Blame it on today’s earlier start or the New York humidity, but the second day of Audience Measurement 3.0 began in more fractious mood than its predecessor.

 

There followed sessions with advertisers such as Ford and Unilever, and sessions on mobile, social networking and word of mouth. As temperatures rose outside, however, they subsided in the conference hotel.

 

Morning clash

 

It seems unlikely that opening speaker, Keval Desai, of Google, anticipated a steely reaction to his presentation on the company’s US-only television advertising service.

 

However, as with the Google media planning tool showcased to ARF delegates yesterday, there was some concern about whether Google would seek official industry accreditation with the Media Ratings Council for its efforts. Desai’s answer was ambiguous and this probably mitigated some of the delegate interest in the Google products.

 

In essence, Google TV Ads allows US marketers to bid for television airtime across 96 networks (covering about 30 million viewers). Slots can be bid for by daypart, individual TV networks, single shows or by editorial programming context.

Google TV Ads allows advertisers to bid for slots by daypart, network, show or context

It provides some rapid-response (within 24 hours) reporting tools on campaign audience reach, as well as effectiveness. The service uses data and analysis of TV handset clicks mainly via a partnership with Dish, the US satellite television provider.

 

Desai argued that the rationale for the service lay in the convergence of television and the web, the continual clamour for greater media accountability and rising availability of video content on the web.

 

Desai claimed the Google service had the potential to grow total television ad expenditure and had already brought in small business advertisers new to television.

 

Using case studies including Lenovo, the electronics group, and the non-profit American Himalayan Foundation, Desai argued that Google’s TV service could be used to:

• Compare and quickly act on variations in the performance of TV creative.
• Track patterns in search traffic and TV advertising during campaigns.
• Optimize campaign duration and TV channel choice.

He conceded however that the sample size of the Google products was to some degree self-selecting.

 

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