Marketing Suffers from Inattention at Many Levels

Erwin cited the ARFamp8217s 1961 decision to stick with OTS over Perception based on the inability at the time to conceive of how to operationalize a pure measure of Perception Later in that decade the TVB demonstrated it could be done with the first eyesonscreen study in which secretly recruited family observers in sample homes spied on other family members during TV viewing times In 2004 he knew of even more sophisticated methods such as Dynascope and RD Percy39s video camera substudy which in effect watched the audiences watching TV much like today39s TVision in principle but far less sophisticatedErwin39s focus was not on the afterward measurement of what had been achieved but on the prebuy selection process of media He pointed out that all five of the top five agencies had their own proprietary adjustment systems for allocating the clientamp8217s budget using available proxies which had shown predictivity in the analyses of attentiveness communications and sales measures He prescribed his own such system utilizing commercial length average number of commercials per pod daypart program type and demo For example if the program or rotation avail you were considering buying averaged pod sizes of one to three commercials including audience promotion spots the discount to the OTS should only be 10 whereas avails with seven or more commercials would be discounted 30Combining all his specified adjustments the average discount to OTS across television was estimated to be 40 that is he estimated the average TV Likely Saw to be 60 of its OTSToday TVision reports that the average TV quotclosest thing to Likely Sawquot literally had their eyes on the ad for at least two seconds is 30 of its OTS not 60 This probably reflects the typically much higher average number of commercials per pod across TV today vs 2004 plus the competition from mobile devices now likely to be in the laps or hands of most TV viewersThe situation in digital is much worse At least in TV there is only one ad at a time and virtually no fraud or lack of onscreen appearance of the ad in traditional TV whereas in digital the advertiser can never feel sure what is actually going on The work of Gian Fulgoni at Comscore MRC MOAT IAS DoubleVerify IAB and others made a big dent in this problem establishing MRC and IAB standards that helped to substantially reduce the buying of bot traffic and nonviewable adsIn terms of providing data in the prebuy window which can assist the buying of Likely to See audiences TVision and Adelaide are both making continuous improvements in their methods for giving agencies the most realistic adjustments of the type that Erwin sought TVision has done more in the TV arena and Adelaide more in digital so far although its intention is to cover all media Adelaide is more advanced in the use of thirdparty validation to correlate its use with improved results from brand awareness to sales and every funnel stop along the journey Full disclosure I am a strategic advisor to AdelaideThese are media measures which do not take into account what is arguably the most important factor the creative Each piece of creative will have its own ability to capture the ears eyes hearts and minds of certain audiences quotMyquot company RMT uses a different complementary approach in the prebuy window to rate media alternatives by their degree of psychological resonance with the specific ad creative RMT is so far the most advanced of these three companies in the use of thirdparty validation as regards sales ROAS In addressable media including digital RMT also provides prebuy guidance on privacyprotected audience IDs based on their resonance with the ad creativeAdvertisers who currently use viewabilityfraud filters in making digital buys and straight OTS in linear TV would according to the thirdparty validations provided by Adelaide and RMT more than double the net effectiveness per dollar of their advertising investments simply by replacing viewability with the combination of Adelaide and RMT the costs of viewability being roughly in the range of the combination of Adelaide and RMT costs Advertisers who are serious about wanting to grow their brands maximize bang per buck and improve consumer experience of advertising would seem likely to at least test this theorem in a definitive random control trial which can be done in all forms of addressable TV and digital while in linear TV this can best be tested by means of matched market trialsSince there is no quotviewabilityquot cost in linear for most practitioners today those buying TVision data directly or through their agency are the exception although Likely Saw is at a higher level than viewable and TVisionamp8217s Actually Saw even if only for a couple of seconds is at an even higher level of value the question is can the brand gain more than the cost of Adelaide RMT by using both in linear TV The answer according to the thirdparty validations is definitely typically the Return on Research Investment RORI is in double digits or moreMarc Guldimann founder and CEO of Adelaide in a recent WARC article warns against becoming fixated on optimizing attention itself rather than using it as a means to an end He cites the societal damage done by Facebook optimizing on attention which tended to increase the spread of negativity and divisiveness implicitly caused my observation by our morbid fascination with the dark side as well as by manipulative forces using the media for political and paramilitary purposesHe also points to the logic of the situation The more you aim at the people who are paying the most attention to your ad the more you are reaching people who already buy your brand and not feeding brand growthAttention is a necessary but not sufficient condition for marketing success As David Ogilvy said quotI do not write ads to get attention You can get attention by showing a gorilla in a jockstrapquot Attention does not go far enough for marketing success and therefore must not become the objective function of media optimization It39s enough to simply use Adelaide39s AU Attention Unit as a replacement for viewability in digital and as an adjustment of the kind that Erwin proposed in linear TV Adelaide uses certain TVision metrics as part of its algorithm in linear TV with additional algorithm components similar to some that Erwin recommendedThe awful reality is that as Ed Papazian points out not enough marketers take media seriously enough as part of what they must control for their own success believing that their creative strategy and low CPMs for maximum OTS are the formula for success This misperception and reductionist oversimplification goes back to the Mad Men era and for most but not all advertisers has never changed that muchAgencies have a vested interest in creating their own prebuy systems for buying based on adjusted OTS Marketers don39t see media as being important enough to fight with the agency to do sidebyside tests with external solution suppliers This is perhaps reinforced by typical MMM which tends to show that media is less than 15 of the total incremental sales price and promotion being the other 85 whereas single source typically more than doubles the size of the media contribution The best single source methods used by Mars Catalyst Project Apollo TRA Comscore Nielsen NCS and others show that media account for 35 of incremental sales and creative 65 excluding pricepromotionIn fact these consilient findings about the importance of media and creative led to the creation of RMT which aims to amplify the specific creative with the use of media To make the most of the element that represents 65 of the advertising sales effect by the selection of adresonant contextsSmall businesses for which America has been wellknown are once again on the rise and tend to be less hidebound than many but by no means all large siloed corporations They can39t afford the waste so smalls use the most sensible methods to make advertising work The studies that Bill Harvey Consulting BHC did with Fox McKinsey and Standard Media Index 20172020 showed that the biggest spending US advertiser brands in CPG Auto and QSR shrank in market share over that period with only 18 of them growing market share during that timeCould this too be the effect of inattention ignoring the wisest minds in the marketing business for too many decadesClick the social buttons to share this content 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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Marketing Suffers from Inattention at Many Levels

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Bill Harvey

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Marketing Suffers from Inattention at Many Levels

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