LOS ANGELES — Bill Livek didn’t ask for much for Christmas this year – only a revolution to ensure that every TV set in every room in America is fully measured.
At Beet Retreat Santa Monica in November, there was a growing belief that the TV industry, which had long depended solely on Nielsen’s panel ratings, needs to evolve to accommodate multiple TV ad-buying currencies.
At the event, Livek, CEO & Executive Vice Chairman, Comscore, told Zach Rodgers why many are better than one.
Follow the money
“If we think about our economy from a monetary perspective, we have the dollar, we have the pound, we have the euro, we have the Chinese RMB, and on down the list,” Livek explained.
“In the United States, we have three credit reporting services that give banks, credit card companies and retailers the ability to judge how you and I are creditworthy or were not.
“I think in media, television media, we need the same – a small basket of currencies for the advertisers and the media companies to render a judgement as to the power of the audiences and where they should be putting billions of dollars of advertising.”
Total coverage
Given that ad buyers are already complaining about having to buy and measure across a diverse and fragmented range of platforms and tools, that kind of multiplicity may not win favor in all quarters.
Around the industry, people are expressing weariness that, to leverage the targeting, measuring and frequency-capping power of connected TV, they are having to do it across a proliferating range of options, to piece together the pieces into a whole-market campaign solution.
What is more, Livek also acknowledges, in a multi-currency system, each would need totality of coverage, requiring “a database that is census-like”.
No half-currencies
What would that look like, in practice?
“Within a household, every television set is measured,” Livek says.
“I’ll repeat that – Every television set is measured.
“That’s critical because, when you use a half currency or a half database, where you have one TV manufacturer in one room and other ones and you’re not aggregating them together, you get a misstatement of the power of that household.”
Going nation-wide
As long as Livek can get that kind of totality, he thinks the industry can achieve total coverage.
“We start there at the household level, building up to the zip code level, building up to the county, the market, and then into the United States,” he imagines.
“All 210 local markets have to be accurately reflected with great technology, reliable and stable ratings that build up to a national number. That’s what I believe we need as currency.”
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