Interpublic Group of Cos. has had a lower profile on TV measurement issues than other agency groups—but it’s not for lack of an opinion.
Arun Kumar, IPG’s chief data and technology officer, has been experimenting like everyone else—but he’s not pleased with what he sees. His global experience brings a somewhat unique perspective—that the U.S. has a backward measurement market that lags many developing countries.
Part of the problem he sees is broadcasters and measurement companies, who he describes as the “loudest voices,” drowning out the data scientists and measurement experts. He believes big marketers need to get more involved, particularly on privacy issues where they’ve been almost invisible. But he actually sees hope in Netflix getting into advertising by bringing superior data and analytics skills, much like Tesla with electric vehicles, though he’s disappointed the streamer is looking at quick-fix partnerships.
In an interview with Ad Age, Kumar spells out what he sees wrong with U.S. media measurement and how it might be fixed.
This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
We're testing everything out just like everybody else. But it is an unfortunate position because none of these solutions in and of themselves are going to solve the problem.
Across the spectrum—because it's not just happening in TV, it’s also happening in digital—the more forward we’re getting in terms of the actual technology, the more backward we're actually going in terms of measuring the impact.
I don't think there's going to be one solution. There are going to be multiple solutions, because this industry does not, for some reason, believe in standards.
One thing that I am always amazed by is that the voice of the statisticians is missing in this entire debate because there used to be a point in time when media research was driven by statistics and science.
There are ways of solving the problem, but we're not listening to the right voices. We're listening to the loudest voices. And we are also again, seeing somewhat of what has happened in the digital ecosystem, which is we're just seeing the creation of walled gardens in the TV space.
It's like the wild west. You don't know whom you're forming an alliance with, why you're forming an alliance with that person, and most importantly, it's hard to say if I form an alliance with someone where am I going? What is the state of my partners, and will they be around three to five years down the line?
I think this industry—especially measurement—needs more of a solution like, you know, like what Elon Musk did with Tesla.
In the past, the research agencies were supreme. They basically decided the methodology. There was respect for science. There was respect for statistics.
In a lot of countries around the world, you still have TV measurement systems that are led by science. You don't see it led by a broadcaster deciding that I'm going to go with iSpot. I made the decision and that's it. So I think it's the fact that you do not have a strong research body in the center driving that conversation. Instead, you have the broadcasters or the publishers, along with associated technology companies, making these claims.
In India, for the longest time, you've had a single research body that drove it. In China, you of course have the government involved.
One thing that has always struck me about the U.S., it has one of the most sophisticated content markets and one of the most basic and backward TV buying and measurement markets in the world, period. There are developing countries that have better research methodologies for solving this problem than the United States.
There’s one view that says that these privacy laws should be focused on. And I think what's happened in this debate is the people in the room making these decisions are not always representative of all stakeholders. We’re probably the only agency holding company that sits in many of these places. Often what we find is that there are all the big tech guys, and then there is us, and there might be the [Association of National Advertisers] or maybe the IAB. But you don't find big companies sitting there at the table, which I think would make a huge difference, because there's a distinction between the ANA sitting there as opposed to let's say, company X and a very powerful CEO or CMO.
I think why this is not moving forward is because the moment you only have privacy activists in the room, it becomes political. Then you don't have business represented in the room, and you find the business leaders trying to lobby behind the scenes somewhere. You have big tech lobbying. And so it becomes partisan.
So everyone agrees that there needs to be a national privacy law. But not everyone is agreed on whether it should be opt out or opt in, whether citizens should have the power to go to court and file a case or not or go to an independent body.
First of all, just the fact that you have good quality inventory is great.
I was a little bit disappointed when I read that they were looking at Google or NBCUniversal [as technology and platform partners]. Netflix was a challenger. It created the streaming market. So I was hoping they actually go and say all these other guys we can learn from them, and then come up with a new experience that is great for advertisers and for consumers. Instead, they seem to be going for a quick fix. My worry is it's going to turn out to be just like any other streaming platform.
Related: 8 ways Netflix can reimagine advertising
They could make a real difference [because] they have done a lot of analytics internally. I think Netflix has a superior understanding of the streaming space and how viewers react with streaming than any other streaming service. And so they are actually in a position to redefine the category.
It's a bit like Tesla versus the rest. So you would anticipate that Tesla has more data and therefore should be able to create a different metric for the entire EV industry. So I would expect that Netflix in some time should be able to redefine the streaming industry the same way Tesla redefined EV, because they are so much farther along in data and analytics than anybody else.
