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Cross-Screen TV Measurement Is the Key to Unlocking Today’s Upfronts

The upfronts are a time to reboot and rejuvenate traditional TV practices. This year, we need to innovate to reach audiences following the new norm of consumption. It’s May, and you’re probably ready to take your budget into the upfront negotiations, but you’re facing fewer available video impressions than ever and higher CPMs.

The game has changed, and you need a new approach to make the best investments across the coming 12 months. As viewership continues to fragment and lean heavily towards connected TV, advertisers and media owners who embrace data and technology to increase flexibility this year are destined to come out on top.

It should come as little surprise that data and flexibility now play a pivotal role in the upfronts. Cross-screen measurement is the way to allow advertisers and media owners to collaborate around data and flexibility. It provides a holistic view of video investments for planning and optimization throughout the broadcast year.

What makes a good measurement partner?

The key to accurate measurement lies in working with a partner that leverages the largest and most complete TV dataset combined with best-in-class cross-screen identity. For example, the combination of set-top box (STB) data plus automatic content recognition (ACR) data captures 2.5-times more impressions than ACR can deliver alone. This combination would allow you to capture all the TVs in a household and paint a comprehensive picture with greater accuracy. Then, linking CTV publisher ad exposure data based on opted-in personally identifiable information (PII) provides accuracy and the prioritization of privacy.

Working with a good measurement partner means you should be able to succinctly capture all exposures and measure all points of consumption. This means your measurement partner can capture all mediums and channels and create a holistic view of your video investment—linear, CTV, VOD, full-episode player (FEP), addressable and streaming.

Cross-screen measurement provides a holistic view of video investments for planning and optimization throughout the broadcast year.

One advanced use case would be to understand channel deduplication to gain a clear view of what each screen and stream delivers when it comes to reach, frequency and any predetermined KPI. Your cross-screen measurement platform should provide insight into any audience, any conversion event online or offline, and any screen.

Today. Not in three years.

Out with the old, in with the new

Our research has shown that if you do things the same old way, 75% of an advertiser’s TV impressions are going to less than 25% of the households in the United States. If you only check the box in CTV with a programmatic TV overlay, you are probably piling on even more impressions to those already heavily linear homes. It’s time to do things differently.

Now imagine steering the dollars you invested differently than you ever have before, given more data and flexibility. Advertisers, agencies and media owners who measure cross-screen can be more nimble. They can end their siloed view of video and manage their cross-screen reach and frequency.

With accurate measurement, you can target “light exposure to your linear TV” on CTV. Cross-screen measurement balances your video investment and helps manage a fragmented landscape. It could be the solution you’ve been looking for when trying to manage the precision of targeting and the necessities of broad reach.

The next step of cross-screen measurement is linking sales data to answer the question, “Is my total video investment driving my bottom line?” With advanced measurement, you can see how all media is working together—and also independently—to drive revenue and achieve KPIs. Knowing this will allow you to optimize cross-screen, allocate budgets effectively and plan for future investments. The key to upfront management is knowing what happened last quarter to make adjustments for the upcoming quarter.

A win-win scenario

As you reboot your TV strategy this year and use data and flexibility as critical upfront pillars, know that cross-screen measurement will be the most important secret weapon you have to increase your flexibility when managing your investments throughout the year.  

For advertisers: Now that data and flexibility are fundamental, make sure you have the right cross-screen measurement partner to set your year up for success. The three main factors to look for are:

  • A large, comprehensive TV data set
  • A holistic view of your cross-screen investment
  • The ability to track KPIs

Cross-screen measurement is critical for agility, precision and optimization in executing the significant commitment throughout the broadcast year.

For media owners: Enable cross-screen measurement as you start booking upfronts with agencies and brands. Knowing as much about the inventory within your entire portfolio will help you monetize impressions correctly. It will help prove you can strategically apply advertiser’s dollars to your assets, enabling you to keep the dollars you capture in the upfronts throughout the year.

Everyone is looking for the foundational elements of the upfront marketplace to shine through—partnering in annual commitments that benefit both parties. That means getting back to the original promise: developing deeper, richer partnerships between brands and media owners which, along with cross-screen measurement, will take us there.