A leading NBC ad sales executive has stressed the importance of effective measurement for programming and ads across a plethora of screens, as the company convenes a summit to bash industry heads together on the topic.
Nielsen’s Total Audience Report solution, for reporting cross-platform viewing of TV and digital content using a single metric, was delayed earlier this year after key client NBCUniversal dubbed it “bad, inaccurate and misleading”.
Now NBCUniversal has “asked top media buyers, executives at rival TV networks and digital-media outlets, video distributors, ad-tech platforms and even a handful of advertisers to come together on November 28”, Variety reports.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, NBCUniversal sales EVP Mike Rosen says: “Measurement is clearly critical … measurement across different platforms, where there is a disequilibrium, there’s a false equivalency across how different things are measured.
“Are we measuring right, to make sure that the value that is being bought and sold is being credited properly? You need to make sure that the data is accurate enough to inform those decisions. Because garbage in, garbage out.”
Delivering content across devices has, for many companies, been largely solved. But measuring that, assigning viewership to the right audience member and figuring out how to rate it all has emerged as the major current challenge.
Still, for Rosen, these are heady days, when, after years of agencies leading sales discussions, the primacy of quality content has returned as a main drive.
“I never lost sight of the fact that we thought television in whatever form it took, whatever screen it was on, whatever platform of distribution system, still had a vitality to it,” he adds. “What’s wonderful about what’s happening now is we’re getting that chance to prove it.
“I never imagined when I started in the business and I was in the lowly media department that never got to see the client. That now it’s probably where it starts.”
This interview was conducted by Matter More Media CEO Tracey Scheppach.
This video was produced at the Beet Retreat Miami, 2017 presented by Videology along with Alphonso and 605. For more videos from the event, please visit this page.