SEATTLE – Nielsen may have this week announced its plan introduce the holy grail of media measurement – unified cross-screen measurement – but, with the plan’s full implementation four years away, brands are still left needing to fill the gap.

That’s where Sean Muller comes in.

The founder and CEO of iSpot.tv, a TV measurement provider, this week announced an upgrade to a solution he already had in-market.

Currency alignment

The announcement means iSpot.tv is adding precise and flexible demographic data in to its existing Unified Measurement platform, meaning brands can use person-level cross-screen ad measurement in real-time and analyze the impact of both CTV and linear impressions on business outcomes within 24 hours.

“That aligns with how media is bought today on both linear and actually, streaming,” Muller says n this video interview with Beet.TV.

“Almost all linear deals are done based on age and gender, and most streaming deals are also done based on age and gender. This allows advertisers to align the measurement with how media is bought and sold.”

Getting personal

“Today, we support roughly 300 streaming platforms and DSPs, and the solution has gotten great traction in the marketplace over the last couple of years,” Muller says.

“Today marks the addition of getting down to a person level within the iSpot real-time measurement.”

Unified Measurement builds on iSpot.tv’s existing ad catalogue and airing TV, which maps smart TV exposures to specific ad creatives and transmissions to provide granular streaming measurement.

Advertisers ask questions

iSpot.TV, which offers measurement, attribution and technical services, takes viewing data including from Inscape, the subsidiary of TV maker Vizio that uses automated content recognition (ACR) to capture audiences’ real viewing behavior – in all, across more than 16 million viewing devices.

Muller says advertisers need to understand two crucial elements when it comes to shifting money from linear TV to streaming ads:

  • Incremental reach over and above linear TV.
  • The ROI or business outcome from that advertising.

So Unified Measurement allows them to verify, optimize and plan cross-screen ad delivery against age and gender currency targets in real-time and connect exposures to business outcomes.

The race to unified measurement

Nielsen’s announcement for what it calls Nielsen ONE could significantly move the industry toward its frequent demand for unified measurement.

But, with full completion due in 2023, iSpot.tv’s Muller thinks there is plenty of need for a solution today.

“I think the announcement from Nielsen continues to validate the need in the industry for several things – independent measurement that’s trusted by the industry and consistency across linear and streaming and personal level measurement,” he says.

“The Nielsen announcement is a great validation point that this is a need in the industry. Our capability is available now, starting next week, whereas Nielsen’s is going to be available a few years down the road.

“We see us and Nielsen as innovators in the space that are continuing to push the industry forward. I think it’s an exciting week for the industry.”

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews