I know what you’re wondering and the answer is, no, we didn’t pay everyone to talk about outcomes this year.
Candidly, it’s a nice feature of our business model that EDO gets paid by the folks talking on stage about our outcome measurement.
At this year’s Upfronts, from Mark Marshall's NBCUniversal opening the pageantry all the way through to Netflix's Amy Reinhard closing the case, outcomes measurement — and frequently EDO’s data — was front-and-center across NYC’s stages.
Why? One word: Accountability.
At a time when ad intel and audience insights have become table stakes in measurement, immediate, predictive outcomes are fueling TV’s ‘Easy Button,’ the AI-driven optimization engine that is mission-critical to our industry’s future. Digital marketers have reaped the rewards of the Easy Button for years in social’s walled gardens, and if we can’t prove that TV ad dollars drive measurable, optimized business outcomes, the C-suite will shift (even more) budget to the channels that do.
On the bright side, this year’s Upfronts made clear that every leading TV network and streamer is ready to rise to the challenge. In an era of increasing AI optimization, we have two choices: make our media accountable or fade quietly into the night.
TV cannot afford to be pigeonholed as just a ‘brand’ channel — we need to prove performance
EDO transformed the market’s understanding of TV ad efficacy when we illuminated the mid-funnel behaviors that TV ads were driving. TV was always “Brand” AND “Demand.” Marketers just couldn’t see it, so they mistook it for an “OR”. Modern marketers now see where the puck is going: TV is not just a “brand” channel. Immediate performance measurement and real-time outcomes optimization are the norm in social and search, and they won’t settle for less on TV — no matter how great our content is.
Amazon’s Alan Moss said it best in a recent Upfronts chat with Michael Shields: “Agencies and advertisers have told us they need help navigating fragmentation and delivering measurable outcomes all year long across a full-funnel offering.”
That’s why Warner Bros. Discovery rolled out its new Always-On Measurement & Attribution Dashboard, why YouTube boasted of its strong ad-driven search engagement, and why Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, echoing similar messages from our friends at TelevisaUnivision, touted their ability to “turn cultural moments into business outcomes.”
TV outcomes are the connective tissue for brand and performance.
The good news? We have the technology. And a cavalcade of leading networks and streamers made clear this week that they’re ready to use it.
Immediate, mid-funnel TV outcomes measurement delivers a precise, proven measure of whether a TV ad effectively drove intent, enabling advertisers to make direct comparisons between search, social, digital, retail, and TV media. And it’s fast enough for marketers to optimize at the speed of AI.
These TV outcomes are essential to understand which media investments to double down on, and which to shift elsewhere. In a TV landscape that has never been more fragmented, outcomes are the connective tissue. Today, every aspect of a TV campaign is unique: different advanced audience targets, with different viewers watching the same show at different times.
In the words of Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bejaria, “Tune-in was officially replaced by personal choice.” Nobody asks what the Stranger Things finale did in the demo. Nor should they. It’s not how TV is watched, or bought or sold for that matter.
Outcomes measurement is what lets marketers and media sellers compare apples to apples and discover the fair value of their media.
Ad-supported TV is worth saving. Are we up to the task?
It was Jimmy Kimmel who reminded us that the stakes of all this extend far beyond who posts the most impressive EBITDA next quarter.
As “the bad boy of data and measurement solutions” joked about his ordeal this past year during his latest masterclass roast, I couldn’t help thinking that an independent, critical-minded TV media has never been more essential. Not just for holding power accountable, but for keeping us all sane during a time when every day’s news seems to create more anxiety than the one that came before.
Great TV brings us together, keeps us informed, gives us an escape, and sometimes helps us see the world a little bit differently. You’re not getting that from rage-bait or brain rot on social feeds. But that’s what we’re going to fund if we’re not able to make our media accountable to business outcomes.
As our friend and Disney Advertising president Rita Ferro summed it up on stage: “Premium content at scale, powered by technology. That's the next chapter.”