CANNES – In the vibrant and ever-changing world of digital media, the elusive goal of cross-platform measurement may finally be within reach.
Ashwin Navin, CEO and Co-Founder of Samba TV, believes that “we may actually have some convergence of a methodology that works in one country, may work in multiple countries, which is a game-changer for the biggest marketers, the biggest brands in the world to have a single view of how media performs.”
Navin talks with CIMM MD Jon Watts for Beet.TV in this video interview.
The Need for Rigorous Methodology
With the proliferation of data from television and offline media, Navin sees an opportunity for convergence. “The walled gardens are emerging with more willingness to be measured by third parties,” he says.
“Offline media being counted on an impression basis allows for de-duplication and convergence to take place.
“When that all comes together, I think what marketers have is what we believe is the golden age of measurement.”
The Power of Smart TV Data
Smart TVs offer a unique asset for measurement. Navin acknowledges that while some markets are leading and others are following, “the US had set top box data for quite some time, and so that gave the US a headstart over other markets, say in Europe or Asia”.
However, with smart TV data sets now in market for several years, agencies and their clients now have a powerful opportunity to reinvent planning and measurement models.
“Our data flows into these tools so they can look at the market differently,” Navin explains.
Navin believes that smart TV data has distinct advantages over traditional panel-based methods, particularly in terms of scale.
“We can actually start to say, ‘well, here are the shortcomings of traditional panels and here’s where smart TV panels can pick up’,” he says. “Maybe those things start to come together in a meaningful way like we see in the US but we see that potential in pretty much every major media market around the world.”
The Future of Streaming Data
Navin sees the recently-formed US JIC on the issue, and its efforts to standardize streaming data, as a potential game changer in the US market.
“With large media companies stepping up with their own data, their streaming data, it removes the monopoly power that a measurement company will have in the future,” Navin says.
“It would be a much more level playing field to get your hands on streaming data than moving through a proprietary SDK.”
The Role of AI in Measurement Solutions
Samba TV is a company that specializes in data-driven television and video advertising. It offers a range of services that utilize technology to collect and analyze viewership data, enabling advertisers to deliver targeted ads to specific audiences.
Samba TV has made a significant investment in AI, developing machine learning models for signal processing, computer vision, and data synthesis.
Navin sees the potential for AI to “reveal things that were really helpful for media planning, media measurements.”
He also highlights the computing capabilities within the device itself. “That allows us to move some of these models into the edge and start to create entirely new data sets that haven’t existed before,” Navin says.
