In this week's egtabite we bring you expert view from egta's partner TV Squared on the state of CTV and the need for holistic cross-platform measurement. Jo Kinsella, TVSquared's president, recently spoke at egta's CEO & Top Executives' Summit and can be watched here. 

Measurement & Attribution in the Age of Converged TV
By Jo Kinsella, President, TVSquared

TV is now a cross-channel, cross-platform universe and the proposition for advertisers is greater than ever. In recent years, as digital exploded, TV dollars shifted to more measurable channels. But that day is over. TV is being reinvented and redefined – creating a more measurable ecosystem for everyone. The buy-side is demanding measurement beyond just counting, as they are using TV for more than just awareness. And the sell-side has the opportunity to leverage tools and data to prevent more dollars from moving out of TV and into pure digital.

Shift in Thinking: TV & Legacy Processes

Changes in viewership, proliferation of screens and audience fragmentation have led us to the age of “converged TV.” No longer just linear, TV now encompasses premium, professionally produced content across multiple platforms and devices.

This convergence has already had a profound impact on the advertising industry – from finding audiences across screens and adapting campaign strategies, to the need for real-time, holistic measurement and modern currencies. In turn, it has also put the spotlight on legacy practices that have not kept up with the pace of change.

In fact, TVSquared’s recent report, “State of Converged TV: A Look at Global Trends & Adoption,” found that more than 75% of buy-side respondents from the U.S., UK, Australia and Germany agree that TV is now defined as linear and streaming. Additionally, more than 70% believe that all forms of TV should be sold on impressions – a uniform, consistent way to count and ascribe value. These findings mark a major global shift in thinking.

Shift in Action: Converged TV, a Reality

The growth of CTV in Europe is a strong indicator that not only has the industry had a shift in thinking, but it’s also taken action to make converged TV a reality. Currently, 33% of UK and 36% of German respondents allocate 16-25% of ad budget to CTV. With more than a third running streaming campaigns across three to five platforms, advertisers are also planning to lean into streaming even more next year, as the number of them on six to ten platforms is projected to increase by 60% in the UK and 42% in Germany.

When asked to identify the most important metrics or KPIs, UK advertisers running converged TV campaigns identified “optimizing reach” (49%), “optimizing frequency” (42%) and “incremental audience reach” (40%) as the top three. While German advertisers ranked “optimizing frequency” (55%), “optimizing reach” (54%) and “customer acquisition” (47%) in the top spots.

Additionally, the main data sources leveraged for converged TV campaigns by European marketers were found to be online data for attribution (>53%), first-party customer data (>41%) and offline data for attribution (>31%). In Germany, set-top-box data and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) viewership panel data were also used by more than a third of all respondents.

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Spotlight: Holistic, Transparent Measurement 

The top factors for converged TV investment all supported the need to move past legacy models and toward a more holistic, transparent TV marketplace. In order to devote more spend to converged TV, TVSquared’s report found that the most important factor for respondents in Germany was “ability to measure performance accurately at scale.” For the UK, it was “ability to holistically manage linear and streaming.”

Findings also supported the sentiment that traditional TV currencies no longer meet the needs of today’s marketers, with “accuracy of cross-platform TV measurement and attribution” cited as a top challenge by nearly 50% of respondents in the UK and Germany. Yet, “achieving cross-platform TV measurement and attribution” also happened to be the leading priority for more than 80% of them. 

There is also a growing demand for a more flexible TV ecosystem to empower a greater majority of advertisers to manage all forms of TV holistically. For UK respondents, 94% recognize the need for TV to be more flexible and easier to transact across linear and streaming (88% of German respondents agreed).

The Possibilities: Endless

With viewers dispersed across content and screens, marketers are increasingly adopting converged TV strategies to ensure they can reach and engage with their total TV audience.

Reliable, transparent measurement across campaigns, combined with modern currencies and the right set of metrics, can power converged TV and ensure advertisers’ total TV investments and impression allocations are effective at achieving audience reach and outcomes across TV everywhere.

To read about these finding and more, download a copy of The State of Converged TV: A Look at Global Trends & Adoption.