CANNES \u2013 Innovative video advertising formats are on the upswing, creating the potential for \u201cnew-ad format fatigue\u201d and the measurement challenges that accompany them. But if you can get marketer procurement people on board with the concept, that upswing could broaden considerably.<\/p>\n
These are among the takeaways from a panel discussion at the 2018 Cannes<\/a> Lions International Festival of Creativity as part of the FreeWheel Forum on the Future of Television. It brought together representatives from OMD, Nissan, true[X] and Wavemaker led by moderator Matt Spiegel of MediaLink.<\/p>\n Wavemaker\u2019s Amanda Richman likened the current wave of video ad format experimentation to the early days of digital media. While there were potentially innovative solutions, they came at such a pace that \u201cyou really didn\u2019t get the time to absorb the learnings and focus. So it just became another version of spray and pray with new ad formats,\u201d Richman said.<\/p>\n Her advice to the audience: \u201cYou want to choose your partners wisely. Because there is the potential risk right now where there\u2019s a new-ad format fatigue, where everyone is coming out with different formats.\u201d<\/p>\n Alternately, having worked with true[X], Richman suggested focusing on \u201clearnings across a few different formats, understand the measurement, understand the operational impact all the way through billing, because that\u2019s what really matters too when it comes to scaling solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n true[X] President Pooja Midha said that engagement ads only belong in front of truly premium and compelling content, so as to offer a real value exchange. \u201cWe\u2019ve done some incredible work<\/a> with Nissan where we\u2019ve gotten to talk about both a new model, the LEAF, as well as Disney\u2019s A Wrinkle in Time. That\u2019s a lot to get across even in a 30, but when you\u2019ve got this rich canvas you can really go deeper and I think that\u2019s what engagement is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n Allyson Witherspoon, who heads up Global Brand Engagement at Nissan, would like to add value-based ad measurement to the industry\u2019s standard measurement metrics.<\/p>\n \u201cLead generation is a big thing in automotive, but that may not be the most important metric for an individual experience,\u201d said Witherspoon. \u201cSo you have to look at it by experience. If we keep measuring agencies and media performance based on the last several decades, we\u2019re never really going to advanced what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by Spiegel<\/a> \u201cWhat do we have to do to be here next year or the year after and this becoming commonplace?,\u201d OMD\u2019s John Osborn said the industry has a habit of productizing new things and then trying to force fit them into legacy measurement. \u201cAnd the two don\u2019t always meet,\u201d said Osborn. \u201cI think that we need to figure out different ways of looking at different measurement systems that are matched to the types and formats that are coming out faster than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n One challenge with emerging ad formats is that \u201ceveryone\u2019s kind of trying to attack it, but they\u2019re all in their own swim lanes and I think we need to come together. It\u2019s got to be intentional and deliberate and I think we collectively need to come together to tackle it. I don\u2019t think any one party alone can do it,\u201d Osborn<\/a> added.<\/p>\n Richman<\/a> described the role that marketer procurement people play in innovation as \u201chuge.\u201d They can either allow spending in new ways \u201cor they can control and say, \u2018no it\u2019s year after year, it\u2019s like for like.\u2019 And you\u2019re going to be judged only by the money that you save, which tends to lead just to measurement only being by the CPM cost.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil we bring them into the conversation, it feels like we\u2019re still going to have this logjam of only so much money can be spent on innovation because we\u2019re not being judged by anything but pricing,\u201d said Richman.<\/p>\n