Unpacking the Deep Insights in Ampersand's Innovative Measurement Solutions

Among those with a deep understanding of Total TV Measurement is Justin Rosen, Ampersand's Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics. MediaVillage caught up with Rosen just after he spoke at Ampersand's virtual webinar on April 25th, Winning in the (Ever) Changing Multiscreen Landscape. His biggest message: Total TV Measurement offers precision at scale.

As the webinar made clear, Ampersand’s Total TV Measurement offers access to aggregated viewership insights from 42 million homes serviced by its three cable owners -- Charter, Cox and Comcast -- as well as from a growing list of affiliate data partners including Altice and Verizon Fios, delivered in a privacy compliant and aggregated way.

What makes this solution unique is Ampersand's ability to offer marketers insights not just on the multiscreen TV inventory Ampersand has sold directly, but also any ad inventory that can be measured through viewing insights or from many streaming environments. "Ampersand's approach removes the silos and allows a client to get a more complete picture of their television investment in a dynamic dashboard," Rosen explained. "What we're doing here is bringing the best of digital to what TV still does best: provide the most reach, the most quickly, with the best content in the best viewing environment."

According to Rosen, Ampersand uses its audience insights to help marketers create a more targeted TV campaign by layering filters that are based on a given brand's unique marketing goals -- whether that involves audience segments, geography and/or specific networks.

One of the key points he made during the webinar was the importance of scale for any media partner participating in a campaign plan. Ampersand offers that scale through its extensive sample base. He further explained that marketers need scale with both inventory and with data to get a "Total TV picture" that's as refined and accurate as possible. "It's something that might not be possible if starting with a smaller footprint," he noted.

Rosen said there is always the risk of getting too targeted. It's important that advertisers start the process with the basics and ask who the audience is they want to reach and what are they trying to achieve. He also stressed the importance of collaboration. "A lot of the digital platforms build these walled gardens where they act like they're flexible and transparent, but it's really only in a way they can control," he asserted.

"We call ourselves Ampersand for a reason," Rosen said, referring to the many types of companies and people connected to a buying decision. "We believe in our theory behind 'and' -- publishers, marketers, agencies and brands need to work together to tell a fuller and more complete story. We're willing to report on media that we didn't sell."

Rosen also made clear that it is important to move away from transactions based on gross ratings points (GRPs) to using impressions as a metric -- and along with that, moving from cost per point (CPP) to cost per thousand (CPM) measurement. He pointed out that digital is an impression-based ecosystem whereas television has used multiple metrics, noting that the measurement must be apples to apples in order for a multi-screen ecosystem to be successful for everyone, and that audience-based impressions is the metric that gets us there.

Rosen stressed that while the multi-screen environment is complex, ever-changing and with increasingly fragmented audiences, waiting is not an option. Whether that is waiting for the perfect solution or waiting in the hopes that fragmentation will get better, the industry is changing in real-time as linear and streaming inventory blends. In his view, waiting means missing out on the opportunities to be successful right now.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.