For the last five years, iSpot has been part of the new currency movement that challenges the status quo of program-based ratings. Not because we have some preconceived notion that the entire industry would move off of a program ratings-based systems for linear TV overnight, but because we have been modernizing a new and better way for brands and publishers to transact in a cross-platform marketplace since inception, regardless of how currency evolves.
A way for brands to see exactly what they are getting for their money, across platforms.
A way for publishers to get the credit they deserve for delivering unique audiences.
An independent way for both to see the outcomes from ad investments.
A way that makes simple sense in an increasingly complex marketplace.
Exact ad measurement. Transparency about audiences delivered. Fair credit for all the places ads run. Industry context and benchmarks. Independent measurement free of conflicting interests.
These are standards we believe the industry deserves and the role we are playing to help achieve them.
And because we’re committed to independently verified measurement, we’re also committed to working with independent bodies that validate our data and methodologies so that the marketplace can transact with confidence.
That’s why we’re proud to announce re-certification from the Joint Industry Committee (JIC) for our cross-platform audience measurement capabilities. The JIC brings together actual buyers and sellers to interrogate the data and methodologies and verify the claims of accuracy and completeness of data in categories of audience measurement and advanced audiences and deems them transactable.
And while we aren’t the only company to gain certification, it’s important to note the truly unique approach we deploy in the marketplace.
We focus on ads.
iSpot is the only company in the new currency marketplace that measures de-duplicated audiences for advertising at scale, across platforms. Likewise, only iSpot has MRC accreditation for national ad occurrence data.
Why is this important?
In an increasingly complex marketplace where ad exposures are occurring across multiple services and ads are often delivered dynamically, program-based proxies don’t work. Panels are useful, and we use them for co-viewing calibration. But verification of ads on the glass of millions of TVs tied to households is faster and much more accurate.
It can be useful to know how many people, on average, watched a show and may have seen the ads as a result. But brands need to know exactly how many people actually saw an ad, for how long, how often and what the audiences did as a result.
Likewise, publishers need that same data to prove their engagement and the unique audiences and outcomes they help deliver to advertisers.
Those factors are what’s driving the video marketplace today, and will for as long as ads are bought and sold.
Without measuring audiences for ads in the context of all the places ads run, and a brand’s ability to see investments in audience reach on a de-duplicated basis, understanding ad effectiveness is a guessing game.
Put simply, without reliable cross-platform audience measurement for advertising, business outcome models don’t work. Proof of value is impossible. And the marketplace suffers.
This is where iSpot is uniquely capable of reconciling ad spend, and tying audiences and outcomes together. And this is why investments in verifying iSpot’s audience measurement capabilities with organizations like the JIC are important.
To be clear on currency: We aren’t trying to reconfigure the elaborate buying infrastructures that have stood up TV for the last 100 years. We just don’t think the legacy systems and antiquated plumbing can keep up with the evolving TV/streaming ecosystem. And we question the viability of currency as we know it today.
That’s why we have remained focused on measurement systems that are built for the future.
Systems that give brands and publishers a more accurate and fair way to negotiate value in a deal and a precise way to determine and reconcile if what was promised was delivered.
Call it currency if you want, or call it something else—but the bottom line is that our focus on accuracy for advertising at scale is the key underpinning for understanding effectiveness, which is what all who transact in video are after.