The Future of TV Advertising: ‘It Used To Be Outdoor… But Now TV Is The Most Disfunctional On Measurement’

A panel discussing whether Australia needs multiple TV measurement solutions and currencies agreed that one is ideal, but several are inevitable. They have urged the different factions in the industry to make love, not war.

Media agency chiefs urged Nine, Seven and Paramount to collaborate with a Foxtel-led Video Futures Collective in a bid to find greater consistency over video measurement and a currency, even if multiple currencies inevitably appear.

At present, OzTAM provides the only widely used currency in the Australian TV market, but Foxtel has plans to develop an alternative currency and has established a Video Futures Collective think tank with SBS, YouTube, Samsung Ads, Disney Advertising and, imminently, Amazon Prime.

Foxtel is working with Kantar to provide an alternative measurement solution that uses its set top box data and has provided substantial lifts in the ratings of programs and schedules. 

Omnicom Media Group ANZ chief investment officer Kristiaan Kroon said that although a single currency was ideal, media agency groups would work with multiple solutions if required, but the turf war between the Foxtel-led cohort and linear broadcasters Nine, Seven and Ten was less than ideal. 

“Out home used to be the most dysfunctional when it came to measurement. And it really [impacted] their revenue, but they collectively came together (on measurement). For a number of reasons, one of them is measurement, they’re seeing revenue growth,” he explained. “TV has gone from being the most cohesive to the most dysfunctional.” 

“I would like to see Seven, Nine and Ten take SBS’s lead and join that council because that can only be a good thing, standardised measurement, which is something that (OzTam CEO) Karen Halligan talked about earlier. We’d like there to be collaboration, not overcooking it, but sitting in a room and having a conversation.” 

On that note, Paramount Australia GM of Data Insights and Analytics Gareth Tomlin said he would be open to meet up with the Video Futures Collective and that the industry as a whole would benefit from closer collaboration, but stressed that even if multiple currencies exist, any “industry currency” would have to capture audience data from Nine, Seven and Paramount through OZTam’s VOZ. 

“We can’t ignore the gorilla in the room, which is millions of people and probably billions of impressions that come from linear TV. So any industry currency still needs inclusion of broadcast TV,” he said.

Do clients care?

Kroon’s views were echoed by IPG Mediabrands boss Mark Coad, who warned that the TV industry has hit a tipping point and agency groups are already pouring more advertising dollars into digital channels than broadcast TV. 

“The old days of traditional TV sort of dictating terms of how they are measured [are over],” he said. “Do we need one currency, of course we [do].

“Clients don’t give a shit about TV measurement, all they care about is selling their goods and services. So anything that we can do that’s going to help them do that is going to be productive and it’s going to help this industry sell their inventory more effectively.” 

Although OzTAM captures all of linear broadcast and streaming viewing data, it only represents a part of the total video viewing picture. At present, broadcasters and BVOD accounts for about 52% of total video viewing and Group M ANZ chief investment officer Melissa Hey predicts it could shrink to as low as 30-40% in a few years time.

Inevitably, adds Hey, multiple currencies will be required to capture the total video streaming, which also includes the likes Netflix, YouTube and others.

“I don’t think we will get to one we are always going to have full navigating multiple different currencies and ways of buying,” she said. “Not every format of YouTube’s is going to be in Foxtel’s measurement and you’ve got TikTok and Meta. 

“We need to have one big main one to measure the masses, which is likely to be VOZ while the network’s maintain that audience share, but we’re going to have to live in a world where there are multiple currencies. Our job is finding the audiences out there and each (media agency) group is probably going to be developing their own way to navigate that.”

OzTAM’s boss, who is six months into the role, accepts that multiple currencies may eventually emerge even if the ultimate goal is to find a single source of truth on measurement and how video audiences are traded.

Halligan, who was previously a partner in KPMG’s marketing, martech and media advisory division, warned that the last thing clients want is greater complexity from multiple measurement solutions.

“In the US, let’s be honest, if anyone’s done the research on what multiple currencies have done over there, it’s a bit of a shit show. I’d say everyone’s losing a bit of something out of that situation,” she said.

However, Halligan is keen to stress that she wants OzTAM to become more inclusive of players outside of the tent and look at the bigger picture.

“I think everyone needs to make sure that if we’re going down multiple currency paths to understand the methodology. We’ve put a lot of time and effort investment money into delivering to a gold standard in collaboration with the industry on a regular basis.”

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