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Digital media’s early promises captured our imagination and drew us all into the excitement of the future. But that enthusiasm also clouded the reality of the challenges that would inevitably hurt the credibility and momentum of our industry. Being the eternal optimist, I always want to believe our industry has finally reached maturity but then I uncover another gaping hole in technology’s promise like Viewability, Brand Safety, or Data accuracy.
Campaign Verification is Essential
Who could imagine launching an advertising campaign today and not utilizing some form of Brand Safety verification, whether it be IAS, DV or the guardrails provided by social platforms? What about Viewability? Is it important for your message to be seen by a human? Of course, it is. The world of verification has woven itself into the fabric of our day to day, and companies like Moat, DV & IAS are no longer an option but a prerequisite.
Garbage In Garbage Out
What about the data that powers these campaigns, the audience segments every savvy digital marketer uses to refine the consumers who see their ads? We’ve all heard the phrase garbage-in-garbage-out, and unfortunately, much of the Big Data available today is encumbered by the sins of the past. This is why I had to join Truthset. Truthset’s mission to provide an accuracy standard for demographics provides an essential foundation for the media measurement revolution we’re seeing. An industry in flux must be grounded in truth, as we say.
Modern Media Measurement
For Media Networks, accurate demographic data will never be more important than during this coming Upfront season when they attempt to add accountability to addressable, programmatic, and CTV. Measurement companies like iSpot, OpenAP,
Comscore, TVSquared, Samba, and VideoAmp will finally be contributing to the Network media measurement world. For the buyers and sellers to
give credibility to this new currency grade measurement test, they’ll need assurances the data is accurate, standardized and routinely validated.
Independent Validation is Coming to Big Data
Much in the same way Moat validates viewability today, we must validate the accuracy of data in the ecosystem. And, looking back, we may all wonder how such an integral component (Big data) of our business success was left to the wonderment and excitement of what was to come. It’s one reason I’m glad to have joined Truthset. A mission of accuracy and standardization is something I know will revolutionize the media measurement industry, and that is something we can all be excited about.