The Dentsu Aegis Network is testing a cross-screen measurement system developed by video platform YuMe, released Wednesday, which maps connected TV (CTV) IDs to Nielsen panels.
The system gives TV planners access to audience measurement based on demographic breakouts across multiple app publishers through a partnership with Nielsen.
Dentsu’s digital video investment team wants a common metric to compare audiences across desktop, mobile and linear TV screens.
“We want to get to the ability to target very specific audiences and understand what pricing benchmarks should look like,” said Michael Law, EVP and managing director of video investments for Dentsu Aegis’ investment unit, Amplifi.
For instance, if Dentsu wants to target women 25-54 who shop at clothing retailers more than three times a week, the YuMe-Nielsen system could help a buyer determine at what volume and price it should be budgeting against.
Buyers and sellers both want better measurement in CTV, which is still largely manual and fragmented.
The problem is that each device manufacturer and TV network operates its own walled garden, said YuMe CRO Michael Hudes, and true apples-to-apples comparisons remain idealistic.
Moreover, inconsistent industry standards for what qualifies as a “view” or “impression,” makes it hard for buyers like Dentsu’s Law to move traditional television dollars to CTV – even as consumers migrate.
“Straight linear TV still has the ability to deliver audience reach at scale,” he said. So before he can reinvest $5 from television into, say, digital video or CTV, he needs to prove those nonlinear screens get similar incremental reach.
Yet, buyers like Law appreciate CTV because inventory is largely sold via direct buys or private marketplaces, which theoretically makes for a cleaner environment.
Because agencies still largely bundle CTV into their upfront buys, their investment teams tend to call the shots on CTV strategy and how to execute a campaign.
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At Dentsu Aegis, each connected TV buy is generally I/O-based for a single client, Law said.
If buying and planning teams achieve scale for an individual client, they might then create a private marketplace to append more data and intelligence to the buy.
“If we start to see scale across multiple clients across the agency, maybe we broaden the deal and bring in the opportunity to automate some of the process,” Law said.
“What we’re doing with CTV reaches across the agency as a whole. We’re seeing, across different clients and groups, where CTV can fit in and how it can deliver on different KPIs.”
