Media measurement’s #10yearchallenge

As the #10YearChallenge craze swept across the globe at the start of 2019, we were reminded of the transformative decade for digital media measurement. It is not just us who think so, the IAB Europe 2018 survey of brands found that 83% of brands view cross media measurement as their single biggest measurement challenge. Similarly, IAS ran its Industry Pulse survey this year, surveying over 150 UK industry professionals and found that after data privacy, lack of consistent measurement across the entire media plan was the biggest challenge the UK media industry faced in 2019.

So, how have we ended up here? Let’s explore measurement’s evolution to pole position, and look at where to focus to best prepare for 2029.

2009
The world of digital advertising became further fragmented, with increased social consumption and faster mobile browsing. Apple launched the iPhone 3GS and QWERTY keyboard mobiles were the ‘must-have’.  However, measurement was less complex because, quite simply, there was less to measure – the iPad wouldn’t launch until 2010.

New browsing behaviours ushered in demand for consistent cross-media measurement. Brands needed to understand how best to engage mobile consumers, which consequently created demand for third party measurement to evaluate every buy. Also consequently, in 2009 Integral Ad Science was created to tackle this exact industry need.

2019

Media measurement has come a long way and there has been growing encouragement for the digital ecosystem to shift focus from volume-based measurement, to look at metrics demonstrating true campaign impact, such as viewability and time-in-view.

Demand for greater transparency into measurement and performance metrics has also arrived. The latest steps being taken to address this were seen by the major social media platforms, opening up to third party measurement, providing the transparency demanded.

2029

The industry will need to collaborate to arrive at true cross-media measurement, alongside embrace emerging channels, such as OTT. However, to be truly successful, we must focus on performance-based measurement to prove the business impact of media spend. In the next #10YearChallenge, we want measurement to be the top industry success, not the prime challenge.