The Association of National Advertisers said it is working with Comscore to test a cross-media measurement system for marketers that protects consumer privacy.
The cross-media measurement project seeks to bring together advertisers, TV networks, digital publishers, and large digital platforms, the group said.
The ANA said that a more transparent measurement system would deliver an improved ad experience for consumers and improve advertiser decision making. The system aims to provide marketers with the ability to evaluate the complete and cumulative effects of a campaign across all media channels and devices, including the value of specific media channels.
Numerous networks and research companies are working on their own methodologies for attributing sales and other marketing results to media exposure.
The announcement comes at a time when the industry’s leader in media measurement is under fire for under-counting television viewing during the pandemic.
A key part of the system being tested in the Virtual People ID methodology for reporting demographics and deduplicating impressions across media.
The VID approach assigns synthetic identifiers to media audience behavior without needing to use digital identifiers such as third-party cookies or mobile ad IDs. The ANA and Comscore will test an approach to the VID methodology that expands to include television, accounting for co-viewing as well as digital/TV deduplication.
“Cross-media measurement has been a longstanding yet elusive goal for the marketing industry,” said ANA executive VP Bill Tucker, who is leading the cross-media measurement (CMM) initiative. “This partnership with Comscore and the test we are conducting represents a significant step toward realizing our objective.”
Tucker expects a CMM pilot to be in market late in the upcoming fourth quarter of this year or in the first quarter of 2022.
“It is a privilege to partner with the ANA to help advance cross-media measurement by joining TV and digital data in an innovative and effective manner,” said Bill Livek, CEO and executive vice chairman at Comscore. “We’re excited to begin validating the VID methodology, including television, using Comscore’s set-top box and connected TV data sets.”
