cross-platform

What is the Value of Time in Advertising?

This panel built on research and discussions at two ARF Town Halls about the quality of ad impressions on different platforms. Two issues were highlighted: measurement challenges and assessing the value of time spent with and of attention to advertising.

Track the Success: TV vs. Other Video Advertising Platforms

This presentation described the findings of a major ethnographic study (conducted in Germany, Austria and Switzerland) that compared the impact of video advertising on various platforms: TV, BVOD (VOD provided by commercial broadcasters), YouTube and Facebook.  The study used eye-tracking devices to assess attention to ads and unaided recall as impact measure.

ATTENTION 2023

On June 7, 2023, attention economy experts came together in NYC to share case studies and participate in engaging discussions on the attention measurement landscape. Plus, attendees heard a recap of the issues debated at AUDIENCExSCIENCE and an update on Phase I of the ARF Attention Validation Initiative, an empirically based evaluation of the rapidly developing market for attention measurement and prediction.

Member Only Access

Are We There Yet or Close to Getting There? New Developments in Cross-Platform TV Measurement (Panel)

This expert panel of industry leaders, moderated by Jon Watts of CIMM, tried to get under the hood of cross-platform measurement. Are studios, content producers, broadcasters and programmer’s needs being met by today’s cross-platform solutions? Cross-platform measurement isn’t just adding it all up to see the total size of the audience. It’s also important to find how people are moving through platforms,  how they are discovering content, but there has been progress towards this. While it’s hard to get granular, broad insights are possible. Deciding which questions you want answered, what data you use and how you look  at the data are also crucial aspects. Content measurement hasn’t gotten the same type of “action” ad measurement has. This lack of focus on content measurement, the siloing of data and the continued use of legacy terms that are outdated are aspects that are hurting the ecosystem.

Tune In, Outside the Box

Many viewers of programs on “traditional” networks like NBC are now watching those programs on digital platforms. To promote programs and increase tune-in, providers must reach viewers where they watch—that means: on all platforms. This presentation described the research conducted to explore the effectiveness of NBCU’s content marketing in launching and sustaining shows in today’s complex, fragmented viewing environment

EEDA Demystification Award

The winner of the 2023 Erwin Ephron Demystification Award is Artie Bulgrin, veteran ESPN researcher, and a friend and mentee of Erwin Ephron himself. This lifetime achievement award is part of the overall ARF Great Mind Awards program, which celebrates those in media or advertising research who demonstrate outstanding business acumen. Duane Varan, the 2022 award winner, CEO, MediaScience, introduced Artie. Duane hailed his colleague’s unparalleled approach to collaboration, saying Artie was instrumental in the creation of Project Blueprint, the Disney Media & Advertising Lab, research on new ad formats and even mobile when it was new. Over the years, he has also mentored several research professionals, many who are operating in the industry today.

Going Steady: How Long Will (My Cross-Media Campaign) Last?

Brian PughChief Information Officer, Comscore

Tania YukiCMO & EVP, Digital, Comscore



In this session, Tania Yuki and Brian Pugh of Comscore explored the impact of frequency and latency in cross-platform advertising effectiveness. In her opening, Tania demonstrated consumer trends and touchpoints to better understand cross-media, in terms of reach and optimizing platforms for specific outcomes. In her discussion, Tania acknowledged the challenges of measurement due to the constant introduction of new innovations and the adoption of new behaviors to track. She also recognized the considerable increase in connected devices per household since the pandemic. Tania pointed out complexities in the current media ecosystem from the increase in which media has merged despite being separate platforms (e.g., linear TV, social media, online video, etc.). In addition to all the changing behavior in media consumption, the speaker noted the emergence of Generation Z is beginning to change the rules for establishing brand love and loyalty. In his discussion, Brian examined findings from the measurement of 400 cross-platform campaigns to understand trends in terms of platform mixes. Brian noted the continued growth of social media and CTV along with the decline in linear TV, though he acknowledged linear still remained "king." Furthermore, he found that multi-screen campaigns performed better than single-platform campaigns.

Key Takeaways

  • The number of connected devices per household has increased from 9 to 12 since the pandemic, creating a more complex path in which to reach consumers.
  • Despite being separate platforms (e.g., linear TV, social media, online video, etc.) media is “inextricably commingled together,” leading to "context switching and about getting the right content to the right consumer."
  • In terms of long-form video, "Linear television is still the juggernaut in the room at 205 billion [viewing] hours." Total video across linear, CTV and digital grew 5% year-over-year in the U.S. CTV viewing increased by 14% of the total hours watched.
  • Short-form video continues to rise in popularity through Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. This trend in short-form video consumption is growing in double-digit percentages and redefining video consumption across mobile and connected TV screens.
  • The emergence of Generation Z is changing the marketer approach to brand love and establishing loyalty and building long-term value as their consumer behavior is in contrast to previous cohorts. This is specific to their lack of brand loyalty.
    • In terms of media consumption, Generation Z are heavy movie watchers (37%), preferring dramas (29%) and cooking shows (23%). Additionally, they expressed interest in local news and documentaries.
  • Social media is still growing (11%) but there are fewer linear TV households (-9%) as people are consuming media elsewhere and CTV has increased substantially (32%).
    • Though there was a clear decline in linear TV viewership, linear TV remains supreme regarding total viewership for one channel.
  • In terms of incremental reach over the length of a campaign, linear TV reached a lot of viewers in the early part of a campaign, but over time the study indicated "reaching incremental people on CTV and digital more often." This finding acknowledged the advantages of a cross-screen campaign in terms of optimizing reach.
  • Adding screens in a campaign improved brand lift but the variability of results also increased. Additionally, results for ad recall and other variables followed a similar pattern. It was noted that the optimal platform mix depended on the target audience.

