The Grand Potential of Origin

ISBA along with its sister organizations the WFA and the ANA is driving a crossmedia measurement initiative Origin is the UK version of this although the key principles apply equally elsewhereI think this represents an important crossroad in the history of media measurement In the past audience measurement was a driven by the media vendors who paid the majority of the bill and b focused on intramedia matters such as the relative size of the audience to particular vehiclesAs such audience measures were very largely about the determination of value In ad circles that meant buyingThis was and is a neat system that39s still of great benefit today All sides agree on how to measure audiences all sides are thus free to argue about how best to spend the budget within the medium without concerning themselves overmuch with the merits or otherwise of competing research methodologies and yes I know what39s happening in the US at the moment but the point still holdsNow we39re finally moving on to compliment these buying measures with measures designed to help us understand how media forms work in combinationAudience measurement was not and never has been about communications planning Yes BARB and the others provide important and verifiable building blocks in the construction of the plan but they39re of little help when it comes to planning decisionsHow to decide what budget to allocate between video and audio Between OOH and YouTube And far more significantly between advertising and PR or instore and sponsorshipsThese are matters of little concern to vendors who have prioritized growing their slice of the cake over baking a larger cake in the first place You can39t blame them for that Why should a TV broadcaster fund a system which may end up costing them ad revenueThey are matters of concern to agencies but again agencies39 focus has been on buying over planning as we all know This is changing as choices proliferate and more media becomes biddableThese planning questions matter to advertisers Insights can help guide and justify decisions on the big questions The data generated can feed into own systems the proprietary models that combine advertiser data with exposure adjusted for qualityI don39t have any inside knowledge on the vision for Origin or on its roadmap but if you39re about to eat an elephant it really does make an awful lot of sense to tackle it one small bite at a timePhil Smith ISBA39s DG used to be a client of mine and I can tell you he39s very good at elephantcarvingIt makes sense to tackle the whole consolidatevideoviewing question first How to combine Facebook video with YouTube with TikTok with streaming with linear TV et al is importantBut it39s an amusebouche not the whole mealThis longerterm bigpicture vision is why a levy is the best funding mechanism out there Set up a system where a tiny percentage of every budget goes into a pot that funds Origin and you39ve in effect established a sustainable RampampD fund to benefit all ISBA membersOrigin can initiate planningfocused projects without constantly having to go through the nightmare of funding each in turnEstablish an oversight board to approve projects and an operations team to deliver to them supported by external experts and a research agency rosterSome of my audience measurement friends argue that advertisers39 effectiveness models are by their very nature proprietary and thus not fertile ground for any industry initiative I think that39s incorrectYou still need the planning bricks The parallel would be the outstanding work done by Peter Field and Les Binet over the years using IPA Ad Effectiveness and other similar studies39 dataNoone takes Peter39s and Les39 aggregated findings and leaves it at that That work informs and fuels proprietary work appropriate to each specific advertiserOrigin is a big idea and represents a major opportunity for the industry It places advertisers at the heart of thinking around the future of audience measurement it encourages research agencies to think outside the intramedia currency box it helps vendors contextualize their offering and it genuinely moves the game onIt won39t be easy It will be politically fraught The funding needs to be right But in an era defined by planning driving trading and not the other way around Origin has the potential to be at the heart of a significant shift in understanding how commercial communication works and how it can be made to work betterClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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The Grand Potential of Origin

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Brian Jacobs

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