In this session, speakers Bennett M. Kaufman, Kyle Holtzman and Michelle Smiley of Google explored a two-pronged approach to cross-media measurement and planning that considered the full-funnel impact across traditional TV and streaming video (YouTube), to make sense of all the “disparate forms of data and measurement.” The approach considered a geo-based experiment and audience incrementality to demonstrate and solve the following challenges: to retain current loyal customers, to age down the brand and to appeal to new consumers (Generation Z). The speakers presented a study done by Google in partnership with Burger King to test a new experimentation strategy to understand and measure the relationship between Linear TV and YouTube. The speakers touted the benefits of this method as repeatable and customizable across a variety of media channels, in addition to being timely, omni-channel and privacy safe.
Kyle Holtzman – Business Lead Restaurant Vertical, Google
Bennett M. Kaufman – Cross-Media Measurement Lead, Google/YouTube
Michelle Smiley – Analytical Lead Restaurant Vertical, Google
In this session, speakers Bennett M. Kaufman, Kyle Holtzman and Michelle Smiley of Google explored a two-pronged approach to cross-media measurement and planning that considered the full-funnel impact across traditional TV and streaming video (YouTube), to make sense of all the "disparate forms of data and measurement." The approach considered a geo-based experiment and audience incrementality to demonstrate and solve the following challenges: to retain current loyal customers, to age down the brand and to appeal to new consumers (Generation Z). The speakers presented a study done by Google in partnership with Burger King to test a new experimentation strategy to understand and measure the relationship between Linear TV and YouTube. The speakers touted the benefits of this method as repeatable and customizable across a variety of media channels, in addition to being timely, omni-channel and privacy safe.
Key Takeaways
The geo-based experiment addressed the understanding of changing behavior in the physical stores for Burger King, through increased sales related to media spend. This technique gave the ability to measure the uplift between control and treatment to understand media impact. The geo-experiment focused on three KPIs: store sales, store transactions and deal take rate (promotion featured in the ad).
Results from the geo-experiment indicated:
Store sales generated by linear TV were flat but store sales increased in views from YouTube.
Store transactions generated by linear TV decreased while YouTube views increased store transactions.
In terms of the deal take rate (deal shown in the ad) the take rate was higher generated by linear TV, though it still generated positive returns from YouTube.
Audience incrementality testing was conducted by Comscore (3rd party incrementality validation). Through this process, they wanted to understand if they were reaching a new target audience and if their message was reaching anyone that may not have heard their message on linear TV alone.
Audience incrementality testing resulted in the following:
Accounting for the target audience of adults 18-49 was critical in the short and long term.
YouTube reached 78 million adults ages 18-49. In addition, 34 million of the viewers were YouTube-only, unique viewers.
There were 43,365,489 cross-platform unique viewers.
20,680,526 were unique linear TV-only viewers with 64 million total linear TV viewers.
Aarti Bhaskaran – Global Head of Ad Research & Insights, Snap Inc.
Kara Louis – Group Research Manager, Snap Inc.
With 90% of Gen Z using their platform, Snap’s Aarti Bhaskaran and Kara Louis shared six top trends gathered over three years of studying this cohort from a combination of consumer insights and media measurement. As the most diverse generation in the U.S., Gen Z values authenticity and looks for personal online experiences in ways that inform how they engage with content.
The data presented showed how Gen Z are visual communicators and mobile video natives. They trust real content from friends and family, pay attention early in ads, care about purpose messaging and want immersive shopping experiences, ideally personalized with AR.
The Q&A after the presentation covered other aspects of the study including global differences, ad lengths, content creators and costs, and Gen Z-favored brands.
Brands looking to connect with Gen Z should:
Adapt to visual communication: 95% of Gen Z have used visual communication when messaging friends, and 54% of Gen Zs agree that digital avatars/Bitmojis help them express themselves.
Leverage mobile video: For Gen Z, mobile is a complement to TV with 1 in 2 (54%) like watching shorter shows or bite-size highlights of TV shows.
Ensure real, brand-safe content: 89% say it’s important to watch videos in a place that feels like a trusted and safe space.
Use immersive experiences: Interactive and personalized shopping experiences are a must—92% of Gen Z are interested in using AR for shopping, with over half of Gen Z saying they’d be more likely to pay attention to an ad that uses AR.
Capture their attention early: Despite having the lowest overall active attention across generations, Gen Z has the highest active attention in the first 8 seconds.
Feature purpose-driven messaging: 73% of Gen Z are likely to be loyal to a company that speaks to social issues, posts information or has ads about social change.
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.
Tina Daniels – Managing Director, Agency & Brand Measurement Analytics, Google
Nicole Gileadi – Global 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:
Google expects measurement companies to be comprehensive, meaning a holistic view of audiences across all platforms.
Measurement should be fair and comparable.
Privacy-centricity is extremely important. Only privacy-centric solutions can meet consumer expectations and be durable for marketers in the long term.
Independent & Trustworthy, meaning both objective and transparent, ideally with third-party endorsement like the MRC.
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."
The ARF’s Social Council has reported on the results of a survey of 2,490 social media users (conducted in partnership with Dynata) on social media’s role in the lives and experiences of its users.
On March 16, 2023, the ARF Young Pros led an exploration of the ongoing transformation and future trajectory of social media to help organizations navigate the landscape and create more strategic social media plans. Panelists discussed trends, the role of influencers, creative branding campaigns and more.
A recent HUB survey confirms that Gen Z uses media differently. Gen Z spends more time watching non-premium and short form video and playing video games than watching “regular” TV.Read more »
