The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has announced plans to test that a cross-media measurement system from advertising software/data company VideoAmp in the U.S.
The news is the latest development in a push by advertisers and media to broaden their measurement options amid the controversy over Nielsen’s undercounting of TV …
So if the system notes that a TV set was turned on and a commercial was on-screen for at least two seconds in one home while a smartphone was used by a member of another household while sitting in a dentist's waiting room when a commercial appeared on its screen for at least two seconds is the combined "reach" expressed as two devices with an average frequency of one? It can't be consumers as the system doesn't know who in first home was watching---or even if anyone was watching the TV commercial, nor it doesnt know if the smartphone user was even present when the ad message came on nor whether the ad was seen.
Frankly, this preoccupation with reach and frequency using flawed data mystefies me as this is primarily a planning, not a buying issue and media planners will tell their buyers how many GRPs are needed to attain the desired---albeit approximate---- reach level by using various mixes of "linear TV" / streaming/CTV buys. The buyers will simply adhere to those specs---they will not be calculating the incremental reach and frequency of each potential buy---relative to its costs---independently of the media plan.