Why T-Mobile embraces Nielsen alternative and more measurement analysis

Measurement was all the buzz at Advertising Week New York, even if much of the talk was about how hard it is to measure, define what to measure or get advertisers to follow through on their belief that third-party measurement is important. Here are some of the more interesting takeaways about measurement from the numerous panels focusing on the subject during Advertising Week. 

ISpot gets T-Mobile signal boost

While there’s been plenty of talk and a fair amount of experimentation in alternatives to Nielsen TV measurement, what’s rare is a big-spending marketer embracing the idea openly. T-Mobile VP-Media Kari Marshall said the wireless carrier is using iSpot.tv data not just to optimize against key performance indicators but also to get audits of media performance on a monthly basis, “which a few years ago was impossible for us to do.”

Marshall went into detail about T-Mobile’s partnership with NBCUniversal and iSpot on cross-platform measurement, and expressed hope the arrangement can extend to other networks, which includes tying media data back to T-Mobile business outcomes.

“That will allow us to start changing the conversations of our video by getting away from [gross rating points] and into impressions,” Marshall said. “Thinking about cross screens, our goal is to eventually not worry about GRPs in the flowchart. That currency needs to change and evolve. And it starts with the right partners and right environments. …Hopefully next year our conversations with NBC will change into different types of guarantees.”

Ultimately, she said T-Mobile would like to move away from GRPs toward other impression guarantees across all of its video buys.

How equity measures shape CBS programming

The Gender Equality Measure from the Association of National Advertisers SeeHer program has been widely used by advertisers to evaluate ads since its launch in 2016. But CBS also has been using it extensively to evaluate program pilots and individual episodes since 2017, said Radha Subramanyam, the network’s chief research and analytics officer, in a deep dive into how the network is using measurement to reshape programming.

GEM now is part of the research CBS uses to evaluate every pilot, and even individual episodes of regular programming, she said, “as part of a range of metrics that we’re looking at in evaluating whether to move forward or not.”

It’s not necessarily a make-or-break, though. “The whole point of analytics and research is less about being a scorecard,” Subramanyam said. “It’s more about learning and continuous improvement.”

To that end, CBS also developed similar survey measures to evaluate programming based on ethnic and LGBTQ+ representation and is looking to similarly evaluate the portrayal of people with disabilities. The network has made those measures available also to advertisers and other media companies.

“These questions that we developed are available to everyone,” she said, “and we strongly recommend that people just incorporate them, because then you will have a better product and a better country.”

The impact of measurement, she said, can be seen across the network now, including programs with people of color and female leads, such as Queen Latifah on “The Equalizer,” or on “NCIS: Hawaii.” “It manifests in programming that is relevant and topical with the times, but also hugely successful,” Subramanyam said.

Attention is big, but measuring it is hard

Attention is a big topic in the industry, but measuring it is challenging. Neuro-Insight CEO Pranav Yadav noted that most decision making happens in the subconscious anyway, so direct attention may not be what converts a buyer.

On another panel, Dentsu Media CEO Doug Rozen noted that while attention measurement has become an important capability for Dentsu, it’s also important for other agencies using their proprietary approaches as points of differentiation. But for the industry to make progress on actually buying against attention measures, agencies, marketers and media will have to agree on a standard, he said, expressing optimism this can happen.

Other panelists disagreed on the need or possibility of a standard. Irina Dzyubinsky, senior director of product management at Moat, said getting the buy and sell side together on a standard would take at least 18 months and might not be worth the effort.

“What's going to work for one advertiser, in terms of how we define attention, it's not going to be the same for another,” she said. “Ultimately, do we really need a standard?”

A FAST emerging brand-safety problem

Free ad-supported TV has become a hot category through the promise of ads sold against high-quality long-form content like movies. But FAST networks' vast content catalogs have a brand-safety measurement problem that’s the biggest impediment to more advertiser investment, said Kelly Metz, managing director for advanced TV at Omnicom Media Group on a panel focused on the FAST ecosystem.

“We do need that same level of transparency and trust” as in linear TV buys, Metz said, “and we’re not getting it in the way ads are sold and packaged.”

So, for example (not one brought up by Metz), an ad for Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette might show up on Tubi during a stream of R-rated “Fight Club,” when the movie seemingly has elements that don’t meet P&G standards.

Metz noted that there are brand-safety measurement safeguards elsewhere that can be enforced through third-party measurement firms, such as digital buys, that don’t currently exist for FAST channels.

Who needs measurement anyway? Not Netflix ... yet

While advertisers long have harped on the need for third-party measurement, when push comes to shove, they’re not demanding it yet on Netflix, noted Jo Kinsella, president of InnovidXP (formerly TVSquared).

“Platforms like Netflix are coming out going, 'We don't need measurement, people will just buy it because we're Netflix, even though we might be super expensive,'” Kinsella said during her panel.

Well, technically, Netflix did announce last week that it will use Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings as a third-party measurement starting at some point in 2023. In the meantime, Netflix does appear to have plenty of advertisers lined up for its launch next month of an ad-supported subscriber tier.