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The Cost of Fragmented TV & Streaming Ad Measurement

Advertisers Perceptions reports that about a quarter of TV advertising budgets are going to streaming this year (1). Based on daily conversations with many top TV advertisers we’ve found that although cross-platform campaigns are quite common, honing in on the right audience and effectively maximizing the reach of streaming ads is shockingly challenging without a unified, cross-platform measurement solution. 

To put this into context, imagine a major beer brand is running a campaign to advertise a new spiked seltzer beverage targeting a younger demographic. When its agency negotiates the linear buy with the TV networks, they will likely include streaming inventory in order to hit the target impressions for the younger demo. Now, multiply that by a few or dozen networks and publishers, and it becomes extremely difficult to a) identify incremental reach on streaming vs linear and b) manage frequency to avoid over saturation. 

What incremental reach analysis looks like without unified measurement:

Slow and cobbled together reports = missed opportunities to increase efficiency

Nielsen ratings are tried and true on the linear side of the equation, but the dramatic surge in streaming viewership is certainly shaking up the status quo. As cross-platform campaigns and fluidity deals are quickly becoming the norm, it’s clear that yesterday’s TV measurement systems are not equipped to meet the demands of the data-driven and performance-oriented marketers of today. Moreover, the explosion of data coming from individual streaming publishers only adds to the lag time and complexity. 

At iSpot, we are proud to have developed a cutting-edge unified measurement solution that helps brands and agencies break down linear and digital silos to execute more efficient cross-platform campaigns. 

As a primary example, here is a case study of how Amica, a leading mutual insurance company, leveraged Unified Measurement insights to more effectively expand reach and drive higher conversion rates of cross-platform campaigns. 

With iSpot’s Unified Measurement, the Amica team gained:

  • Visibility into deduplicated reach and conversion rates of linear versus streaming ads
  • Timely and granular performance measurement of various ad lengths and creatives
  • Detailed breakdowns of reach and conversion rates across individual OTT publishers

By bringing all TV ad data together into a single platform, the Amica team can quickly and easily identify top-performing OTT publishers:

Marketers are tightening their belts and there is no time to waste

The majority of TV advertisers (65%) agree that the financial pressures brought on by the pandemic have created more of a need to demonstrate direct sales outcomes from their TV campaigns(2). Revolving TV buys around the ratings systems of the past and cobbled together reports is no longer cutting it. Especially with a quarter or more of budgets going to streaming, advertisers need a better way to measure results across platforms and the ability to quickly apply performance insights to their buying strategy going forward.

Schedule a demo of iSpot Unified Measurement today to learn how iSpot can help you uncover the incremental impressions and conversions generated by cross-platform campaigns. 


About the Author

Kassidy Keller is Director of Corporate Marketing at iSpot.tv. She covers industry events, marketplace trends and all things Martech/Adtech. For questions and inquiries, please contact marketing@ispot.tv.


(1) Advertiser Perceptions, Video Advertising Convergence Report, Wave 9: 2H 2020, February 2021

(2) Advertiser Perceptions, Coronavirus Effect on Advertising report, March 2020