January 25, 2023
Commentary
Of Metaphor, Meaning And Cross-Platform/TV Audience Measurement
- by Nicholas Schiavone , Op-Ed Contributor, September 16, 2021
Often the best way to understand a complicated matter is through the use of metaphor. Over the past 25 years, the marketing, advertising and media industries have seen the transformation of Nielsen
Media Research from the “gold standard” of TV audience measurement to the Theranos of cross-platform media measurement.
Theranos, …
3 comments about "Of Metaphor, Meaning And Cross-Platform/TV Audience Measurement".
Read more comments >
Next story loading 
Very interesting commentary, Nick, and I agree with much of what you say. As I have pointed out in various vorums, the critical issue regarding "cross platform measurement---meaning "linear TV" plus digital----as nobody cares about radio or print media, it seems-----is how the various datasets are melded together, whether they, individually, are projectable to the claimed universes and what statistical assumptions are involved in the final reporting process. Add to that the critical issues of getting an indication of viewing for all screens in all locations pluss attentiveness---rather than assuming that it takes place---and you have many problems to overcome.
I would add that its about time that the users of the data---the agency media planners and buyers as well as their constantly complaining but not paying clients, begin to appreciate that you can't get precision ---or "granular"--- measurements of everything----like second by second commercial viewing or some sort of perfect "attribution" modelling data. At a certain point, the user must take the responsibility and make a desicion---guided by what data is reasonably available---but based on judgement and situation-specific anaylsis. Nielsen, nor anyone else, can't do the whole job for you..
Actually I make my points on various "forums" not "vorums" and "pluss" is "plus"---but typos aside my typing has improved tremendously since I began posting about 7-8 years ago.
Faulting companies and/or individuals for acting in their self interest is easy to do but not a solution. Abcarian and the VAB are rightfully initiating and representing what is good for their businesses. I don't see anything wrong with that. Nielsen, likewise, is defending its position. We may disagree with what it proposes, or it's profits, but at the end of the day we get the metrics we agree to do business on. I don't see other companies fully understanding the entire measurement challenge across platforms better than Nielsen right now. Do you?