26 Jun, 2012

Chinese Company Develops New Technology to Evaluate Digital Advertising

BEIJING, June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ — Since the advent of the new media, most marketers have fancied going digital with their campaigns. Investments in digital advertising are increasing in leaps and bounds, though still small compared to traditional TV advertising. Despite increasing at a faster pace, investment in digital media is challenged by key concerns regarding measurement.

Old Legacy of Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate (CTR), the industry standard in the initial faces of upsurge of the new media, is at the heart of the problem. Interaction was the key selling proposition for the digital media in the past hence measures like CTR and CPC became the key criterion. Though these are reliable measurements, these have a basic flaw of measuring only direct-response, which is a small fraction of overall brand impact. They, being action-oriented, fail altogether to measure any exposure-oriented impact metrics and thus undervalue the real impact of digital advertising.

Lots of big advertisers have shifted gears and are now utilizing the new measurement standards available. But a majority of the advertisers are still trying to grasp the most effective way of managing their digital campaigns. A great number of them will benefit immensely, if they are made aware of the developments of the past couple of years in the digital sphere.

iGRP, a Shot in the Arm

The concept of Gross Rating Points (GRP) is not new. Every advertiser, familiar with TV media, acknowledges it to be the standard measurement used in TV. Half a decade back, many researchers and advertisers were grappling with the application of GRP to the digital media, but none were successful. They faced unique challenges such as disparity between advertising reach & site reach as well as media fragmentation and audience fragmentation, to name a few. There was a need for a totally digital tool, which still has the same calculations and applications as TV GRP.

iGRP was born out that of that need and it made measurement of the overall impact of a digital advertisement possible for the first time. Equipped with huge online panels and new technologies such as cloud computing, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence, platforms such as AdMonitor from Miaozhen Systems and its partner Millward Brown can calculate iGRP efficiently. Not only iGRP but its derivative measurements – Reach & Frequency and traditional CTR can be computed thus providing a reliable and comprehensive picture. Today, iGRP is deservingly hailed as the new currency of digital media as it has significantly impacted the realization of the true potential of digital media.

Possibilities Galore

The biggest advantage of iGRP is that it is a target-centric measurement. Unlike TV GRP, which measures the reach of a program and campaign, iGRP specifically measures advertising. Thus, advertisers can now calculate the overall brand impact of a specific advertisement on a select target audience. In the past, it was never possible to evaluate a campaign in such detail. This evaluation means advertisers will be able to create more efficiencies in their future plans thus improving their ROI significantly.

Secondly, the platforms capable of processing billion impressions can now provide iGRP and a whole bouquet of other measurements within an hour. This takes decision-making to new heights and makes things further real-time. Not only speed but also the depth of analysis has improved significantly with multivariate analysis of data based on geography, demography, websites and placements. With these kinds of timely and detailed analysis possible, advertisers are now able to control their digital campaigns way better than before.

Thirdly, with this data, it is possible to derive a Reach Curve, the relationship between target reach & iGRPs, and also the norm for both markets and campaigns. This is a significant feature as the norm allows advertisers to compare one campaign to the industry standard and evaluate the efficiency of their spot plan. Furthermore, reach curve norms from earlier campaigns with similar spot plans can be used to estimate a future campaign’s performance.

iGRP has opened up new gates not only for advertisers but also for the agencies and websites themselves. Everyone can benefit from measurements and analysis provided by these platforms.

Going Beyond iGRP

The good news does not stop here; whatever mentioned above is still in the realms of digital media. The technologies that introduced the iGRP and other measurements now make it possible to merge them seamlessly with TV measurements. This was considered impossible just a couple of years back by industry experts. Recently a new platform, named MixReach and developed by Miaozhen Systems, the Chinese leading third-party advertising technology company, has been introduced which allows advertisers to compare reach curves and costs in the online and TV domains. This is a huge feature that enables advertisers to optimally distribute investment across different media, markets and target groups.

Despite such huge strides already having been taken, it would not be wrong to say that the action and excitement in the digital sphere has just begun. With mobile advertising being streamlined with the advent of smartphones and TV itself going digital, we are heading towards a truly digital ecosystem. The future of digital advertising is full of action and is extremely promising if the advertisers evolve with the times and ride the developments for the benefit of their brands. Changing their measurement standard would be a good place to start.

Brands and Agencies’ Practice

Tina Wang, Media Director of Johnson & Johnson — “MixReach helped us realize the crossmedia budget allocation’s optimization, in our trial markets, Beijing and Chengdu, in the year 2011. It helped us save almost a million of budget while achieving the demanded media goal.”

Jessica Kendall, Head of Digital Strategy of ZenithOptimedia — “Delivering effective frequency to our target consumer is also one of the most important KPIs for digital campaigns, especially for the clients focused on brandbuilding. iGRP is the system which helps us to evaluate an online video campaign’s efficiency with this KPI, and also delivers the implications for further planning work. This methodology is key for our clients and the whole industry.”

Jessica Wu, Managing Director (Key Accounts) of Mindshare — “iGRP realizes the connection between TV and online video campaigns’ comparison and integration, it helps us do better media planning across media for our clients.”

Naru Radhakrishnan, Regional Managing Partner of Mediacom — “The digital reach curve is a new milestone for our digital media team to achieve the digital campaigns’ pre-buy estimation and post-buy evaluation, thereby increasing the ROI for our clients.”

Further info on Miaozhen Systems: http://www.miaozhen.com