Origin, the cross-media measurement initiative run by advertiser trade group ISBA, has announced today it is running proof of concept trials which will fold in automatic content recognition (ACR) data from Samba TV. ISBA says that incorporating ACR data into its measurement solution will not only provide more granular measurement, but also open up possibilities around outcome measurement in the future.
ISBA launched Origin a few years back, with the aim of delivering on advertisers’ ‘North Star’ for cross-media measurement (that is, the ability to accurately measure a campaign which is delivered across different mediums). In its first iteration, Origin’s focus has been delivering deduplicated reach and frequency measurement, though ISBA has long said that it intended to add new capabilities to the tool over time.
Even just solving for reach and frequency measurement is very technically difficult. Origin’s solution has involved tying panel data for linear TV viewing to impression level data from digital campaigns via something called a Virtual ID.
But ACR data is playing a growing role in TV measurement. By using software embedded in a TV set, ACR technology can detect what is playing on a TV screen, allowing impression-level measurement across the technology’s footprint. It can also easily measure both linear and CTV viewing within one household.
And Origin clearly sees benefits to folding ACR data in with its regular TV panel data.
One eye on outcomes
The first stage of the proof of concept trial will be to incorporate Samba TV’s data into Origin’s measurement, which will help identify the accuracy of this data when compared with other Origin data. Later on, Origin will work with Comscore and Kantar Media to identify Samba TV sets which exist with the Origin panel (operated by Kantar), to better understand audiences and behaviours which are specific to those households. Kantar Media will then create personification models which it can apply to ACR data, which will reach up to one million TV sets in the UK.
ISBA suggested that, should this be successful, it will look to incorporate other large-scale data sources, opening up opportunities for other ACR providers to input their data too.
Interestingly, Origin’s research lead Joe Lewis suggested one of the benefits of using ACR data is it will open up opportunities relating to outcome measurement further down the line. “Origin continues to look for ways to improve and adapt measurement approaches to give marketers what they need. TV measurement has, for the most part, been a panel first approach, which has largely served us well,” said Lewis. “But, if we are ever to offer marketers the ability to really understand the true power of TV delivery, then harnessing real granular deterministic and second-level data that we can tie to outcomes, has to be on our roadmap.”
