The Changing Role Of Media Measurement

It is perhaps one of the oldest concerns in the media industry in India. And the situation only gets more complex every year. Whether for print, television or digital, metrics have always been an area of concern and controversy for the media and marketing industry at large.

The beginning was not so bad though. Measurement or performance check of media properties on TV and print was brought into play so marketers could decide what channels, newspapers or magazines they could partner with. It was supposed to assist in media planning. But over a period of time, readership numbers or ratings became all about how a channel should price itself, which was also fine.

But in a market like India, which is severely under indexed in its advertising and subscription rates in comparison to even its neighbouring markets, measurement eventually led to frustration. Not only for the smaller players but also for the larger ones that began seeing media agencies as enemies — which exist to get the best for their clients — as they were at cross purpose with media owners.

While legacy media has now found ways to navigate through these challenges, digital media platforms are yet to learn from these mistakes and live in an evolved world. All recent instances and evidences show that digital too has repeated all mistakes of the legacy world — measurement included.

For starters, digital media was never supposed to rely on advertising revenues. This was the platform where consumers were to pay for the content they consumed. But as digital began dishing out free content, and web piracy gained foothold, that ship sailed away real fast.

Then, digital platforms should have learned from the mistakes of tele-calling and invasive advertising to avoid their own versions of ‘do not disturbs’. But alas, that too did not happen. Bad advertising led to ad blockers, pop up blockers, anti-cookies and now these are extended to mobile devices as well.

While there are the likes of Netflix and Prime Video that offer content at a price, their business models still do not know how to work well with marketers.

The damage on these counts are done. Digital platforms can now only play catch up at best and find ways to clear the mess already created.

The biggest concerns now are around metrics. Marketers have called out foul on that as well, in more instances than one in the past year. Much of their discontent is targeted at top players such as Google and Facebook, and that does not make the situation any better considering these platforms corner nearly 75 per cent of the global digital advertising.

While both Google and Facebook are now working on third party measurements and have also taken other steps to give marketers all the comfort; it appears that no matter what they do, it is never enough. As marketing services companies have said in the past, digital platforms have been grading their own homework for long. Today, there are companies that are working towards changing that. Some digital players have also come into being to address it. But the industry still lacks a currency.

A currency can help in overcoming marketers’ concerns but even the best efforts to achieve this haven’t really paid off. There are the comScores and MOATs of the world, and yet they are not a true digital currency. These agencies work with platforms that want to partner with them. And it is evident that not many are keen, unless convinced otherwise. It is one area where new media is not repeating the ways of the past and not letting metrics become a point for driving ad rates down. But all signs indicate that marketers will find a way to bring in the ways of the old world.