Plan tabled for Barb to join Origin in hybrid reporting model
Exclusive
Barb is in active talks to join Origin under a plan that would see Isba’s cross-media measurement platform incorporate two reports with different viewability standards.
Under the proposal, which The Media Leader understands is still under consideration and subject to change, the default AV report delivered by Origin would only include audience measurement data that meets Media Rating Council (MRC) standards, including from Barb.
Origin would also produce a second report that brands could opt in to viewing that would show all measurable impressions that meet less stringent measurement standards. This report would not use Barb data, which is derived from a household audience panel of 7,000, but instead use Origin’s smaller TV audience panel of 2,500 households.
If agreed by all parties, the proposed initiative would signal the end of a months-long impasse that has left out Barb audience data from the Origin platform.
‘Covent Garden Protocol’
Origin is presently in beta trials, ahead of an anticipated full-market launch next year, with involved brand marketers reporting positive initial experiences.
The Media Leader understands that the idea of Origin users being able to toggle between two datasets stemmed from a meeting between wider industry leaders in August. A more formal proposal, internally dubbed the “Covent Garden Protocol”, was first presented in mid-October and considered again earlier this month.
However, it is understood that details of the plan are still being worked out, such as over whether the MRC-standard AV report should be displayed in Origin as the default.
Phil Smith, director-general of Isba, told The Media Leader: “We continue to have constructive dialogue with Barb, but at this stage we are not in discussion with Origin’s stakeholders about an agreed proposal.”
Barb declined to comment.
Stringent standards
The lack of stringent measurement standards in Origin has sparked public concern from both TV broadcasters and media strategists, and was cited by Barb CEO Justin Sampson as the reason the TV joint industry currency has up to this point declined to license its viewing data to Origin.
In a piece in The Media Leader in October, Sampson wrote: “Consistent audience building blocks provide a bedrock of comparability. Without comparability, you can’t truly understand the incremental contribution of different media services and platforms to campaign objectives.”
He also questioned whether Origin’s funding “from one or other online platform is contingent on not having to meet MRC cross-media video standard”.
Origin is currently financed through a levy on its participants, which include major UK advertisers, media buying networks and tech platforms such as Google, Meta and TikTok.
The Media Leader has previously reported that, according to commercial TV insiders, broadcasters have been worried that Origin would create a measurement system that effectively devalues TV advertising relative to display video formats such as YouTube and TikTok or in-stream video on websites.
However, Barb has repeatedly stated its interest in finding common ground with Isba. As Sampson wrote in October: “Barb has been consistently ready to let our data be used alongside other sources of online video data that adhere to the MRC cross-media standard.”
Barb has already made concessions towards meeting internationally recognised cross-media measurement standards by joining the MRC earlier this year and shifting from minute-by-minute reporting to second-by-second reporting — something that Sampson has referred to as “not an overnight flick of the switch”.
At a Barb briefing last week, EssenceMediacom chief strategy officer Richard Kirk emphasised the importance of measurement standards, saying: “I personally believe there is no point looking at how many impressions a campaign delivered that weren’t up to some sort of basic standard.”
Magic Numbers founder Grace Kite added that measuring share of voice on tech platforms, such as Google and Facebook, is impossible, unlike on TV through Barb’s viewing data.
Support from advertisers
However, brand marketers have expressed consistent enthusiasm for Origin. At the same Barb event, L’Oréal global media director Gayle Noah said she “would love to see everything in one place and allow advertisers to make the call on what is a view”.
In a piece for The Media Leader, Direct Line Group interim marketing director Sam Taylor wrote that “advertisers are fully behind Origin” and that he has been “overwhelmed by the continued enthusiasm and physical investment from all 35 advertiser stakeholders”.
He suggested that the concern advertisers might use Origin as a currency akin to Barb is “somewhat of an insult”, given “advertisers know the difference” between viewing measurement standards.
While admitting it is “frustrating that we don’t currently have access to Barb data”, Taylor did not think “this diminishes in any way the value of the Origin outputs”.
However, he continued: “I am encouraged […] by the news that discussions continue to take place with the aim of surfacing Barb data alongside the Origin linear TV data. That would, of course, be a good outcome overall.”
Brands and strategists split on TV measurement standards in Barb discussion