Ratings, schmatings - Just buy the darn ad already
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007(Note: I miss AdJab. Sigh.)
The Association of National Advertisers has issued a white paper (Isn’t most paper white? Why do we use this term? Isn’t it like saying Firestone issued a black tire? Am I rambling?) showing that, to the surprise of no one, the majority of advertisers say they prefer live or live+same-day ratings to be used as currency in the TV upfront negotiations on the horizon. And while that may very well be true, Nielsen’s system isn’t actually going to be able to track commercial viewing because it only tracks viewer numbers every 2.5 seconds, a time gap that’s too wide for accurate measurement. That’s just fine with most parties involved in this discussion, though, since ad agencies seem to be paranoid about their commercials actually being judged with hard numbers. They like those fuzzy numbers, but their media-buying counterparts are wanting the same accountability for TV that they’re finding online.
Another call from the ANA’s paper is that some of the bigger brand names want “brand-specific” ratings, but it’s hard for me to fathom the extent to which this won’t happen. If Nielsen can’t find an accurate way to capture commercial ratings as a whole, and if TV networks are reluctant to share the little bit of information that’s going to trickle out, then there’s really no way that brand marketers will be able to get data streams on how their particular commercials fared during specific programming.
I’m not sure if this is something I should admit, but as an advertising event I’m looking forward to the upcoming upfront negotiations even more than the Super Bowl. This is where the real action is going to happen and the spin likely to come from both parties will likely surpass that from the Presidential contenders. I’m giddy with anticipation.
