Challenges Facing New Digital Media Measurement Standards

Recently, I joined Kim Purcell, Vice President of Media Measurement Products for MasterCard, at the second Pulse of the Industry teleconference to address that very question. The industry is at an inflection point, and the time is now for all key players -- agencies, brands, media buyers and marketers -- to coalesce around a universal standard of measurement. In particular, we need standards that can withstand the ebbs and flows of consumer behavior.

Central to the measurement issue is the need for new and innovative ways to deliver addressability and attribution. All forms of media, including DOOH, are increasingly reliant on these to justify ad budgets and track ROI. With unprecedented demand from advertisers to fully understand which consumers are responding to which ads across each medium, and the magnitude of engagement, offline media faces a much wider gap to bridge in order to accurately track these outcomes. However, the technology now exists to know whom an ad is reaching and how it is resonating much the same way digital media has long had cookies and clicks to benchmark against.

Another critical challenge is the need for all forms of media to deliver attribution transparency. This has plagued our industry, but it represents one of the biggest opportunities to accelerate growth and increase revenue if approached differently and effectively addressed. We now have hard data and case studies to demonstrate the true value of DOOH in generating sales. By leveraging anonymized and aggregated data from both mobile and payment processing platforms, companies can connect the dots between ad exposure and consumer purchasing behavior and now quantify the true impact of particular mediums. To be successful, we'll need to establish realistic expectations for marketers while quantifying impact, which will optimize marketing spend.

Lastly, we must look at segmentation. As advertisers traditionally focused on demographic addressability, now they should also shift attention to behavioral addressability. It's no longer about simply reaching the right gender, age or household income; marketers now want to know if they're reaching the right target based on interests, lifestyle or buying decisions. Consumers are exposed to significantly more marketing messages than ever before, while at the same time they have more control over when and how they receive these messages. Addressable media helps solve this by combating misdirected messages and playing an active role in optimizing integrated marketing communications which maximizes the impact of ad dollars.

The measurement standards that can bring the industry together exist, but adoption is not yet mainstream, and establishing them as such will be a critical step in the right direction. The brands and agencies that implement these standards will see objectives achieved, ROI justified and budgets increased. I look forward to continuing the discussion around how we can come together as an industry to make this happen.

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