In this week’s On Audience Targeting and Measurement column, Scott Knoll, Senior Vice President for Datran Media and GM of Aperture interviews Matt Spiegel, CEO, OMG Digital

Scott Knoll: Audience measurement is a nebulous term. What is your definition of audience measurement, and how does it correspond to your definition of digital media measurement?? 

Matt Spiegel: There is no doubt that audience measurement has become an increasingly nebulous term but it is far from a new concept. I think the reason it is so hot and misapplied as of late is that there is renewed interest in measurement based on today’s innovations and the availability of more sophisticated modes of audience measurement.

At the core, audience measurement is any tool or practice that enables advertisers to better understand the audiences they are reaching and engaging. Specific understandings are vast and now include interpretations based on new data including behavioral, commerce and social points of intelligence. I don’t make much of a distinction between audience measurement and digital audience measurement other than digital audience measurement is specific to the channel and media is converging. So, more audience measurement will be inherently digital in the future.

 
SK: How do you measure the composition of your audience and how do your advertisers measure the effectiveness of the campaign?

MS: In my role, I am more focused on helping shape how audiences will be more effectively measured in the future and the value this will deliver to marketers that depend on measurement to instill their brands and sell their products and services.  Today, most advertisers think about measurement in terms of audience profiles because publishers led the way and there were a finite number of measurement partners and methods. In the future, I believe more audience versus contextual or profile buys will occur. This will provide advertisers with far greater control over their impressions and, quite frankly, beyond their impressions.

 
SK: What other visions for the future can you share?

MS: Versus even two years ago, one of the main drivers of change is the advent of trading platforms. Trading platforms have propelled a fundamental shift in the way we buy media by creating a consistent pool of inventory versus the existing and limited (publisher) model. These platforms provide more efficient tools and greater control. Also, as the economy collapsed, the high times of the past are gone and there is no wiggle room for non-performance. Advertisers are readjusting and retooling. They must. The platforms are benefiting because it allows advertisers to reach their true audience in conjunction with their contextual focused campaigns.

SK: How do you envision OMG’s trading platform leveraging audience measurement? 

MS: Increasingly, we will leverage actionable reporting that goes far beyond transactional metrics.  True audience insight and analytic reports will deliver much more than numbers including which audiences members have seen the advertisements and important data related to transactions and brand lift.


SK:  What are your thoughts on Adobe’s recent acquisition of Omniture?

MS: It’s an extremely interesting move. Adobe is clearly a leader in how creative is developed and made interactive. Mixing their offerings with the consumer interaction data via Omniture has the potential to be very powerful, no doubt about it.


SK: Can you speak to media spend across audience buys versus contextual buys now and in the future?

MS: Both are  important. Today, the spend across audience is small but growing rapidly.  Five years from now it’s hard to say.  I believe that most buys will include some percentage of audience targeting.


SK: What will it take for a higher percentage of CPGs to engage more in digital and your vision of a more efficient and effective media world to unfold? 

MS: Mostly time and education. The benefits are clear. However, some of the concepts are new to brand practitioners. As such, it requires a paradigm shift of thinking. The notion that you must buy branded sites is a very safe, comfortable one for most. To go beyond that requires education and some best practice understandings.

Brands intuitively seem to understand search. Display however is taking a bit longer. This is understandable as traditional display is lacking the intelligence that made search effective. If you take elements that worked for search (biddable media, advanced targeting, etc..) and apply it to display, it works. Over time, more advertisers will understand this and leverage it. This gives first movers a huge advantage because they buy based on what’s working today. Brand marketers will clearly follow.  Again, time and education will play a big role.