A Major Problem with Misused Metrics

First Some BackgroundClass action lawsuits and the resulting settlements can affect everyone39s rights to know about a dangerous product or to recover money amp160A class action lawsuit is brought by individuals who are representing a larger group of people who have similar problems such as purchase or exposure to dangerous products and or drugs eg asbestos that causes lung cancer hair dryers that shoot flames breast implants that leakamp160and guns that fire without warning Class actions affect the rights of millions of people annually who can not only benefit from the quotsocial justicequot they provide but who will also lose rights if left unaware and unable to actOnce the court signs off on a proposed settlement to give class members recovery media outreach plans are formulated to ensure that the people who have been wronged or damaged hear about their opportunity to collect on their fair share of damages amp160This is when attorneys turn to companies called quotclaims administrationquot firms who must provide quotnoticequot to the people affected ie the quotclass membersquot amp160But before a claims administrator is selected they must provide a bid on the work amp160All too frequently the low bid winsamp160without the lawyers or the court who must approve the plan realizing how ineffective that notice plan actually isPart and parcel to this bid is a media plan and supportive data which is intended to show the court that the media outreach plan is sufficient to notify the class and reach as many of them as possible amp160If there is a direct relationship between the consumer and the offending firm direct mail physical or email can usually solve for the notification requirement amp160But in many cases the product or service was not bought directly from the company amp160It may have been purchased online through a retailer through various middlemen etc amp160In these cases mass media has historically been used to reach the classHistorically that is before the digital era notice was fairly simple amp160Send mailings to everyone and recommend print publication or sometimes TV advertising which on a combined basis should reach 80 of the target or more amp160With the advent of the Internet traditional media has become less effective by itself amp160Numerous digital methods are now commonly recommended sometimes on a standalone basis or combined with traditional media vehiclesHerein lies the problem amp160Those who are familiar with digital media metrics understand many of the issues amp160These include two meanings of the term reach viewability battling the reality of ad fraud the myth of frequency capping and many other issues amp160Some classaction administration firms and individuals these firms purport to be quotnotice or media expertsquot have taken to misusing or ignoring these issuesamp160and misunderstanding other terminology to sharply reduce the cost of media simply to win the business all in an effort to say that they were the most quotefficientquot bidderamp160I have studied examples of several quotnotice plansquot and have found that it is not uncommon for an administrator to swear to a court that a notice plan will reach 80 of a target audience when in actuality it will reach a fraction of thatamp160 Thisamp160despite the unaware victims losing their legal rights as a resultamp160and in some casesamp160being left in danger of a harmful productWhile there are a few administration firms who have excellent media folks who do use bestinbreed tools and technology I believe that the real and frightening problem is that there are a number of administrators who use attorneys or CPAs with limited or noamp160media training or expertise to develop these important and highly complex outreach programs and report to the courts on a campaign39s effectiveness amp160The results are that consumers are not being reached or effectively communicated with amp160I39ll show you some examples and if they make your blood boil like mine please raise your hand to get involved amp160One notorious class action featured this past winter on 60 Minutes the Pollard v Remington case resulted in only 20000 claims being filed for repair of 75 million rifles that may fire without the trigger being pulledamp160 Many adults and children are being killedamp160 The notice vendors who were lawyers not media experts erroneously misused media data to mislead the court into thinking that social media impressions and a smattering of radio spots reached far higher percentages of those affected than in reality they didamp160 There was very little transparency in what was reportedamp160 The court was led to believe that claims were so appallingly low because people quotchosequot not to claimIf courts only knew the truth they would be as concerned as I am that consumer engagement with notice plans is declining rapidlyExamples of MisuseAfter examining multiple cases there are some clear issues of questionable practices currently being used by some class action administration firms that need to be brought to light so that they are not used in the futureThese include1amp160amp160Misdirection in use of the term reach In many filings the reach cume potential of a site is stated with the implication that by putting a campaign on the site these people are reachedc While this can be true of print campaigns most media practitioners will know that this is not the case amp160Actual campaign reach against a specific target must be clearly stated2 amp160Audience data must come from one of the two MRC Media Ratings Councilcertified digital audience vendors comScore or Nielsen amp160There are cases where audience is quoted based on DMP data which is fine for targeting but not for reach and frequency calculations3 amp160All reach computations must use total US population as the denominator amp160In our analysis many use Internet or other population bases to inflate their reach estimate4 amp160Frequency capping across sites is a canard amp160Many plans purport to reduce cost by only paying to reach each consumer once over a 30day campaign amp160While this is a noble goal technology and commercial agreements do not currently support this capability across multiple sites or networks5 amp160You can39t just make a buy set it and forget itamp160 No Internet schedule runs as ordered amp160There are impressions that are not viewable misdirected through fraud served outside of the requested geographyamp160or don39t reach the target due to faulty or outofdate targeting information Courts need to insist on a postbuy report that shows net delivered impressions and reach against the target audience6amp160amp160Manual calculations of delivery should not be permitted amp160Technology is necessary to count tens of millions of impressions amp160Audits such as Nielsen DAR or comScore VCE should be considered for every campaign amp160Factors that could be provided include demographics viewability digital GRPsamp160target impressions RF actuals Cost would be 5 In addition filtration for IVT invalid traffic should be included Courts should insist on proof that ads were seen by humans7 amp160Manually combining reach from separate sources when the targets from each source are different should not be allowed amp160We don39t do it for our clientsamp160why is it permitted where the stakes are so high amp160These calculations must be done using fusion products from IMS or Telmar incorporating underlying data sources from comScore or Nielsen which can help to normalize the target audience differences or pick a common target8 amp160Media mix must be required amp160An Internetonly campaign cannot reach the required minimum of 7580 of the class Traditional media will not do an effective job of reaching the younger audience9 amp160Private networks such as those run by agency trading desks are unmeasured and should not be allowed to be included without more transparency as to what the network can do and what their specific RF contribution is planned to be how they achieve frequency caps targeting etc amp160Again MRC certification and greater transparency is needed here10 amp160Demonstrate media training and experience amp160Media today is far too complex and the stakes are too high in class action settlements to do a byguess and bygolly job just because it39s cheapamp160 The reason that all the problems are happening is that you have people pretending to be media expertsamp160 The courts should not accept a complex advertising campaign from someone who has no direct media training or experienceamp160or has only taken a correspondence course in media Yetamp160it is happening11 Analytics for all assumptions should be clearly revealed on all proposals RecommendationCourts should require that all data sources and tools used to report RF impressions and other media metrics be MRC certified amp160Alsoamp160that these data sources and tools only be used for areas where certification exists not for some other method amp160Mediaamp160Ratings Council isamp160a congressionally mandated organization that oversees the veracity of ratings and audience measurement in TVamp160egamp160Nielsen ratingsFor digital it should be recognized that buying reach or gross impressions is not enough amp160There must be put in place technologies that establish clear proof of performance assuring that ads are actually served to a human being as well as viewability fraud placement where intended brand safety and actual delivery of the specified target audience amp160These are the standards that are being presently required by top advertisers amp160As such any notification of consumers should be held to the same standardNext StepsI39m looking for others in the research tools and data areas to join in with me to register best practices with the federal court system amp160Work will be minimal amp160Mostly we will need added signatures to a brief that will be prepared in line with the aboveInterested Ping me pleaseClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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A Major Problem with Misused Metrics

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David Smith

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A Major Problem with Misused Metrics

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