TV ad measurement vendor iSpot has notched another win for its cross-platform data, announcing Tuesday that the U.S. Joint Industry Committee granted it full certification as national currency that’s suitable for TV ad buyers and sellers to transact on.
Securing JIC currency certification marks another step for iSpot in its multi-year effort to build industry trust with a unified measurement solution that can cater to both legacy and new ways of doing things as publishers and advertisers alike deal with an evolving TV viewing and ad ecosystem.
The vendor views the JIC’s endorsement as a significant milestone, but iSpot CEO Sean Muller noted that industry confidence doesn’t get built overnight nor with just one certification.
“This signifies the continual trust that the market is putting on our measurement capabilities,” Muller said in an interview with StreamTV Insider.
iSpot has been making steady changes and advances to give programmers and advertisers more confidence in the vendor’s measurement capabilities, where it aims to create a consistent and flexible cross-platform product that can help companies transition as ad measurement and buying evolves amid larger viewing shifts from legacy linear TV to streaming and CTV. That includes counting earlier Media Rating Council accreditation under its belt for the iSpot ad catalog and national TV ad airings data (which its measurement data is built upon).
A separate long-time industry body, the MRC’s role ensures companies are executing measurement methodologies as they say they are, while the JIC process aims to validate that those methodologies and resulting data are accurate and reliable by meeting an established set of requirements. The JIC, which formed relatively recently in early 2023, recommends vendors also achieve MRC accreditation but doesn’t require it for currency certification. iSpot is in the process of undertaking an additional MRC audit for audience measurement accreditation as well.
Updated methodology, certification across classifications
iSpot last year won conditional JIC certification but unlike Comscore and VideoAmp wasn’t among vendors that the programmer-backed OpenAP-led body granted full transactable currency status to in April. At the time, iSpot was making changes to its methodology so did not submit data for full evaluation in favor of waiting to do so once updates were completed.
With JIC validation of its updated methodology, iSpot Data Connect, the organization determined the vendor’s data can be used across all three currency classifications evaluated, including across both Average Commercial Minute (ACM) and Exact Spot measurement for Total Households, Audiences and Personified Demos. To be certified, methodology and data underwent rigorous evaluation, with both sell and buy side stakeholders participating to conduct more than 270 tests to ensure accuracy and that baseline requirements related to transparency, completeness, methodology checks and stability of data were met. Currency certification is valid for two years.
With the Personified Demos certification, iSpot represents the first time a big data-led measurement product has been certified for people measurement. Comscore and VideoAmp didn’t get a nod from the JIC as currency suitable for the Personified Demos classification, where it previously said the vendors still had work to do.
“If we are to meet the needs of advertisers who are racing to keep pace with today’s streaming-first viewer, we must continue to innovate, build and deliver more modern and accurate measurement solutions,” said Travis Scoles, EVP of Advanced Advertising at Paramount and Chairman of the JIC’s Board of Directors, in a statement. “The results from the JIC’s data evaluation show that iSpot is helping drive the industry forward as it has reached the baseline level of transactional readiness as a currency.
Taken together, the three classifications represent how 90% of TV advertising is transacted, according to iSpot.
However, Muller sees that poised for shifts, and methodology changes were part of iSpot’s work to evolve with the industry for advanced measurement while still supporting legacy methods – such as reliable measurement for traditional average minute audience, to newer ways such as exact ad audience, as well as different ways to measure be it person-level advanced audiences or households. In that regard, the chief executive categorized JIC certification across all three as a “Holy Grail.”
A key goal for iSpot through its measurement platform is flexibility, as ad buyers and sellers are still in various stages of transitions and may have different wants for measurement, as well as need for a more consistent and comprehensive view of different channels.
“As the market continues to transition dollars from linear to streaming and to digital and social, it’s important to have one platform that can connect all those things and be very, very consistent in how it measures those KPIs,” Muller said.
Big data changes
The changes in methodology are also notable, where iSpot is taking a somewhat different approach for its iSpot Data Connect platform – moving away from traditional panel-based methods to instead rely on big data.
A key result from the changes is that iSpot now can associate every ad impression to a person inside of a household and do so consistently over time.
“That way we can always run reach and frequency or lift incremental measurement against the entire U.S. and every person in the U.S,” Muller said.
