What’s the price of getting it right? Mediatel’s 2015 Video Upfronts provided an update on the much-anticipated hybrid measurement system from BARB – known as Project Dovetail – this week, with the body’s chief executive admitting it was taking longer than he would like, but getting it right trumps doing it fast.
“A huge amount of money rides on BARB data,” said Justin Sampson during Wednesday’s conference. “Of course we’d like to be fast and right, but if push comes to shove and one of them has to take the back seat, it has to be fast. We have to make sure that we’re doing it right.”
As Project Dovetail looks to achieve a comprehensive picture for cross-platform TV viewing measurement in the UK, Sampson said that BARB, which underpins £7 billion worth of TV advertising investment each year, has to be particularly thoughtful about the challenges in measuring online viewing.
“Some people have said ‘why don’t you use the mentality that exists around the internet which is just ‘do it fast, who cares if it’s right, or not quite as right as you’d like it to be?'” said Sampson, who added that there is also a great onus on BARB to be transparent.
“But Internet measurement audience experts can be a little bit like economists; if you get four in a room and ask them the same question, you’ll get four different answers – and that’s before you even get into the issues of viewability and brand safety.”
The slow pace of change might be frustrating for some, but having reliable data was also deemed more important by Havas’ chief insight officer, Denise Turner, who said that the industry needs a measurement system that will sustain it in the long-run.
“When there is a lot of money traded on something it is important to get it as right as you possibly can,” said Turner.
“Obviously we’d like everything really quickly – we’d like it yesterday – because that’s the pace of life these days, but it’s important to get it right and to set something in place that will not necessarily be future-proof, but that will last more than five minutes.”
Video Upfronts showcased the latest on Project Dovetail following the publication on Newsline of an exclusive article from Sampson.
In the article, Sampson looked in depth at some of the deeper challenges facing hybrid measurement, including the task of integrating different data sets.
BARB plans to commission Kantar Media and Nielsen to deliver a prototype solution for delivering fused data, which Sampson says will take six months, adding that the industry can expect to review the results towards the end of 2015.
In the interim, Sampson said BARB expects to make further progress in determining how return path data from set-top boxes can play a part in a hybrid future.
“Testing is underway for a development that has the potential to further transform how BARB delivers robust audience estimates in a fragmented market.”
Sampson added during the conference that beta data will be made publicly available in April/May this year.
