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Measurement challenges plague the ad industry, as linear TV investments dwindle and marketers consider alternatives to Nielsen data.
It takes time to receive performance data on TV campaigns, making it hard for marketers to adjust their video strategies in real time. The lag didn’t used to matter as much, since marketers usually committed to buy a certain amount of upfront network inventory each year.
Meanwhile, CTV investments are burgeoning and a new cadre of ad tech companies are creating measurement solutions that they say are better and faster than Nielsen’s.
“We can’t not all acknowledge that linear TV is toast. Like, it’s over. Ad-supported streaming is what television advertising will look like. Period, full stop. Within five years,” actor and filmmaker Edward Norton said during a panel discussion with PepsiCo vp and former NFL player Kalen Thornton at ADWEEK’s Big Game Brunch event in Las Vegas.
“People are going to watch on-demand content, and they are going to get served ads on it,” Norton added.
Norton co-founded one those new ad tech firms—the TV measurement company EDO—in 2015, alongside entrepreneur and poet Daniel Nadler.
In 2022, ADWEEK parent company Shamrock Capital invested $80 million in EDO.
In a panel discussion led by ADWEEK’s Jenny Rooney. Norton and Thornton addressed measurement challenges, new partnership options for brands and how ad-funding streaming could be a windfall for filmmakers.
“Content through streaming will now have attributable revenue to it because of ads. And that’s going to be really meaningful for creative people,” Norton said.
Measurement options proliferate, but data’s useless without context
More measurement options benefit brands like Pepsi, but Thornton cautions other marketers to be thoughtful about their data collection processes and what they do once they have metrics in hand. More data is not useful if it lacks context.
“There is sometimes confusion between causation and correlation,” Thornton said of marketers’ tendency to misunderstand their campaign data. As advertising becomes more measurable, marketers must find supplemental ways to connect with audiences and find out what actually drives purchase decisions.
Measurement changes and the rise of new ad-tech players like EDO present marketers with options they never had before. Now, brands can divert traditional media channels and approach streamers directly to co-produce entertainment. It’s also true of sports sponsorships, the former NFL linebacker said.
