Mythbusting the JIC, weaponizing the MRC: What’s up with measurement?

While the Writers Guild of America strike that began on May 2 is a headline-generating development more likely to disrupt programmers’ dealmaking with advertisers, the changing measurement landscape is one other pressing topic at this yr’s upfronts, one with the potential to reverberate across the industry and reset the way business is finished for the entire premium video and tv ecosystem.

What measurement should seem like for the multibillion dollar industry was the focus at a several recent events and can likely stay in the crosshairs in the weeks and months ahead as stakeholders push to alter a established order that has been dominated by Nielsen for years. Some executives haven’t been reserved about what a latest measurement paradigm means for the ad industry.

“Make no mistake, that is going to be an enormous change and a reset to all the business models which have, quite truthfully, been forced fit to legacy measurement for way too long,” said Kelly Abcarian, executive vp for measurement and impact at NBCUniversal, at a recent Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) conference. “The future isn’t going to slot in the business models of the past.”

Progress and plans from the JIC

ARF’s AudiencexScience event gave Abcarian and her peers a probability to showcase and stump for the recently formed Joint Industry Committee (JIC), which on April 27 hosted a measurement summit that represented its first upfront presentation. Launched in January, the JIC is working to enable multiple currencies and establish cross-platform measurement solutions for streaming video in time for next yr’s upfront presentations.

Member organizations span big-name programmers and agencies in addition to nonprofits OpenAP and the VAB. At the JIC upfront, OpenAP CMO Brittany Slattery attempted to “mythbust” the concept that the committee is just sell-side, insisting it also encompasses media buyers.

“We wouldn’t be here without the support of our agency partners, who’ve helped us roll up their sleeves — and possibly have gotten way too many emails from me over the past 4 months — to essentially define what this future looks like together,” Slattery said. 

Agencies have embraced the JIC — despite any reservations or mixed feelings about definitions of video or other issues — as a result of an inability to inform clients a unified story about ad frequency, brand client concerns about measurement standards and the must work with industry partners to search out a way forward, based on Bharad Ramesh, executive director of research and investment analytics for GroupM.

“If I’m outside the tent, I don’t know what is going on on inside, let alone the ability to influence it,” Ramesh explained at the ARF event.

While the JIC has quickly grown its ranks, several major players haven’t signed on. Ramesh said that adding YouTube, Netflix and Disney to the JIC in the next 12 to 18 months would make him “fairly glad.” But even without several dominant streaming video firms, the JIC is making impressive progress — and quickly — based on several speakers.

“There’s still plenty more to perform, but I’m super enthusiastic about I believe how quickly we’re moving,” said Dan Aversano, senior vp of information, analytics and advanced promoting at TelevisaUnivision, at the ARF event, pushing back against critics who claim the JIC has moved at a “breakneck” pace. “Consortiums are notoriously slow, and the incontrovertible fact that we have done as much as we have done in 4 months is wild.”

The group’s work up to now includes drafting initial requirements for premium video cross-platform currencies that were announced in March. Over the next two months, the JIC plans to define how programmers will enable data for buyers and measurement firms, with use cases expected to be unveiled at Cannes Lions in June. After measurement firms are engaged on data, the JIC will do a beta release of its streaming data service in Q1 2024 that may be a key a part of the JIC’s promise to advertisers.

“The marketers … they need the data,” said Jackson Bazley, executive vp of the ANA, at the ARF event. “It very simply comes right down to measure all of it, put the attributes in place and allow us to have the data so we are able to evaluate campaigns, we are able to evaluate performance and we make decisions.” 

Elephant in the room 

Despite buy-in from several programmers, agency holding firms, measurement firms and other industry organizations, one major player is, not surprisingly, absent from the JIC: Nielsen, the embattled legacy measurement company that the group’s members are, by various degrees, attempting to bypass with alternative currency development.

Nielsen’s many legal, operational and scientific reasons for declining to take part in the JIC were outlined in a letter dated April 21 and sent by Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s CEO for global audience measurement, to OpenAP CEO David Levy and the JIC. These issues include the JIC’s preference for giant data over panel data, the definition of “premium quality,” the absence of key streaming platforms and other anti-competition and mental property issues. 

Rao also noted a “lack of clarity” on the need for accreditation and never just certification from the industry watchdog the Media Rating Council (MRC). The MRC is a neutral, not-for-profit organization, stressed George Ivie, the organization’s CEO and executive director, at the ARF event.

“We’re not actively supporting multi-currency as an environment, but we’re actively looking for to audit and validate products that may take part in a multi-currency environment in a neutral manner,” Ivie said.

For their part, JIC members poured water on Nielsen’s claims about MRC accreditation. Nielsen just last month received reaccreditation for its National TV Audience Measurement service after losing the organization’s seal of approval in September 2021 for undercounting TV viewership. Nielsen this month acknowledged similar problems that affected its measurement of the Super Bowl, again drawing attention to the miscounting issue. Additionally, several of its products, including Nielsen One ads and its panel-plus-big data integration, would not have accreditation. For some panelists, Nielsen appears to be conflating the functions of the JIC and the MRC.

“To say that they need JIC certification to require MRC accreditation, in my mind, is kind of weaponizing the MRC — there isn’t any other option to take a look at it,” said John Halley, president of Paramount Advertising, at the JIC event.

OpenAP CEO David Levy was “dissatisfied” by the Nielsen letter and noted that the JIC won’t weigh its requirements in a way that advantages just one participant (e.g. putting an emphasis on Nielsen’s long-utilized panel data over big data from other sources).

“Anytime you could have a chance to lean in and hearken to your client’s needs, it is best to really take that chance,” Levy said of Nielsen’s decision to not participate. “We hope Nielson will proceed to interact; we’ll keep attempting to get them at the table.”

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“We cannot operate as an industry moving and transacting billions of dollars in this manner any longer.”

Kelly Abcarian

Executive vp for measurement and impact, NBCUniversal

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At the table or not, Nielsen is not going anywhere, for now a minimum of. Even programmers which have opened their doors to alternative measurement firms will still be transacting with Nielsen as they give the impression of being to fulfill the needs of advertisers and their agencies.

“We’re open for business on this upfront on each VideoAmp and Comscore,” said Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. promoting sales officer at Warner Bros. Discovery, at the JIC event. “Not to say we’re not open for business on Nielsen, but now we have agencies which might be asking to barter this upfront on big data, so we would really like to take them up on it.”

Questions about the size, stability and median age of the panel data favored by Nielsen were raised by Steinlauf, who stressed the need for innovation, higher measurement and a stable sample base in measurement. But he also entreated the industry to avoid “dance partner syndrome,” where each player dances with the one which brought them.  

“We should go for the best alternatives now we have, including Nielsen. If Nielsen is the best alternative, let’s give Nielsen a few of the business,” he said. “As a collective, we have to take into consideration who’s doing the best work on the market and support the best work.”

The JIC is able to proceed working, with or (more likely) without Nielsen’s participation, to resolve for true cross-platform measurement. At the JIC event, NBCU’s Abcarian noted double- and triple-digit deficiencies in CTV datasets that would make the fast-growing channel a house of cards where programmer, advertiser and consumer needs are misaligned and unmet.

“It’s going to destroy the value of what the premium video marketplace deserves,” Abcarian said. “We cannot operate as an industry moving and transacting billions of dollars in this manner any longer.”