, with all solutions subject to validation.

Earlier this year, OpenAP launched its supply-side platform for marketers that want to buy automated access to linear TV ad inventory. Omnicom Media Group was the first agency to sign on.