NEW YORK \u2013 With brands waiting for attribution of their television ad effectiveness, it used to be a case of wanting it \u201cas quickly as possible.\u201d Now it\u2019s \u201cimmediately as possible,\u201d according to Alphonso\u2019s T.S. Kelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to see that every minute of the day, every hour of the day, every day of the week. That\u2019s really where I see a difference between how we\u2019re working today and just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this interview with Beet.TV at the 4A\u2019s Data Summit<\/a>, Alphonso\u2019s SVP, Research talks about attribution in three phases: pre, during and post ad exposure.<\/p>\n On the pre side, it\u2019s pretty much the way brands have used consumer databases like MRI or Simmons to help advise media and audience selection, according to Kelly. \u201cWe can do that directly with brands and their agency partners where we\u2019re taking their CRM data, their first-party data, and creating an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n One example could be an insurance company with homeowner policies coming up for renewal in the next 90 days wanting to know the media behavior of those policy holders. By matching data in a non-personally identifiable manner, Alphonso<\/a> can provide \u201ca complete analysis of the content they consume. Networks, programs, dayparts, frequency of viewership, that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cduring\u201d attribution phase involves \u201cwhat we see in real time.\u201d Exposure activity and the response to it inform whether a particular campaign is working and whether adjustments need to be made. On the post side, \u201cthat\u2019s where the performance numbers come in for attribution.\u201d<\/p>\n Alphonso\u2019s biggest data set is its automatic content recognition footprint in 34 million households\u2014roughly one out of four TV households. On the \u201cingestion\u201d side, it \u201cwatches\u201d 200-plus live national networks in some 10 DMA\u2019s. Knowing what households are watching constitutes the \u201cexposure\u201d side and a match is done.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom there we can understand audience size, ad interaction, and then connect that to all the other types of attribution that are possible,\u201d Kelly says.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s SDK resides not only within TV sets but also connected-TV devices and more than 1,000 apps in the United States. \u201cEvery few microseconds on the app side we\u2019re tapping the microphone to see whether or not we recognize what\u2019s on the TV. It\u2019s about understanding what\u2019s on the TV. We\u2019re not listening to peoples\u2019 conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n