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Metrics Swim Into Focus

Apr 20, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Video-on-demand could finally get some help with the two major problems that have plagued the medium since its inception more than six years ago.
Project Canoe, a joint effort of top cable operators, plans to grapple with issues created by advanced advertising—in the case of VOD, a lack of consistent metrics and the long lead time required for providing ad content.
VOD has been successful as a subscriber-retention tool for cable operators in the battle against satellite. However, some marketers have shied away from VOD because of the inability to measure its effectiveness and the fact that advertisers often must provide ads five to six weeks before they begin their run on VOD.
Most cable operators and VOD networks can provide only basic information on unique views and total views to advertisers. That pales in comparison to broadband video, a fast-moving, highly measurable medium where ads can swap out on the fly.
Project Canoe could help level the playing field for VOD. The joint effort among several top multiple-system operators is striving to develop standards that will let MSOs speak the same language when reporting on ads and views for VOD. That would give networks and marketers a more detailed look at VOD viewing habits.
“Progress has admittedly been slow, and Canoe has the potential to bring metrics in step. We see metrics as the most important additional improvement to turbocharge VOD advertising,” said Comcast’s Warren Schlichting, a spokesman for Project Canoe. He is senior VP of new business development at Comcast Spotlight, the cabler’s ad sales arm.
Participants in Canoe’s first VOD effort, a voter-education channel, include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Insight Communications, Bright House Networks and Bresnan Communications.
Advertisers need metrics in order to know how VOD affects their bottom lines, said Jen Soch, VP-activation director at MediaVest.
In fact, some advertisers and agencies see Project Canoe as a make-or-break proposition. “It is a must that Project Canoe work together to create these standards; otherwise ITV, VOD and addressable don’t scale,” said Tracey Scheppach, senior VP/video innovation director at Starcom USA.
It’s not too late for the platform to take hold. After all, VOD is opt-in, because viewers actively choose to watch a program there.
But proponents of VOD can’t afford to be complacent, because broadband video is taking off as an ad medium. Ad spending in online video should soar nearly 81% this year to $1.4 billion. What’s more, broadband comes with a host of metrics from sources such as Hitwise, ComScore, Omniture, Nielsen and DoubleClick.
“Broadband is taking dollars away that would have been spent on VOD,” Ms. Scheppach said. “I have a lot more clients in broadband, and the content is broader.”
For now, VOD advertisers are stuck with “lowest common denominator” metrics, such as unique views and total views, since they have to roll up data from across cable systems, some with detailed information, some without.
Cablevision has focused on building branded virtual channels in VOD for its advertisers and can provide average time viewed for videos, where consumers were before they came to the channel and whether they clicked on a banner ad. Advertisers also can measure return on investment.
With Cablevision’s branded channel for Disney vacations, the cable operator found that of the consumers who click on a button to “talk to an agent,” about one-quarter go on to book a trip, said Barry Frey, senior VP of advanced platform sales at Cablevision.
VOD purveyor Music Choice provides detailed metrics and stipulates a one-week lead time for most ads.
It is testing an effort to marry Music Choice VOD measurement information from Rentrak with Nielsen’s national people-meter ratings to provide marketers with improved viewer data.

6 Comments

  1. While VOD metrics may suffer from heterogeneous MSO reporting, local advertising and content could still enjoy single headend distribution (e.g. Comcast covers almost the entirety of the San Francisco-SanJose-Oakland MSA)without those issues.
    Is it that the fixed costs of distribution, reporting, and accounting in VOD are so high that the costs for single-metro spots and segments are prohibitive?

  2. If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.

  3. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  4. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  5. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  6. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

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