Finecast (the planning/buying access point to addressable TV inventory) reckons its Total TV Measurement solution provides unique levels of insight for any advertiser that wants to combine addressable TV with classic linear broadcast in a campaign, providing de-duplicated reach and frequency against a broad set of BARB demographic audiences. There are plans to show incremental reach against more ‘addressable’ audiences, too, such as affluence and life stage (coming soon). Available for GroupM clients in the UK (since Finecast is part of GroupM Nexus, the performance focused part of the media agency group), the measurement solution will demonstrate the reach contribution of Finecast-enabled addressable TV buys.
Total TV Measurement has been used with multiple GroupM clients already but was given its official go-to-market launch in June after receiving a stamp of approval from PwC, which conducted an exhaustive assurance review of the end-to-end processes and methodology used. This covered everything from data cleaning to data fusion, de-duplication and quality checks, with all nine categories of investigation passed.
Total TV Measurement first measures and de-duplicates addressable TV audience exposures across the entire Finecast supplier ecosystem, which includes linear broadcast addressable TV plus BVOD, AVOD and other ‘TV-like’ (i.e., high-quality, broadcaster equivalent standard) streaming. This is achieved by combining Finecast log-level data with measurement provided by AudienceProject, which runs its own viewing panel (complete with establishment survey). This cross-channel addressable audience view is then combined with BARB data via TechEdge to show de-duplicated reach and frequency across the addressable and classic linear portions of a campaign.
Currently the new product does not attempt to de-duplicate audiences between one streaming addressable source and another, with the focus on showing the difference a combined addressable buy makes on top of linear. This more granular de-duplication may come later.
The outputs from Total TV Measurement are: cross-channel addressable TV reach and frequency; linear campaign reach and frequency; overall de-duplicated reach and frequency; Finecast (addressable) and linear TV 1+ cover curves (with other custom cover curves considered).
Samantha Lister, Head of Marketing Science at Finecast, comments: “This is a solution for brands that want to understand how reach interacts across addressable TV and linear TV and how they can optimise reach across the two. It helps them consider the impact of budget allocation.”
She adds: “Historically, linear TV has been the most cost-effective medium when it comes to reach, but declining linear audiences and deflating [addressable TV] costs mean brands are leaning more into addressable TV. When we launched Finecast, it was ‘linear-first’ [on the plan] and then you added incremental reach [via addressable], but today it is not always linear first, depending on the audience you want to reach. There are some audiences where you should plan for addressable first or where you can invest less in linear before you move budget to addressable.”
As for the PwC verification to ISRS 4400 (Revised) standards, this was a proactive move, since the GroupM clients using the solution (and the GroupM agencies) were happy with the outcomes and their own due diligence. Lister wanted to get ahead of the curve. “As more budget shifts from linear to addressable, addressable comes under greater scrutiny. We are so proud of what we have done we wanted a seal of approval. There was no huge demand for an assurance review from our clients.”
One study for a GroupM client shows what they gain in terms of knowledge. It demonstrated +2.3% incremental reach into the 18-34 age group and +1.3% incremental gain across all adults when addressable was added to standard linear TV. Savings were also indicated – based on what it would have cost to achieve that level of incremental reach through continued linear buys. Total TV measurement is free on selected campaigns and the ambition is that it becomes standard practice for qualifying campaigns where linear and addressable are being combined.