Audience Behavior

CHANGES IN AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR
Transformations in consumer behavior continue to pose challenges for brands and their marketing measurement. Key areas include uneven economic recovery across categories, fluctuating media consumption patterns among generations, privacy regulations for consumers demanding more control over their data and higher-than-expected media price inflation. Do some of the changes in consumer behavior open new opportunities for advertising—e.g., in game, in the metaverse and in retail environments? What is the possible impact of inflation or economic uncertainties on consumer behavior? Research is invited that examines these brand challenges, especially the impact of current inflation on consumer behavior and subsequently on media and advertising.

The New State of TV

NEW INSIGHTS INTO TV CONSUMPTION, MEASUREMENT & EFFECTIVENESS
The proliferation of TV data sets, from set-top boxes, ACR solutions, ad servers, streaming services and other sources is transforming measurement, supporting new entrants, and stimulating innovation across the marketplace. However, data from these sources is not a panacea and brings its own challenges, in terms of bias, error, normalization, personification, commingling and de-duplication challenges. How are best-in-class providers overcoming these challenges to deliver improved measurement solutions for TV content and advertising? Research is invited to showcase the latest innovations and new approaches in applying TV data to enhance measurement solutions and provide new insights into TV consumption, campaign measurement and effectiveness.

Impression Quality

ARE ALL IMPRESSIONS EQUAL OR DOES QUALITY REALLY COUNT?
New cross-media measurement initiatives are looking to provide advertisers with a better understanding of reach and frequency across different pools of inventory, but some industry participants argue that equivalizing all impressions is a mistake, suggesting that content quality and context are critically important. Can quality be objectively measured or is it a subjective measure? Does high quality content really drive superior outcomes and better ROI or are all impressions effectively equal?

Attention Metrics

MOVING ATTENTION METRICS FROM LAB TO FIELD APPLICATIONS
Recent years have seen increasing interest in direct measures of cognitive and emotional response to advertising. As a result, several new services have entered the marketplace with different approaches to the measurement of attention and/or emotional responses to ads. This excitement has caused some to push for incorporating these measures into next-generation currencies for media buying. But we still don’t know enough about the reliability and validity of these measures and their appropriate application to advertising and media evaluation. Research is invited on the validity, reliability, and predictive power of these measures.

Privacy Effects

PRIVACY & ITS EFFECT ON ADVERTISING
Rising privacy regulations make it harder to assemble audiences, but they also seem to depress CPMs since advertisers won’t pay as much for less-precisely targeted audiences (e.g., on Safari or Mozilla). What other effects are privacy changes having? Do they favor the more precisely targeted environments (e.g., walled gardens)? Do they favor BIG over long tail? Will advertisers accept solutions that don’t rely on any form of individual ID (e.g., cohorts, differential privacy solutions)? Can advertising be as effective if targeting is reduced by regulatory fiat?

Audience Diversity

GAINING TRACTION WITH DIVERSE AUDIENCES
How do you appeal to diverse audiences? How do you target them? How do you avoid alienating them? How do you avoid alienating “general market” audiences for ads that have been designed with diverse audiences in mind? As the American public, particularly Gen Z, grows more diverse, these questions have grown in importance. Casting has become more diverse in US ads, but what more do brands need to do to reach and appeal to the 21st century audience? Research is invited on insights about the changing composition and texture of target audiences and what brands can do to ensure that they remain in the consideration set of these audiences. 

Cross-Platform Measurement

CROSS-MEDIA MEASUREMENT
Advertisers are increasingly looking for measurement solutions to break out of siloes and to provide a joined-up view of engagement across different media – TV, streaming, digital media, audio, print, out-of-home and non-media environments. Is robust cross-media measurement becoming a more realistic goal? Can measurement providers truly deliver joined-up solutions across multiple media?

New Ad Formats

ADVERTISING IN (RELATIVELY) NEW FORMATS
As audiences spend more time with games, podcasts, voice-assistants, and the metaverse, advertising is moving into these new formats as well. The industry would welcome insights from brands that have tested advertising or other experiences in these new formats about the impact of advertising in these formats. How can their impact be measured? What kinds of creative work in other audio or video formats need to be adjusted for these new platforms?