Download Presentation

Member Only Access

Charting the Course for Third Party, Cross-Media Audience Measurement

Tina DanielsManaging Director, Agency & Brand Measurement Analytics, Google

Nicole GileadiGlobal Product Lead, Google

In this session, Tina Daniels and Nicole Gileadi examined Google's principles for charting the course for third-party cross-media audience measurement. Tina acknowledged more third-party measurement companies were expressing interest in working more closely with Google, given their stature as the world's largest video provider. In her discussion, she acknowledged that this interest generated the need for Google to create a set of principles to offer to both measurement companies and key clients to guide the process. After reviewing these principles Tina and Nicole held an open discussion regarding these principles. Topics of the discussion included premium and high-quality content, long-form versus short-form video and the measurement of this content. In addition, Nicole touched on the importance of content and the context surrounding an ad. Other areas included the idea of exposure metrics (e.g., Where is my audience? Did I reach them?) in addition to providing signals to conduct an impact analysis.

The following are the five principles Google shared with the industry, to act as guidance for third-party measurement companies interested in working with Google:

  1. Google expects measurement companies to be comprehensive, meaning a holistic view of audiences across all platforms.
  2. Measurement should be fair and comparable.
  3. Privacy-centricity is extremely important. Only privacy-centric solutions can meet consumer expectations and be durable for marketers in the long term.
  4. Independent & Trustworthy, meaning both objective and transparent, ideally with third-party endorsement like the MRC.
  5. Measurement solutions must be actionable for advertisers.

Key Takeaways

  • The struggle that the advertising and marketing industry is currently having is that "there is no universal definition of content quality that is easily measurable in cross-media systems."
  • "Content quality is being used as this proxy for content impact." For example, "What is the impact of the content on my brand equity, my campaign objective, by marketing or business objectives?" All of these factors are specific to the marketer, the brand and the campaign.
  • When it comes to exposure metrics, advertisers and marketers should be consistently counting impressions across all channels, "because you need to count things to value them."

Member Only Access

The New State of TV

Greg DaleChief Operating Officer, Comscore

Fifty years ago, defining TV was pretty simple but the video landscape has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Video is growing today, and this is driven by CTV. TV formats have their own personalities and content to define them. TV should not be approached in isolation because that is not how consumers approach it.

Key Takeaways

  • The rapidly changing landscape: 70% of U.S households have at least one connected TV; Roku and Amazon are still among the top OEMs; 94% of viewing on linear is still live or same day.
  • Growth is due to the increase in streaming especially FAST which are having double digit growth. But how will the landscape unfold as, and if, the economy downturns. TUBI expects one in three streamers to reduce their channels.
  • There has been a rapid decline in pay subscriptions over the last 5 years from 66% to 43% with a concomitant rise in cord cutters. Cord-nevers have leveled off at 13% having risen to 20% in 2020.
  • COVID caused a rapid bump in viewing of TV and video, it retreated during 2021. But now we are seeing a renewed growth in the total amount of television and video. While there is a slow erosion, linear is still alive and well.
  • One important story is the growth overall of exposure to video through different channels such as gaming and social. But it is content as well as mobile availability that is driving growth. Nearly 50% of linear content consumed is news, sports and movies. However, movies have lost a 5% share over the last 5 years, no doubt the loss coming from the growth of SVOD.
  • Sports occupies a unique place in content. It accounts for more than half of all social media posts, and sports fans index at 124 for pay tv subscriptions.

Download Presentation

Member Only Access

Tune In, Outside the Box

JP PereiraSVP, Marketing Science, VideoAmp

Brian WestSVP, Data and Measurement Strategy, NBCU TV & Streaming

Many viewers of programs on “traditional” networks like NBC are now watching those programs on digital platforms. To promote programs and increase tune-in, providers must reach viewers where they watch—that means: on all platforms. This presentation described the research conducted to explore the effectiveness of NBCU’s content marketing in launching and sustaining shows in today’s complex, fragmented viewing environment. NBCU partnered with VideoAmp to obtain the cross-channel metrics needed to achieve optimal strategies regarding the linear-digital mix of content promotions as well as their frequency, length and creative executions. After years of development, the goal of measuring tune-in on linear, digital and walled garden platforms has now been reached.

Key Takeaways

  • As most viewers watch on several platforms, providers need a complete view of all platforms to optimize content promotion. Obtaining accurate measures of viewers’ use of all platforms, however, is not an easy task and requires measurement innovation.
  • NBCU partnered with VideoAmp to converge linear TV, digital and offline datasets through commingled identity graph to provide a view of the consumer across platforms. This approach allows NBCU to measure performance of all promotion tactics and determine which best drive conversions.
  • The analysis of these data is helping NBCU to improve the impact of promotions. The data show how important it is to promote content on both linear and digital platforms and determine, for example, the right mix of promos on linear and digital platforms.

Download Presentation

Member Only Access