The new methodology maps out every household and person in the U.S. for its data spine, where impressions or outcomes - no matter from linear, streaming or digital - are always mapped back to the household or person-level graph. Mapping is done either definitively through deterministic identifiers or through machine learning. Muller noted ML is very good at matching based on household attributes when there aren’t exact identifiers present.
iSpot aims to deliver reliable measurement for traditional demos like age and gender, which remain simpler but important, but also for those now looking to transact on multiple KPIs, within a unified platform.
It previously invested in panel-based vendor TVision and Muller believes there’s still a place for panels, such as to help calibrate how many people are in front of the TV.
“But using a panel as a means to measure how many impressions were delivered across the U.S., that’s the part I think is obsolete,” he said.
And iSpot isn’t taking sides one what methods or metrics to transact media buys on are best, instead looking to provide accurate measurement to publishers and advertisers no matter how they’re looking to negotiate deals.
“We’re not out there pushing one over the other,” Muller said, in terms of using traditional measure of age and gender or newer forms of measurement. “We just want to have a platform where we cover it all.”
Agency interest uptick
iSpot didn’t have full JIC certification during this year’s Upfront. But Muller said conditional JIC certification had in an impact on adoption of its platform for the TV ad sales season, during which it was primarily used for budget allocation decisioning.
But going forward Muller sees more reliance on iSpot’s platform as the world transitions to streaming-led. He thinks that in 5-10 years the way media is bought, assessed and valued will “completely change” shifting to more to exact ad measurement and deals based on different audiences and outcomes.
“The amount of media that gets bought under a legacy model will continue to shrink and give way to new ways of doing it,” he commented.
The certification was just announced, but with buyside entities involved in the evaluation process, Muller cited an uptick already in interest from agency holding companies in adopting iSpot’s products. Major media companies including NBCUniversal and Paramount, among others, are already using iSpot as currency. Still, it’s not the only game in town as some programmers are using multiple currency providers, such as Paramount, which has said it intends to use all JIC-certified currency vendors. On the streaming front, Roku recently tapped iSpot for cross-platform measurement.
Independent player in an industry divided
The JIC was created by and has support from major programmers, as well as buyside input, as it looks to create more standardization and validation around measurement in a fragmented ecosystem. However, not everyone is on board.
Disney is a notable media company holdout from JIC participation and legacy measurement incumbent Nielsen isn’t seeking JIC certification. Disney EVP Lisa Valentino previously suggested that JIC certification isn’t as meaningful, noting that in addition to itself, the effort lacks involvement of major suppliers of ad inventory, namely digital-first players like Amazon, Apple and Google.
Speaking to StreamTV Insider, Muller acknowledged division in the industry on how ads should be valued.
The crux of the disagreement appears to revolve around legacy publishers and traditional TV networks that primarily comprise the JIC, which want the quality of so-called premium content to be part of the input, calculation and given credit in the measurement – with thinking something along the lines of ads placed alongside premium content should command higher value or at least be part of the discussion. This sentiment can also be seen by moves like NBCUniversal (which is a JIC founding member) last year put out its content quality index to score and demonstrate content quality and impact in the context of ad buying.
On the other side, digital-first players like Google with its YouTube app filled with user generated content (but increasingly viewed on CTV), seem to takes more of a “quality is in the eye of the beholder” view, according to Muller.
Similar to how iSpot wants to support legacy and newer measurement metrics for transacting ad buying and selling, it’s also not looking to take a stance on what constitutes quality content. Rather it sees itself serving as an independent party that accurately measures ads, regardless of where they run or against what content, and ties them back to outcomes.
It goes to the aim of trying to reconcile and bring some standardization around measuring video impressions, length of the video, how much of the video was played, verification the video played on the screen it was intended to, deduplicating audiences and understanding what screen - be it digital or TV - that it played on, Muller noted, as those might have different values to different players.
“I don’t think it’s our job to say which one is more value and by how much, our job is just to simply report it,” he said, adding “Out goal is to measure all video platforms in a consistent way.”
Outside of the JIC there are similar digital-first cross-platform measurement initiatives, such as with Association of National Advertisers (ANA), where iSpot is also involved.
Speaking to its independent position on measurement is a recent deal with social video giant TikTok to measure overlap or incremental reach of audiences on linear TV. As Muller pointed out, the same iSpot platform certified by the JIC is also being used for TikTok, as well as streaming-first players like Roku.
Looking ahead, there’s still work to be done to collocate linear, streaming and digital video platforms and provide all the functionality needed in one single dashboard and product set, he noted.
That said, while still a challenging time for advertisers and publishers, Muller views it as “an exciting time for innovations all around.”