One of the biggest challenges in digital is knowing what and how to measure. The ARF's Ted McConnell has a new perspective. Watch this interview before your next metrics meeting.
As digital evolves more and more quickly, who determines the new standards? For example, how to measure digital TV viewership vs. traditional. And how do you navigate the emerging gray "crossover zones" of paid, earned, and owned content?
Ted McConnell, EVP of digital at The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), learned the hard way in his years at P&G. He says he couldn't convince anyone to make changes, unless he could prove with metrics "what was in it for them." Now Ted is one of the guys making the new indsustry rules (or at least asking the new questions). He recently wrote:
Traditional publishing [left] advertisers with relatively few choices: There's an ad. It appears in a box. The box contains copy. Ad agencies make the copy. The brand figures out "who," and the media ecosystem delivers those eyeballs. Put money in the slot, and out comes advertising... But when advertisers create content for themselves, no "box" is required, and weaving brand and content becomes a craft... The web adds dimensions to that dynamic by enabling advertisers to knit content fragments into whole fabric.
In its 75 years of existance, the ARF has helped advertisers track and measure audience engagement through a number of shifts. Consider the evolving terminology: reads, views, clicks, purchases, impressions, downloads, likes, tweets, shares... The challenge is making decisions as new trends emerge. And it's not always obvious what the answers should be.
Watch as Sarah Fay tries to get a straight answer from Ted about what the new standards should be. In this "glass half-full, glass half-empty, do-I-really-need-a-glass" conversation, he manages to never definitively say, "This is how you do it." Instead, Ted seems to have a different perspective on everything from how to measure earned media in a social environment, to what even qualifies as content. (The usually unflappable Sarah even shows her frustration at 12:38 in the interview!)
Conversation Highlights
0:00 - Learning the importance of measuring at P&G
2:20 - We used to ask people questions, now we observe
4:10 - Direct respose doesn't care about attitudes
5:00 - The gray areas of paid/owned/earned media
6:00 - Is a chip in a Nike shoe content?
7:15 - Is OnStar advertising?
8:15 - 2 ways the ARF is helping companies measure social value
9:55 - iTV
11:20 - TV should come begging us to help with ad targeting
12:30 - Is the consumer ready to learn a new interface?
13:30 - Conventions will emerge...
14:15 - Which giants will establish the standards?
Run time is 14:52
