The past year-plus has been defined by nearly constant disruption and change. In pop culture few clichés evoke quarantine life more than binge-watching everything from streaming hits like "Ted Lasso" and "Squid Game" to old standbys like "30 Rock" and "The Office." Even the meaning of the term "TV" seems to be in a state of constant flux.
In the nearly two years since the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video (FWC) last met in person, more and more viewers are adopting streaming video as an exclusive or additional way of consuming their favorite TV content. As the industry adjusts to this new reality, advertisers are following close behind, making cross-screen measurement even more essential for future success.
At the September 2021 FWC gathering, conversations were focused on the continuing evolution of TV and streaming video, and the challenges of carving a path forward for industry-wide cross-screen measurement via potential solutions such as the Universal Ad-ID. The FWC also discussed how the diversity, equity and inclusion issues driven by the social justice movement should affect not just the workplaces behind the screens, but the variety of programming on the screens.
What does 'TV' mean in 2021?
In the 10 years since FreeWheel released its first Video Marketplace Report, the industry has seen a shift in how viewers are consuming premium video content. In truth, viewers still spend the majority of their time with traditional linear TV. (One of the underreported stories of the past year was the renaissance of local news programming.) But while the number of ways people access premium video content continues to grow—including smart TVs, Roku, Fire Stick and gaming consoles—surprisingly, "consumers are still consuming an incredible amount of content primarily on the big screen in the living room," says Pooja Midha, chief growth officer at Comcast Advertising. "That can be through linear television, but more and more it's happening through connected devices or OTT."
And according to Sabrina Alimi, director of advisory services at FreeWheel, streaming services now account for 45% of ad views, overtaking TV everywhere (at 36%) for the first time. Because streaming can add incremental reach for advertisers, traditional networks have gotten into the game in a big way.
“This makes sense when you think about the introduction of new streaming services like Peacock and Paramount+,” Alimi says, “and it’s changing how the industry is looking at viewership and how we find those viewers across different screens.” Interestingly, as many other aspects of marketing have increasingly moved to mobile, 75% of television ad views still happen on traditional TV screens, with mobile and desktop splitting the other 25%.
This evolution isn’t just changing the entertainment industry either (though entertainment does still account for 92% of ad views). In July, WarnerMedia announced that CNN+ will launch in the first quarter of 2022, and other media and news networks will likely follow suit.
On the advertising front, in reaction to the unpredictability of the previous year, buyers have sought flexibility and targeting precision resulting in programmatic transactions accounting for 24% of all views in the first half of 2021, an 84% increase year over year.
The cross-screen measurement conundrum
Given the multitude of devices and platforms where viewers watch content, there is an awareness that cross-screen measurement is vital for advertisers to understand the impact of their campaigns.
"It's incumbent on us to find where our viewers are and where they want to consume content," says Casey Gould, senior VP of ad sales at Crown Media. "We're working to make sure that our content is distributed everywhere the viewer is to make sure that they can continue to access that content—and ultimately [for us] to monetize that content."
But many obstacles remain to monetizing that content effectively. "Advertisers are looking for more accurate attribution to make sure that their messaging is getting to the right people," says Kurt Rao, senior VP and chief technology officer at Tegna. "And so our big challenge is going to be ensuring that we're reaching the right set of consumers for our advertisers so they actually see ROI that we can measure."
“We are moving toward an impression-based world,” says James Rothwell, VP of marketing at Comcast Advertising, “and that requires a different type of measurement and a different combination of data sets.”
True cross-screen measurement relies on multiple data sets—panels, census data and attribution—to be accurate, trustworthy and complete. By using a combination of these data sets and utilizing the strengths of each, advertisers can gain a more accurate view of media consumption across audiences and devices, as well as better understand how cross-platform media investments drive business outcomes.
"Our clients are reexamining not only how they could provide accurate measurement across screens, but how they prove the value of their advertising through more granular attribution-based studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of their commercial across various platforms," says Michael Strober, president of Topwater Advisory Group.
One of the major challenges for the industry is that cross-device data can be incomplete because "the industry doesn't have a universal identification code for creative assets," says Frank Sgrizzi, an advisor at Topwater. How can you measure cross-screen performance when you can't identify the creative?
The good news is that progress is being made. A number of publishers are in various stages of adopting the Universal Ad-ID. The Ad-ID system—designed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to benefit marketers, publishers, agencies and consumers alike—assigns a trackable, 12-character code to every creative asset, with the goal of easing integration and automation.
When NBCUniversal launched Peacock, it became the first publisher to require that advertisers provide an Ad-ID, and they extended that requirement for the network's Tokyo Olympics coverage. Many agency holding companies and brands also see the value of the Universal Ad-ID. Yet despite these hopeful signs, the system still has very low penetration in the programmatic space. This has implications for widespread adoption of Ad-ID spanning everywhere advertising is placed. The hope is that the increased reliance on Ad-ID by publishers will drive further adoption into programmatic channels.
What's coming in 2022
Further fragmentation of viewing platform and device options will continue to be the story of the industry—as will viewing habits shifting from linear to streaming, says Gould. The path to true cross-screen measurement will continue to evolve to incorporate more sophisticated and expansive data sets and modeling techniques, using multiple mechanisms and methodologies to get closer to the truth, says Rothwell.
"Advertisers recognize that this shift is where their advertising dollars need to go," says Sgrizzi. "Many advertisers are moving into spaces that aren't well equipped to handle the amount of volume that they will have in 2022. That's where Ad-ID comes in. As companies spend more money to add value to their ads, the ecosystem needs to focus on the creative in order to get a hold on this excessive ad frequency as demand comes in."
"On the technology side, the industry is responding, and I hope it continues to focus on interoperability," says Midha, "because interoperability is what's going to make this very fragmented world make sense—and one that we can best serve marketers and consumers with a relevant ad experience that delivers value for everybody involved."
