Warner Bros. Discovery signs deal with measurement company VideoAmp as industry continues to explore Nielsen alternatives

Warner Bros. Discovery has hired measurement agency VideoAmp to track cross-screen ad campaigns for the company’s network and brand portfolio, which spans sports, news, lifestyle and entertainment.

An announcement of the companies’ agreement said it follows the completion of a “first-of-its-kind test and learning process” aimed at finding alternative ways to measure video ad performance. The process has become more complex as streaming, social media and digital channels have exploded — across a much broader distribution dashboard — and traditional linear viewership has declined. VideoAmp combines set-top box and smart TV data to help ad buyers and schedulers.

The deal is the latest sign that the media company continues to seek viable alternatives to the Nielsen measurements. While Nielsen still does business with WBD and other media giants, and complaints about the company have been common for decades, it has fallen under a dark shadow of skepticism in recent years. The Media Rating Council, an independent, non-profit monitoring body, revoked its accreditation for Nielsen’s national TV ratings after Nielsen admitted it underestimated both linear and streaming viewers. The company issued a public apology, but CEO Sean Kenny claimed any mistakes were relatively minor in the scheme of things. While a number of up-and-coming competitors have emerged in recent years, Nielsen remains the dominant force in the metric, though the run-up to this spring’s first season will be a multiplayer competition.

While at the helm of Discovery, which merged with WarnerMedia in April 2021, WBD CEO David Zaslav repeatedly expressed frustration with Nielsen’s methods. Speaking to Wall Street analysts on an August 2021 earnings call, the executive didn’t mince words. “Unfortunately, Nielsen is a touch. And it’s very disappointing that Nielsen can’t get it right,” he said. “We lost money. Everyone lost money. You are dealing with a very outdated delivery system. We have all learned to deal with it. We do this by enhancing it with our own data. But lately they’ve been just wrong. It’s one thing to have a legacy system and then expand it. But the legacy system itself is unreliable.”

In a press release, WBD and VideoAmp said their agreement was due to growing civil unrest. “The industry needs a better way to measure and transact audiences – one that accommodates cross-platform audiences, supports both traditional and advanced audiences, and provides attribution metrics in a way that allows media sellers and buyers to self-examine these capitalize on potential to assert themselves. in a competitive market. environment,” said Ross McCray, founder and CEO of VideoAmp. “We are excited to see that Warner Bros. Discovery is creating a more sophisticated marketplace, and we look forward to creating value for them and the industry as a whole.”

A WBD review of the measurement landscape concluded that more standardization, identity resolution, personalization and transaction capabilities are needed as buyers and sellers strive for multi-currency commerce by 2023, the press release said.

“Traditional media measurements have not kept pace with how consumers interact with streaming and linear content. As a result, these audiences have been undercounted and current metrics no longer accurately reflect their true advertising value,” said Andrea Zapata, EVP, Head of Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights, Warner Bros. Discovery, said. “We are gaining momentum as we pursue our goals of delivering best-in-class measurement capabilities and better insight into return on ad spend for our award-winning intellectual property.”

Ralph Pardo, chief executive of the major media agency Omnicom, called the agreement between the companies “a step forward”.
better third-party measurements for the industry.” For his company, he continued, “it has added value
Benefit from alignment with our existing Omni Cross-Screen Insights capabilities and help us close
the loop for end-to-end planning through activation and measurement.”