Validated digital performance: a much-needed progression in the world of advertising

Last month at a conference held by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Marc S. Pritchard, the chief brand officer of Procter & Gamble, shared his growing discontent with the advertisement industry. His main issue? The unreliability of verifying if advertisement money is spent in the right places to reach the right individuals.

“The entire murky, nontransparent and in some cases fraudulent supply chain is the problem,” said Pritchard. “It’s a bigger problem than just any one thing. There’s too much we don’t know and we don’t have validated.”

He raises a completely valid point. If companies are spending money on advertising campaigns, they deserve a return on their investments. Often times, advertisements are measured simply by clicks on the ad opposed to the success of the ad in reaching a target audience. Further, as seen in the most recent election, it is difficult for advertisers to guarantee that their ads aren’t posted on bad sites thus attracting the wrong audiences for their products.

There are very few companies that successfully validate ad campaigns. One Virginia based firm, comScore, is a leader in overcoming such murkiness and lack of transparency within the world of advertising. With their 56 offered products, comScore offers deeper insights into individuals reached by different ad campaigns.

The company uses its position as one of the premier services in providing insight to cross-platform audiences to reach the right audiences and maximize the impact of advertisements. They have both digital and television services to target individuals at all levels of the advertising process.

Comscore does this through using television ratings in a way that nobody else in the industry yet does by collecting information about individual viewers and comparing it against TV ratings. For example, they would be able to pinpoint what types of television shows young republican males typically watch, which likewise provides better insight to advertisers looking to reach this, or any, targeted audience.

On the digital side, comScore capabilities offer information about individuals engaging with particular ads beyond how many clicks it recieves. They offer insight into who is clicking on the ads, what they do once they get to the site and what types of sites the specific ads run on. This information is crucial to advertisers looking to target an explicit audience.

While the world of advertising still remains relatively opaque, innovative companies like comScore offer deeper insight into how individuals interact with ads. Such a transformation in advertising analytics should give brands professionals like Mr. Pritchard a peace of mind.