A question of priorities – setting the industry agenda

Getting thoughts together for this year’s asi conferences in Nice it’s clear there are very many hot topics, themes and industry issues fighting for attention just now. We thought it would be helpful to highlight the key themes that we think are significant, broadly organised by topic. As you will see, it is a long list.

It will be especially helpful this year for you to let us know not just what we may have missed, but what you believe are the priorities we need to address. What are the topics we really need to focus on and what are the issues keeping you up at night? How do we fit all of it into three days?

Get in touch at admin@asiconferences.com with the priorities to be faced in your market and any examples of notable initiatives you believe would be worth sharing in November.

Industry issues

How do we define ‘television’ given its availability across multiple devices and platforms? In the UK, BARB has adopted the definition ‘fit for TV’ as its measurement remit. How does this work in practice? Is it useful to segregate video in this way? Where does this leave the momentum towards cross-platform video? For its part Google has set out five principles for audience measurement. Do these principles represent a helpful framework for evolving video measurement?

The alt currency movement in the states continues despite Nielsen regaining accreditation of its core service. Is this a uniquely US phenomenon, or does it reflect a wider divergence between the buy and sell side when it comes to what they really want from measurement? A ‘JIC’ has been set up to assess a number of ‘alt currencies’. To what extent is representation from all sides of the industry really needed for any new service to be successfully established?

Artificial Intelligence has come to prominence as a hot topic both in terms of societal impact and implications for business. What specifically is the impact likely to be on the media industry and particularly its measurement?

Sustainability is an increasing priority for us all. Which solutions available to the measurement industry are most likely to have a meaningful impact? Are clients willing to pay more for sustainable alternatives? To what degree should we be measuring the sustainability of different forms of advertising as an input into media planning decisions?

How is auditing changing and evolving to reflect the increasing scope and complexity of measurement services?

Advertising

How can the measurement community provide solutions that are more directly relevant and helpful to the agency planning community?

What progress is being made to bring third-party audience data together with first-party data sets to improve advertising efficiency? How is privacy legislation impacting the holy grail of precision targeting?

Are attention measurements genuinely useful in improving advertising effectiveness? Or are they just a fad for this decade?

With SMART TVs now in the majority of homes in many markets, CTV is being promoted as a huge opportunity for advertisers, but do we really understand what ‘connected TV advertising’ actually is as a distinct advertising medium as opposed to regular use of the connected TV to streaming broadcaster and SVOD content? What opportunities are there in FAST channels and User Interface advertising?

Streaming and business models

As subscription services are doubling down on advertising, what is the likely eventual balance between subscriptions and ad revenue? What is happening with service adoption and churn?

Is the golden era of television in which global streaming services had seemingly unlimited funds for production now challenged by economic reality? What are the implications for content and for windowing strategies?

Measurement, panels and data

With consensus about the need for panels as a source of truth for understanding persons-based measurement, what are the priorities that determine the direction of travel for the data flow in hybrid systems? Is big data there to make panels better and more granular, or are panels there simply as an input to allow big data to be turned from devices into people?

As we move into a world of clean rooms, data exchanges, blind matching, virtual IDs and ACR, how can we assure that data is transparent and accurate? Does the development of ever more complex methodologies necessarily represent progress and help us make better decisions? Are we in danger of mistaking increased precision with accuracy?

How can measurement technology be made more sustainable?

With the demands for measurement to be ever more precise, what advances are being made in the field of watermarking and finger printing?

Is measurement really lagging industry demand, or is it being hampered by industry politics? Services continue to be set up in new markets, often adopting creative solutions to solve specific local challenges, both technical and political. What can we learn from these new initiatives?

How do we maximise representativeness of the data including hard-to-reach groups such as younger people?

How can JICs and MOCs manage how their data is being used by other parts of the eco-system? Recent asi conferences have showcased how a number of established TAM services around the world are integrating big data into their currencies. What has been learned from this process – what has worked well and what has needed further development? How have users reacted?

Cross-media and cross-platform

As ‘different’ media are available across all platforms and devices, is it still valid to be treating radio, TV, online, etc. as different media requiring solutions, when they increasingly sit alongside each other on the same device and often within the same platform or even the same web page?

Do we accept that all impressions are not equal?

What progress is being made on the two specific WFA pilots (Project Origin and the ANA initiative)? What progress is being made organically towards cross-platform video in other markets and how will local initiatives align with global solutions like Project Halo?

Is a dedicated cross-media panel as a source of truth necessary or can existing panels be used in a smarter way?

How do the requirements and use-cases for a ‘cross-media’ currency differ between media planning, campaign optimisation and campaign evaluation? Can one solution meet all these requirements? Do different needs require different solutions?

Specific radio/audio issues

What are the success stories of radio companies using multiple platforms (broadcast, streaming and podcast) to effectively compete with the digital on-demand giants? How is radio measurement data being activated for media sales?

What is more important – consolidating your audience around your own platform with exclusive content, or making your content as widely available as possible? Is it worth sacrificing reach for control?

With the in-car operating system itself increasingly becoming media and advertising real estate, what are the implications for in-car radio consumption and ad targeting? How can in-car measurement meet the challenge?

What is the direction of travel for hybrid systems that blend recall, passive and census streaming data? How can passive and recall data best be integrated? What takes priority? How transparent are the algorithms used to do this? Will online diaries inevitably be phased out?

BOOKING

Details for booking both the hotel and conferences will be released in early August.

Let us know your priorities for discussion. You can contact us via the website or email us at admin@asiconferences.com.