‘It’s a complex ecosystem’: Ad-tech firms promise OTT advertisers granular measurement, but marketers say there are holes in their pitches.

Business Insider – March 21, 2019

By Lauren Johnson

[C-K’s SVP of Media and Analytics Chris Wexler was interviewed and quoted in this story. Excerpt below.]

As more people ditch traditional TV for OTT viewing, marketers are following by advertising in streaming TV apps. One of the areas they’re most interested in is knowing if seeing video ads led people to take real-world actions like visiting a store and making a purchase, but marketers are finding it hard to measure the whole ecosystem.

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Marketers get different results from similar companies

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Chris Wexler, SVP and executive director of media and analytics at Cramer‑Krasselt, said measurement companies’ data is limited to specific geographies and smart TV manufacturers.

To get around this, Cramer-Krasselt built its own analytics platform. The platform pulls in third-party data sources that it uses to serve ads, then performs correlation analysis to determine brand awareness and sales. Wexler said that the process allows the agency to compare the performance of its OTT campaigns with digital and radio campaigns.

“We’re looking forward to having a deeper level of data visibility at some point but right now there are so many platforms for OTT that it’s hard to find an easy way to normalize data — it’s a complex ecosystem,” Wexler said.