The basic concept of OTT (Over the Top) was to deliver television viewers content wherever and whenever they wanted, along with the goal to give users the quality and the live TV experience. With personalized content being served, the need raised on understanding how content was being consumed by end-users. Information such as who viewed the content, for how long, from where and which device the content was viewed became important for advertisers and agencies for providing the right audience at the right time. For brands, it’s important to know where your consumers consume media – whether it’s TV, mobile, tablet, or consoles. These questions are difficult to answer. Therefore, brands are wondering where to buy media to start engaging consumers with their ads. How can they optimize their campaigns across different platforms? That’s where cross-media measurement comes into the picture.
What is Cross Media Measurement?
Cross-media measurement has been in focus for quite some time by media researchers. The scope includes measurement of various content, including images, videos, or music along with the devices they are viewed across various matrices. All the information that is gathered is thoroughly classified, analyzed, and researched to generate a clear picture of how content is being consumed. This approach helps various stakeholders within the media industry to create, distribute, and monetize content much more effectively and forms the basic concept of cross-media measurement.
With the change in media consumption, advertisers are looking at multiple ways to reach the right audience. Therefore, they are running integrated campaigns along with different media platforms and devices. However, to do that it is more important to assess everything with accuracy and correctness. The main advantage of cross-media measurement is that it provides a better and on the spot results and views from the consumer end. Therefore, advertisers can have a more detailed look at their media consumption habits.
OTT Cross-Media Measurement – Looking Forward
The main advantage of OTT is that unlike cable services, both advertisers and service providers can analyze a large amount of data about their consumers. The beauty of OTT cross-media measurement is that data can be accessed as per the demand. Since every single operation is programmed, it is relatively easier to analyze data from the viewer’s recommendation. So, what is the future of OTT cross-media measurement? We cannot say for sure whether linear TV will be replaced in the span of the next couple of years. But there’s a bright chance that this shift could occur sooner than before.
As more and more advertisers demand added transparency and ROI into the ad money spend, we will see broadcasters investing in cross-media measurement platforms to measure the effectiveness of campaigns. At the same time to make the whole system to be extensive in terms of a win-win for advertisers, agencies, and broadcasters, a more collaborative effort is required to bring in a more consistent and stable cross-media measurement system.
The concept of TV broadcasting is changing, and so will the way one view and interacts with content and therefore, how ads will be viewed and consumed. It is more like a Rubik’s cube, and we need to get everything correct for a better viewing experience in the future.
Conclusion
In addition to analyzing data, there’s still more work to be done on the researcher’s side. As more content goes online, advertisers, agencies, and broadcasters will need to know the importance and significance of cross-media measurement. These stakeholders will need to come together to build a cross-media measurement model that can span the various marketing ecosystems to measure campaign performance effectively. Integrating data across sources is just one part of the whole ecosystem, how the cross-media measurement model will evolve will ultimately define how multi-channel campaigns can extend their reach and effectiveness.
