The following are some quick notes and comments I jotted down from CIMM’s Cross-Platform Media Measurement & Data Summit (CIMM = Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement). The CIMM Summit was held February 1st at the Time Warner Center in New York City, and was well attended by the movers and shakers of the media research world.

Presentations and videos of some or all of the presentations should be available soon on CIMM’s website, cimm-us.org.

Notes and Comments

Opening with Jane Clarke, CEO of CIMM
Jane reviewed CIMM’s manifesto and progress made in the past year. [I think how actual much progress will depend on one’s viewpoint (buyer, seller, vendor, or MRC (Media Ratings Council)]

Fireside Chat with Rishad Tobaccowala, Publicis
– he believes there will be a 20-30% reduction in impression-based advertising in the next few years
– “data connecting to data” is the next level of connectivity
– advertising has been in the segmentation business (breaking up large audiences); it’s now entering the aggregation business (collecting smaller, fragmented audiences to create reach)

Buyers and Sellers Speak Out (panel)
– highly entertaining panel!
– Cost per rating point (getting a program in front of a viewer) for ad-supported content is skyrocketing (Joe Marchese, FOX)
– Data about viewers of an ad impression are quickly becoming almost more valuable than the impact of the impression itself (Lou Paskalis, Bank of America)
– You cannot create the same reach of a Super Bowl ad with digital, even if you had a year [assuming full viewing of ad] (Marchese)
– We are now being forced to create valuable, engaging marketing content (Paskalis)

CIMM Attribution Provider Comparison Study (panel)
– Attribution models are like Christmas trees; you can turn them to look good and hide the bare spots (Newcombe Clark, AIG)

Disney-ABC Multiplatform TV Attribution, Phase 2
– There are three main drivers to multiplatform ROI: Audience size, consumer commitment to content, and consumer perception of quality (Cindy Davis, Disney/ABC). [this was highly quantitative but very reminiscent of survey-based work we did at Knowledge Networks in early/mid 2000s]
– “Smarts”, “edge”, and “relatability” are the three of the eight Magid Emotional DNA attributes that are best indicators of multiplatform ROI
– Report supposedly available at ABCAllAccess.com

Creating a Data Relationship with TV Viewers (Channel 4, UK)
– An audience analysis that was interesting if not particularly groundbreaking
– Did show some very cool personalized ads served on digital streaming
– Trying to sell on “ABC”: Audience demos, Behavioral info, Content/Context (building ads or pods related to the content being viewed)

Coffee Break

Industry Associations Speak Out (panel)
– “Muscle memory” [mentioned several times earlier in the day as a reason why various stakeholders don’t adopt new methods] is a good thing, because we need to consider both legacy standards and all viewers [eg, measurement needs to include all viewers, even those still watching VCRs, not just who consumes digital content] (George Ivie, Media Ratings Council)
– We as an industry need “TED Talks” to discuss marketing successes, not just continual talk about the challenges we are facing. (Bob Liodice, ANA)
– We eventually will need MRC audit and accreditation of sales or brand lift providers. If we are validating the data going in, then the loop should be closed by accrediting the lift calculations (Ivie)

Who’s Getting It Right? (panel)
– We need progress not perfection (Kate Sirkin, Publicis)
– Gaps that need to be filled:
— Complete multiplatform system, both pipes and data (Brian Hughes, MAGNA)
— Vendors need to take the time to understand our business to know what the business questions are (Lisa Heimann, NBC)
— Measuring attention or engagement, Magid’s Emotional DNA doesn’t scale. (Howard Shimmel, Turner)
— Be prepared to validate your methods (Daniel Slotwiner, Facebook)
— Transparency and validation. Measurement is now a team sport (Elissa Lee, Google)

Programmatic TV (panel)
– It still takes a long time to evaluate a campaign, up to six months (Dan Aversano, Turner)
– We could use a quick read on campaigns using proxy data (Greg Pharo, Coca-Cola)
– If you make one [national] ad addressable, then the whole program can’t be C3 rated by Nielsen’s rules (Aversano)
– There are too many layers, each with their hand out for a piece of the pie; this can force us to do what we CAN rather than what we would LIKE (Mike Bologna, One2One Media)
– Cycle times are becoming more and more compressed between pitch, sale, and execution (Aversano)

Is the TV Industry Ready for Ad Ratings?
– Results of 27 interviews with industry leaders by Artie Bulgrin
– In 1987, the PeopleMeter came on; 2009 C3 ratings; 2017 separate measures of content and of ads
– Having a standard cross-platform currency is seen as important but NOT critical
– Having an accurate measure of net reach and duplication IS seen as critical but doesn’t have to be “currency quality”

David Tice is the principal of TiceVision LLC, a media research consultancy.
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