Common equivalent metrics needed to compare efficiencies of TV & digital: Sam Balsara

TV measurement is far more robust and methodological compared to digital platforms and unless industry has a common equivalent metrics, we can’t compare efficiencies of both the media, says Sam Balsara while speaking at the e4m TV first conference in Mumbai on Tuesday. 

Delivering a keynote session on the theme of the conference, ‘The power of Big Screen’, Balsara noted, “Each digital platform follows its own definition and standards on viewability, while Facebook counts a view if an ad is seen for three seconds, for Pinterest and Twitter, it's two seconds. On the other hand, TV measurement is far more robust. There is a common rating system that is used for all channels, and it has been established by the industry which combines advertisers, media owners and media agencies who decide what is view, how those views are to be measured and how they are to be reported.”

With so much variation amongst digital publishers and the gold standard used by TV, we need some equivalent metrics to make comparisons among digital publishers and TV channels to arrive at a metric for a multimedia plan, says Balsara. 

Declining attention span

Expressing concerns over declining attention span, Balsara said, “Goldfish is known not just for its beauty and smooth-fast movements but it is supposed to have a very low attention span as low as 9 seconds.” 

In a country of 1.3 or 1.4 billion, there are about 1.6 billion mobile phones of which one billion are smartphones, Balsara said, adding, “A lot of digital advertising is consumed on mobile. A recent Microsoft study established that the biggest casualty of mobile adoption has been attention span and it is now down from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015. It is even lower than the goldfish's attention span and today I'm sure in 2023 in India it must have gone even lower.”

Prof Nelson Field’s study

Balsara cited media researcher from Australia Professor Karen Nelson Field’s study that demonstrated higher the attention, higher the short-term advertising strength. “Another study demonstrates that 40 per cent brand awareness can be reached with only 600 GRPs for ads which are high in attention, but you would need 2,200 GRPs for ads that have low attention capability,” he noted. 

Balsara further noted, “Prof Nelson’s work on the relative impact of TV exposure versus digital exposure is rapidly gaining ground in many parts of the world now. Fundamentally she says three things: first, a significant relationship exists between attention and sales; second, there is a direct relationship between sales and video size; and third, larger the screen bigger the sales impact.”

“Recently my colleague Vikram met the global CEO of Nielsen in Bombay and his view was that screen size is not important, what is important is the context. But I tend to agree more with Professor Nelson. She has also written a wonderful new book titled “The attention economy and how media works”. 

Those of us who have read Byron Sharp's book and have been following it blindly, should read this book, Balsara advised. 

Viewablity 

According to Balsara, a necessary condition of attention is viewability, and it lies on three critical factors-first is coverage; the proportion of the screen that the ad covers, second is clutter (what else is going around the ad on the screen) and last is dwell time or the time for which one is exposed to the ad. 

“We all know that on coverage, TV and Cinema offer advertisers 100% coverage, but not all digital videos offer that. A study conducted as recently as August 2022 shows that as screen coverage increases, attention goes up disproportionately. If only half the screen is available to an ad, you get less than half the attention. So screen coverage, according to research, is a very important element of how well or how poorly an ad works,” he explained. 

“TV ends to score since at least when the ad is playing, the screen is clutter-free unlike in many formats of digital ads especially when you're scrolling your news feeds. There is a lack of standards followed by digital publishers for digital video. If a video ad is seen on the screen with 50 per cent of pixels for at least two continuous seconds, the mighty media rating council for video viewability standards says it can be counted as a view for the advertiser. We feel that two continuous seconds is just too low.”

Balsara noted that many studies even by digital publishers have shown that sales impact can begin to increase dramatically when the exposure increases beyond five seconds.

Some brands take lead on common standards

With so much variation amongst digital publishers and the standard used by TV, we need some equivalence metrics to make comparisons among digital publishers and TV channels to arrive at a metric for a multimedia plan, says Balsara. 

He added, “I'm sure experts will agree on the common equivalent standard. Many large advertisers have developed their own limited research belief systems in this area. It is very necessary to establish this equivalence metric with TV being the gold standard. My agency made one such attempt.”

A study which measures media channel efficiency puts online video at 22 per cent compared to TV’s 100 per cent, Balsara informed. 

We need to move from just reach to reach adjusted for attention metrics viewability. We have to recognize a basic attention metric, and given the multitude of definitions across digital publishers on what constitutes a view arriving at a viewability, equalization is very necessary. 

On connected TV

Balsara admits that linear TV is coming down and connected TV is emerging fast mainly because CTV offers us a unique benefit-the targetability of digital and the viewability of television. 

“Another emerging in TV's armor is that we now know the TV viewership is not equal even among every person in a defined target audience. About a third of that audience are underserved by any TV campaign. Google now gives us the option of choosing to target those live TV viewers. So you can meet the gap in your TV plan by adding digital video to reach the light viewers of television.”

According to Balsara, digital videos are growing, and usage along with its targetability option makes up for lower viewability. Besides, digital offers behavioral targeting. While this may not make sense for large mass brands, but for brands that want to appeal to narrow audiences or want to top up their mass campaigns, need to take a serious look at this. 

On media mix in complex world 

Media mix decisions have become very complex and seldom can you use only one medium alone as we used to do in the past. Besides, the era of one-size-fits-all is long gone.  The success of the media planner of today and tomorrow is going to be not how well he can deal with this complexity, but how he can reduce this complexity and draw simple home truths from all the complex data that is available. 

Balsara recalled Late Dhirubhai Ambani and his life trajectory from a petrol pump attendant to setting up one of the largest business conglomerates in India. “He was no big technocrat, had no big technology, but he had a sharp but simple mind. I believe his major strength was his ability to reduce complexity into simple actionable strategic points for himself.”

TV in India till today continues to be the staple medium for large mass brands. You can't beat TV for its brand building capability, its lowest costs per additional reach points, mass reach and high attention value, Balsara assured the audience. 

“Our commitment should be not necessarily to a medium but our commitment should be to increase the advertisers’ sales. It is the long-term interest of every media owner also,” he opined.