WPP’s GroupM published a roadmap for audience measurement companies that includes requirements they incorporate feedback from the buy-side and Association of National Advertisers, gain universal acceptance by all media partners and at least plan to undergo the Media Rating Council audit process.

GroupM in a statement said it and clients will continue to use Nielsen data for the 2022/2023 upfronts, using alternative currencies including outcome-based approaches, for some clients that will be “used to shadow Nielsen deals.” GroupM is testing iSpot, Comscore, VideoAmp and Nielsen One Alpha across more than a dozen of its largest clients, including Unilever, Nestle, Ferrero, Domino’s, TJX Cos. and Mars, to get familiar with the data and provider capabilities, the statement said.

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GroupM has taken the hardest line publicly among major agencies and holding companies on adoption and trial of alternative currencies. Horizon Media has been the most open among major players, pledging to do up to 15% of business in this year’s upfronts on alternative currencies. Dentsu and Omnicom Media Group have been open to a variety of trials—though not making specific pledges to use alternative currencies to write deals—while Publicis Media and IPG Mediabrands have been relatively silent on the issues.

Among other pieces of GroupM’s “roadmap” are that alternative measurement partners provide traditional and digital partners coverage, with the opportunity to add new metrics such as attention; provide fair and accurate audience representation; and provide interoperability across GroupM tools and systems.

GroupM’s roadmap requirements are a tall order that arguably no company in the industry, including its current provider Nielsen, currently meets in full.

A guide to the Nielsen turmoil

GroupM has been involved in an advisory capacity with the ANA as it develops cross-media measurement pilots involving Comscore and VideoAmp and evaluates “calibration panel” alternatives that can provide person-level estimates from household-level data that comes from set-top boxes and smart TVs. It’s a marked departure from years ago when the group’s relations with the ANA were badly strained over media transparency issues.

“The industry requires a robust measurement solution that can solve the problems of cross-screen reach and frequency and is representative of how consumers watch video,” said Matt Sweeney, chief investment officer of GroupM in the statement. “The industry agrees that panel-dependent measurement needs to shift to a transparent path built on a stable, reliable methodology and a foundation of proven technology, which captures the shift in viewer consumption habits.”

Bharad Ramesh, executive director of research and investment analytics of GroupM, said that "there’s a real need in the market for a solution focused on the personification of viewing data and in cross-media measurement that plugs the gaps we see in the alternate currency ecosystem."

Rob Master, VP of media and marketing at Unilever, said in a statement: “As we reframe what measurement looks like in this new environment, we are looking forward to partnering with GroupM to establish test and learn pilots for our brands, develop a framework for KPI-based measurement approaches, and move toward a single currency."

“The capabilities of the alternate measurement currency providers are rapidly growing,” said Dave Saxton, integrated communications planning team lead at Mars, “and we will be using this year to test and learn with these providers.”