- Cross Media Working Group participants include world’s biggest marketers and markets, tech firms, broadcasters and agency holding groups
- Two-day meeting during Advertising Week NY identifies next steps for progress
October 7, 2019: The Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) is a member of a global advertiser-focused group launching an initiative designed to make the advertiser voice heard on the topic of cross-media measurement.
The ‘Cross Media Working Group’ as it has been named, is led by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and is comprised of global advertisers EA, Mastercard, P&G and Unilever, as well as advertising associations from around the world: the ACA (Canada), the ANA (US), ISBA (UK), OWM (Germany), Union des Marques (France) and the Media Rating Council. Key digital platforms and publishers including Facebook, Google and Twitter are also participating in the initiative, as are leading broadcasters.
The group aims to find cross-industry consensus on key global principals for measurement, with broadcasters, digital platforms and measurement companies also involved in the initiative.
The goal of the Cross Media Working Group is to speed up the implementation of more consistent measurement without having to invent a separate solution for every market. It aims to deliver on the challenges of third-party verification and measurement outlined in the WFA’s Media Charter.
The group has been meeting for several months to identify common ground between current cross-media measurement initiatives in markets such as France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, UK and the US. During Advertising Week in New York the group met for a two-day session, designed to continue the work of identifying areas of consensus and disagreement.
“It’s a very solutions-oriented group with the knowledge of existing systems along with vision and engineering capabilities to develop future systems,” said Chris Williams, VP Digital, ACA.
That work has identified four key areas where more work and consultation is required to build consensus:
- Privacy: Cross-media measurement depends on data being provided by various sources (platforms, publishers, broadcasters, measurement companies and others). It’s critically important that this is shared in a manner that respects consumer privacy and is in line with both existing and emerging privacy regulation.
- Measurement infrastructure or ‘pipework’: Cross-media measurement requires a complex infrastructure of components and data. Decisions are required as to how best to connect these, for example, the role for TV panels, calibration with other sources as well as the method of audience de-duplication.
- Metrics and data: Cross-media measurement requires consistent definitions and metrics to enable like-for-like comparisons between media. The solution may involve establishing a single definition or more than one definition but there has to be a means of comparing each. The group will have to identify the minimum datasets required to deliver this and how they flow through the above pipework.
- Governance: Cross-media measurement requires clear governance in order to protect privacy, ensure objectivity and enable fair decision-making. Decisions are required as to how this should be governed and funded, where the measurement should ‘live’ and who should provide it.
The group’s work sessions in NY identified baseline principles for several of these areas and the next steps will be to build on these ideas and then interrogate and stress-test the principles developed.
Ultimately, the collaborative project will build principles, agreement and commitment from the industry, which will become the foundations for potential solutions.