There are challenges in measuring increasingly fragmented audiences while there’s “controversy around emerging alternative currencies.” The controversy Marcus notes has to do with the fact that the market itself might not quite be ready.
The industry continues to evolve from a once-linear mindset that was disrupted by streaming, to a streaming mindset that- more-and-more- includes traditional linear behaviors. A significant percentage of the major SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) services have been launched in the last 24 months. The rise of AVOD (Advertising Video On Demand) services is upon us with the ‘establishment’ streaming player (Netflix) now diving in themselves. And look quickly because FAST (Free ad-supported streaming TV) services are gaining steam.
With the players themselves exhibiting disruptive behavior, the fact that consumer behaviors continue to shift ‘over-the-top’ of the industry paradigm shift makes things confusing, to say the least. The gaming industry, reportedly at a $200B value- is now threatening to go from just 10% in comparative size of the Media industry to much more. That’s through partnerships, mergers and acquisitions with traditional media players as well as the positioning of the gaming industry as the tip of the spear of Web3’s Metaverse.
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So, how can evolving platforms and elusive audiences who make their own content be measured? Marcus feels that, “trust is a very key issue.” One way to build trust is to showcase transparency of what is being measured and the amount of inherent confidence associated with that measurement. “Large events and highly rated programming are measured well.” But, “the longer-tail, cross-platform, deduplication,” are not measured so well at the moment.
Where measurement is difficult, currency can be established. “Fundamentally, currency is something that we agree to transact on.” Where there are synergies, players should move forward together to hopefully establish new pathways and patterns for others- which will subsequently add credence to the initial transaction. The credence associated with myriad transactions leads to the industry-level proof of delivery of business objectives. “That builds an air of currency around that type of measurement and the ability of others to more comfortably use it as currency.” Uniformity of measurement leads to transparency which leads to trust.
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Transparency leading to trust can then lead to, “agreeing on some form of standards around what constitutes good measurement.” Once measurement can help showcase the delivery of business objectives, that will build currency value over time.
“It’s going to be a journey. Right now we’re at the disruptive phase.” But change will provide learnings, learnings will lead to the ability to be transparent, which will lead to trust. Trust will provide a platform for currency, measurement attribution and eventually, standards.
