TV trade group finds agency-marketer disconnects on key media topics

For all the talk about TV measurement in recent years, most has come from media companies, measurement firms and agencies. Marketers are often on the sideline, if there at all, in public forums. Video Advertising Bureau CEO Sean Cunningham would like to change that. His group has been pushing a measurement transparency initiative that, while it paints TV in a better light than digital platforms generally, is also important for the people ultimately paying the bills, the marketers, as Cunningham sees it. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! On the latest edition of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast, Cunningham talks about the reception the VAB’s measurement transparency initiative has received and a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey the VAB commissioned showing some interesting disconnects between how brand marketers and agency executives see the media world. Marketers and agencies alike see lower-cost and premium-price digital platforms as equally at risk for ad fraud, Cunningham said. But 50% of brand marketers said digital ad fraud has had no effect on their brands, while only 18% of agency executives said that. Subscribe to Ad Age Sign up now for the latest industry news and analysis Click here When asked who’s most responsible for preventing ad fraud, both sides pointed to publishers, digital supply chain vendors and verification companies, Cunningham said. But 37% of brand marketers said agencies also are responsible. None of the agency respondents said so. One thing all marketers should know, Cunningham said, “is that it is completely within their ability to direct all of their media toward places that are 100% consistent with their brand values.” While there’s growing doubt among agency executives that the coming upfront will bring much change in currency from upfronts of the past, traded on Nielsen panel-based ratings, Cunningham disputes that. He said the network-backed OpenAP platform alone expects to transact $1.2 billion through the non-Nielsen measurement providers Comscore, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp by the end of 2024. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here “It’s just going to increase,” Cunningham said of advanced-audience trading on multiple currencies, driven by increased use of first-party databases on both sides of the deal. “That’s going to be the new norm, as opposed to age-sex demographic buying,” he said. Cunningham had a falling out with the Association of National Advertisers over its cross-media measurement initiative and funding a panel to back it, he said, over whether it would embrace a single transparency standard for all media, and whether funding by digital platforms would ultimately give them control over the project. As the ANA prepares to gather for its Media Conference next week, Cunningham said the “channel is open” for the VAB to re-engage with the group on industry-wide standards. “They understand what we’re looking for,” he said. Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here

TV trade group finds agency-marketer disconnects on key media topics

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