Mindshare's New Metric for Web Video: Gross Ratings Points
Media Agency Looks to Spread TV Advertising Wealth to Online
by Michael Learmonth
Published: April 06, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Good news for online video: Mindshare, a unit of WPP's giant media buying operation GroupM, is embracing a new metric that could speed the migration of TV advertising dollars to the web.
Since YuMe specializes in placing video ads in premium video, including TV shows on the web, a GRP metric will allow an advertiser to buy both TV and online for the same campaign on the same standard.
The agency is throwing its weight behind a translation of TV's gross ratings point to online video developed with video ad network YuMe, meaning Mindshare clients such as Unilever and Ford will start buying online video on a gross-ratings-point basis, the same way they buy TV.
Agencies have for some time looked for a way to measure online video in terms of gross ratings points (GRPs), or the sum of the reach of a campaign times the frequency that the target audience was exposed to an ad.
Major TV marketers have bought TV campaigns on a GRP basis for decades as they buy vast swaths of the country in certain demographics, and have years of experience in using that data to evaluate what the return on a TV campaign will be, say, on the sale of tubes of toothpaste in stores.
Would seem simple enough
On the face of it, converting online metrics such as "views" and "unique visitors" to a GRP, a measure of the reach and frequency of a campaign among U.S. households, would seem to be a fairly simple proposition.
But converting to a web audience, which is smaller and more splintered than TV, is difficult. A TV campaign, for example, would achieve a rating in one TV broadcast; online, the equivalent reach and frequency may be achieved over weeks or months.
Having an online equivalent -- an iGRP, if you will -- allows marketers to compare the effectiveness of TV and broadband on an apples-to-apples basis, and theoretically spread TV dollars online for the same campaign. Then, the buy becomes video wherever it happens to be, rather than just "online" or "TV."
YuMe isn't the only video ad network attempting to dip its toe into the $70 billion TV market by using TV metrics. In February, Tremor Media started reporting their own GRP equivalent for online video campaigns using ComScore demographic data, and BBE is working on its own GRP translation with Publicis Groupe unit Starcom Mediavest.
In embracing the new standard, Mindshare advertisers will have the option of buying web video on the same metric, and it's likely that Mindshare's sibling agencies within Group M, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus, will follow suit.
"As viewing online viewing continues to grow, we need to have a clear understanding with the partners we work with on how to evaluate frequency models on broadband vs. TV," said Cary Tilds, senior VP-digital strategy at Mindshare.
Since YuMe specializes in placing video ads in premium video, including TV shows on the web, a GRP metric will allow an advertiser to buy both TV and online for the same campaign on the same standard. An episode of "Heroes" on Monday night on NBC, for example, might have 7 million people watching and reach a certain percentage of viewers aged 18-49. An equivalent GRP could be achieved online but it might take buying audiences across many shows over time.
"We can now start to say, that the same million dollars you spent for the TV buy, you can have to run it for a month on these sites and you will get the equivalent," said YuMe President Jayant Kadambi.
4 Comments
By DigitalGal | Chicago, IL April 6, 2009 06:10:20 pm:
It would be interesting to understand how and why Mindshare is going backwards (probably because it is comfortable).
By that I mean, translating a TV GRP, that is inherently a projected number to an internet impression, something that gets much much closer to a real unique number (at least a unique computer)...
One is going to get more credit, and one is not going to settle and not take advantage of the technology available to get closer to actuals vs. projections. Should we push TV metrics to get closer to reality vs. allowing online to settle?
it's akin to social networks rendering focus groups even more useless, you know, when 8 people focus groups were what shaped a campaign or justified a campaign.
Imagine, if you will, agencies just saying, "you know what... focus groups have been what we have always used. They treated us alright and we have them down to a science. We have the facilities, we have the fancy 2-way mirrors, we have moderators. We know what to do with the findings. And most importantly, clients get them. What people are saying online is nice to have, but not something we have to pay attention to or figure out."
That is what I think of when I hear... we are just going to apply a GRP to online impressions.
move forward people, before you are left behind.
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By CARLOS | SANTA MONICA, CA April 6, 2009 06:10:13 pm:
It's an ideal idea, but it conflicts with a sacred cow in media -- to compare apples to apples, you got to have the same universe. The TV universe is not the same as the online video universe. For example, Adults 18-49 who watch Heroes on TV are not the same universe of Adults 18-49 who watch Heroes online. Yeah, you can convert, but anyone in the business knows what a mess that usually is. For example, network TV and cable TV universes are not the same, but some "experts," mistakenly, treat them alike.
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By YuriyBoykiv | Cliffside Park, NJ April 6, 2009 04:30:42 pm:
I think this is the next step in online TV marketing and I am glad that Mindshare is taking an initiative in building the universal iGRP system. Very few brands still fully see the benefits in marketing through online TV and it is partially due to the fact that there are no universal measurements and no consensus on the value of such ads.
One additional benefit of online TV ads lies within the Internet itself: instant click-through reward. In traditional TV ads the viewer needs to remember a phone, website, address, but in online TV advertising the viewer can take an immidiate action by clicking on the ad, which provides significant benefits for advertisers.
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By simeons | WALTHAM, MA April 6, 2009 04:16:25 pm:
Good initial move but it won't last. Using an ad network's analytics can only be a band aid for Group M. The brands they represent require broader measurement that spans networks. What's needed are simple, clear and consistent measurement and analytics services from an independent third party.
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<- RB는 이런거 만드는 회사다...
