Marketers and media companies are contending with shifts in the measurement landscape as yesterday’s single currency gives way to a more interoperable future. Given the complexity of this emerging multi-currency reality, stakeholders have begun to purposefully curate a multitude of data sources in order to accurately reflect the modern consumers’ behaviors.
But what is the right mix of different data sources, and how can decision makers equip themselves with the information necessary to execute confidently in this new environment?
As the single rating wanes in relevance, new currencies are emerging that largely rely on data sets from Set Top Box and Smart TVs (Device-Delivery Data). And while these sources are able to collect large quantities of data from specific devices, they cannot provide a holistic view of the entire consumer experience.
Ideally, we’d like to know how all consumers are behaving across all media– TV, internet, mobile, social media, gaming, etc. But the proliferation of walled gardens has siloed the media landscape and made it impossible for device delivery data to see across all these disparate viewing environments. As such, recruiting a group of people or households to represent all consumers on a panel provides a necessary “Oracle of Truth” that connects the dots and helps decision makers understand what is occurring across all those walled gardens.
Since the majority of device delivery data sets are captured at a household level, it is impossible to truly understand which individual was viewing, engaging, or consuming which media. Further, depending on the device through which behavior took place, certain demographic and geographic biases can occur based on the population from whom the data is derived. As such, device delivery data requires calibration by an Oracle of Truth.
Calibration is the process of adjusting the values of the parameters of a data model in order to ensure the output matches as closely as possible to the data found empirically (true consumer behavior). Because device delivery data cannot deliver the holistic behavioral picture of consumer behavior (all disparate behavioral touchpoints in connection with one another, as they occur in real-time), it requires calibration by an Oracle of Truth.
This calibration creates powerful data that can help fuel a new era of relevant, accurate representations of users and audiences at scale and ultimately restore accuracy across the media landscape, empowering stakeholders to streamline decision making, allocate budgets more efficiently, and facilitate better experiences for consumers.
Set Top Boxes and Smart TVs do not represent the entire TV viewing population and leave out non-cable, non-satellite, and other over-the-air homes. A Leichtman study found that only 37% of all TV sets in use have a traditional pay-TV providers’ set-top box, down from 58% in 2016. According to CIMM, about 10% – 20% of TV Smart TV buyers decline to have their viewing data collected at all. Most data providers lack intel on how much the demographic and TV viewing profile of decliners differs from the rest of the customer base.
The ACR technology underpinning the collection of data from Smart TVs requires matching snippets of content against a reference library to identify what is being viewed on the TV. Therefore, the technology must be able to make a correct match, and the content must be in the reference library in order to be matched. ACR methodologies match detected snippets back to broadcast schedule data in order to determine what was viewed on the screen. In today’s dynamic media environment, where consumers no longer watch media in an entirely scheduled manner, this leaves time-shifted media exposures unaccounted for.
According to the WFA’s Cross-Media Measurement Framework, accurate measurement of media experiences across linear TV, CTV and digital is a complex problem that requires multiple data sets to solve. A combination of device delivery data and panel data must be used in order to capture the comprehensive behavioral footprint of modern consumers. Without panel data to serve as a truth set, device delivery data cannot meet these standards.
Hypha’s Centric Origin Data is produced by the only panel measurement system capable of accounting for current media experiences (not reliant on broadcast schedule data) in a single-source, cross-device, individual-level manner.This data represents the holistic individual media experience– all behavioral touchpoints in connection with one another. Because of the technology underpinning our methodology, we are able to derive all individual behavioral inputs from a single-source in real time and produce contextualized media exposure down to the individual person. With this Oracle of Truth, data providers across the industry are able to calibrate their data to put together a holistic view of consumer behavior.
The future of measurement is interoperable. Since one single data provider cannot fill all measurement needs, multiple data inputs calibrated by a source of truth are needed to deliver granularity at scale.
The industry is putting more energy into the creation of panels that can serve as calibration truth sets to facilitate interoperability. The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) said it’s building a Nielsen-size panel for cross-platform measurement, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is also building a panel for cross-media measurement. Even Google is creating a panel for online measurement.
According to Howard Shimmel, head of strategy for predictive analytics firm DatafuelX, “Big data is great, but there are segments in the country that are not represented in big data—like over-the-air homes without a broadband connection. And other segments like Hispanic homes, even with broadband, are just not represented in big numbers in those data sets.” By calibrating big device delivery data sets with Centric Origin Data, the output is higher quality data that removes biases, fills gaps, and ensures accuracy.
HyphaMetrics is the definitive source of the richest, most accurate, and reliable data on individual media behaviors, measured through a patented measurement system created for today’s rapidly evolving media environment and culturally inclusive social fabric. We are the only solution able to understand how humans truly interact with all media within their home on a second-by-second basis, in a TV omnichannel and cross-device manner. We serve as an oracle of truth to calibrate big data sets, validate identity efforts, and create effective planning, targeting, and measurement capabilities for both buyers and sellers–fueling the future of media interdependence.
