Online, Mobile Need Common Metric With TV

It is essential for broadcasters to hone means for measuring consumers tapping into their online and mobile efforts to more accurately prove those properties’ value to clients, a panel of industry leaders said Wednesday.

“The challenge is in a common metric to measure across media,” said Lynda Clarizio, CEO of Invision, which provides television ad sales and planning systems. “We owe it to ourselves in the future to address those [challenges] so advertisers can feel like they are better served in the future.”

Speaking at BIA/Kelsey’s Digital Strategies for Broadcasting conference in Jersey City, N.J., Clarizio was one of three speakers who stressed the import of broadcasters developing -- and using -- ways of more accurately measuring cross-platform audiences.

Doing so, they said, is an essential component in broadcast companies’ transformation from TV or radio to multimedia businesses.

“I think it’s vitally important that this industry move forward and follow the consumers … and find solutions to help advertisers find those consumers,” said Pierre Bouvard, Arbitron’s EVP, cross-platform services.

“If the industry just sits here and waits for things to happen, it won’t work out well,” he said. “You need to take control of your destiny and embrace solutions to better serve your advertisers.”

Ratings no longer carry the same sort of weight they did when television reps were primarily focused on selling TV spots, he said. Rather, today it’s a broadcast company’s brand cross-platform permeation that matters

“There may be some stations that have a small overall audience but a huge number of people who spend time connecting,” Bouvard said.

While those sorts of metrics are in the works, there already are new means available for broadcasters to better measure and subcategorize viewers -- means that will help them and advertisers target particular segments of consumers. Panelist Bill Livek, CEO of Rentrak, said the databases his company collects and analyzes through set-top boxes give TV sellers and advertisers the specific information they need to target ads toward particular consumers.

Having targeted information like, for example, which television shows potential car buyers are watching, can be a boon to advertisers wanting to reach specific audiences – and broadcasters that can use the data to lure more advertising dollars, Livek said.