GroupM Unveils New Standards for Measurement Partners

After being disappointed in an upfronts season that it said “lacked significant conversation about measurement,” GroupM is taking matters into its own hands. The company has developed a roadmap for its audience measurement partners that it hopes will further drive the industry towards improvement measurement standards, and bridge the measurement gap. “Marketers are leaning into new tools and technologies to bridge the measurement gap, raising important questions about the accuracy and sustainability of panel-based measurement as changes in the digital media environment continue to accelerate beyond one currency,” said Kirk McDonald, CEO, GroupM North America, in a statement. “Outlining expectations with our measurement partners and working together to implement standards is critical to create real change that makes advertising work better for our clients and to better track our progress towards client growth goals.” According to GroupM, its partners will need to incorporate feedback from the buy-side and input from the Association of National Advertisers, gain universal acceptance and utilization by all media partners, and provide traditional and digital partner coverage, with the opportunity to add new metrics like attention. This Year’s Upfront Might Feel Like Business as Usual, but a Metrics Revolution Is Underway The media company also expects its partners to provide fair and accurate audience representation, move towards standardization and greater transparency, as well as MRC accreditation, provide interoperability across GroupM’s tools and systems, and share new commercial models to fund measurement. “The industry requires a robust measurement solution that can solve the problem of cross-screen reach and frequency and is representative of how consumers watch video,” said Matt Sweeney, chief investment officer, GroupM U.S., in a 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.” While GroupM still plans to transact on Nielsen’s data for this year’s upfront, alternative currencies, including outcome-based approaches for some clients, will be used to shadow Nielsen deals. The company is currently testing iSpot, Comscore, Videoamp, and Nielsen One Alpha across more than a dozen of its clients, including Unilever, Nestle, Ferrero, Domino’s, TJX Companies and Mars. “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,” said Rob Master, vp of media and marketing, Unilever, in a statement. “This process will enable us to consider what the measurement ecosystem should look like as audiences embrace new technologies and consume content in different ways.” Movement in measurement For the most part, marketers previously told Adweek, this year's upfront negotiations will mostly be business as usual when it comes to measurement, with some exceptions (Horizon Media said it plans to transact up to 15% of its upfront investments using alternative currencies). In this upfront, the TV industry will still largely transact against Nielsen’s C3—and in some cases C7—ratings, according to executives across several major holding companies, but more seismic changes are coming in 2023. The shift to alternative currencies comes following a year of Nielsen’s measurement woes. Last September, following the revelation that Nielsen had uncounted audiences during the pandemic, the measurement company was stripped of its national and local TV ratings services’ accreditation by the Media Rating Council. In December, Nielsen informed its clients, including TV networks and agencies, that it has undercounted out-of-home audiences for national TV programming since September 2020. The Video Advertising Bureau asked Nielsen in February to delay its new “big data” monthly impact releases—set-top box and smart television viewership metrics that complement its in-house panel data for national TV measurement—until after this year’s upfront, calling the current data “unusable.” Nielsen has promised to make the appropriate fixes, but the MRC said in March that the earliest Nielsen’s accreditation could be reinstated is Q3 2022, long after upfront negotiations will have wrapped. In the meantime, several other organizations, including NBCUniversal and Paramount, have been creating their own measurement alternatives.

Measurement

GroupM Unveils New Standards for Partners to Bridge the Measurement Gap

Company takes action after upfront season that 'lacked significant conversation about measurement'

Mollie Cahillane

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Mollie Cahillane