Analyzing Measurement's 'Critical' Role in 2023 Upfront Negotiations

Alternative currencies dominated industry talk ahead of the 2022 upfront. But when it comes to measurement, things were easier said than done. Despite more business than ever being transacted through currencies other than Nielsen in 2022, buyers told Adweek that actual progress was slow on the measurement front. One industry insider, speaking anonymously, even summed up the situation as "12 months of false starts." Part of the issue came down to industrywide confusion over the differences between measurement and currency, which were often used interchangeably. For the record, a currency can be transacted on, which Mike Bregman, chief data officer, Havas Media Group North America, told Adweek is something not everyone understood last year. However, if the topic of multiple currencies doesn't seem as top of mind publicly heading into the 2023 upfront, it's no less important to negotiations. "I don't think currency and measurement is dead; I actually think it's quite alive," said Bregman. "And the reason you may not see it as much in the press is because it's not as eye-opening. I think it's already been accepted." Inside the TV Industry’s Numbers-Crunching to Build Its Multicurrency Future TV industry insiders made a point of telling Adweek that the idea of a one-currency system is already antiquated, and this upfront will bring on even more change. For Kevin Krim, president and CEO, EDO, the 2023 upfront is "the year things change in how TV advertising is bought and sold." "The combination of dramatically shifting consumer viewing habits and the pressures of an uncertain economy on fixed marketing budgets means networks have to prove themselves more than ever before. Brands will lean into more premiums to have more control over their message—and they’ll use data to negotiate better deals with networks," Krim said. "Everybody will be forced to be more fleet-footed with their TV decision-making. And they’ll need the measurement data to know what works." Publishers are clearly recognizing the need to give clients options, with several major companies already announcing that they're using alternative currencies for transactions in this year's upfront. For instance, NBCUniversal, which has a close relationship with iSpot.tv, told Adweek that more than 40% of its transactions were across multiple currencies in 2022, and the company expects that number to increase in 2023. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery recently named Comscore and VideoAmp as currency partners. And for its part, Paramount has been activating audience-based and demo-based guarantees on VideoAmp and Comscore since last year’s upfront. "The role of measurement in the 2023 television upfront will be critical," Ross McCray, CEO, VideoAmp, said. "New measurement and currency solutions are essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, optimize media investments and provide valuable insights into audience behavior across platforms." Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder, Samba TV, told Adweek that "flexibility" is the keyword this year heading into the upfront. "Buyers no longer want to be handcuffed to a legacy buying method with an outdated and now unaccredited method of measuring effectiveness. This is the year where alternative measurement providers like Samba TV will be running right alongside the legacy incumbent," Navin said. "By 2024, we believe we will see buyers drop older measurement methodologies entirely as they adapt to and adopt the new currencies that better fit what the buyer is actually hoping to measure and achieve." Not so fast on new currency Of course, the aforementioned incumbent, Nielsen, is still very much in the conversation. Though more transactions may flow through alternative currencies, Nielsen is still the standard in the industry, despite losing its third-party accreditation status through the Media Rating Council in 2021. And the company is also in the midst of rolling out its own cross-platform solution, Nielsen One. "The industry needs objective, third-party sources for measurement currencies to transact on with confidence, and that is what Nielsen has provided for decades. Today, publishers are moving to selling their inventory across both linear and digital platforms, and the role of currency is to enable that transition," Deirdre Thomas, chief product officer at Nielsen, said. "With Nielsen One, we’re providing a way for buyers and sellers to transact in the cross-media world that is reliable, independent and standardized across the industry." Nielsen is retiring its C3 currency, the industry's standard, in the fall of 2024, so at that time, new currencies will be the only ones available. But there's still a ways to go until then, many buyers told us. "I think everyone's still testing the waters a little bit. I feel like most places, agencies are going to go with one or two different options depending on their clients. But there's a lot of system stuff and costs that we all have to figure out," Stacey Stewart, U.S. chief marketplace officer, UM, said. "We're narrowing things down and getting a little more focused. I think we'll see more of it in '23-'24, but I don't think it'll be a full transition." Additional reporting by Mollie Cahillane. This story is part of Adweek’s Finding the Customer digital package, which spotlights marketers’ efforts to accurately measure and track evolving consumer behaviors and engagement. What Buyers and TV Insiders Really Think About the Top Measurement Companies