ORLANDO, FL: Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble (P&G), has said work to improve the digital media ecosystem is about two-thirds complete, but he wants to “keep the pressure on”.
He was speaking to AdExchanger after delivering a major speech last week at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) Masters of Marketing conference.
He told delegates that he was optimistic that Google, Facebook and others will meet P&G’s end-of-year deadline to align on third-party measurement standards that will be audited by the Media Ratings Council (MRC).
But Pritchard, who is also Chairman of the ANA board of directors, told AdExchanger that “there’s still a chunk of work to be done on brand safety”.
Asked if P&G would pull spend if the MRC’s accreditation work is not complete by his deadline, Pritchard said: “It'll depend on how far along they really are. Is MRC taking time because of just plain volume of activity? If we feel confident that people are in place, then of course we will give the benefit of the doubt.
“But I want to keep the pressure on. We can't slip on this front. There's a lot of money being spent.”
Expanding on P&G’s approach to digital advertising, he said the decision in March to cut digital adspend by $100m was not just about brand safety concerns, but because of the amount of wastage on programmatic.
“We cut the long tail of websites. It was an interesting experiment that worked. There's just a lot of waste out there,” he said.
“So, we've pivoted to broaden the reach, reduce the frequency and then made sure we don't show up in certain places. It's a culling effect – greater focus to get greater effectiveness.”
He also confirmed that the company has increased exposure of some brands on TV, but again the policy is always to make sure that money is not wasted and that the spend really correlates to growth.
“The only thing they [the P&G executive team] would push us to do is find effective media. They want it to work. They are exceedingly supportive of the direction we're taking. They see that if we're spending money and it's waste, cut that out.”
He was speaking to AdExchanger after delivering a major speech last week at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) Masters of Marketing conference.
He told delegates that he was optimistic that Google, Facebook and others will meet P&G’s end-of-year deadline to align on third-party measurement standards that will be audited by the Media Ratings Council (MRC).
But Pritchard, who is also Chairman of the ANA board of directors, told AdExchanger that “there’s still a chunk of work to be done on brand safety”.
Asked if P&G would pull spend if the MRC’s accreditation work is not complete by his deadline, Pritchard said: “It'll depend on how far along they really are. Is MRC taking time because of just plain volume of activity? If we feel confident that people are in place, then of course we will give the benefit of the doubt.
“But I want to keep the pressure on. We can't slip on this front. There's a lot of money being spent.”
Expanding on P&G’s approach to digital advertising, he said the decision in March to cut digital adspend by $100m was not just about brand safety concerns, but because of the amount of wastage on programmatic.
“We cut the long tail of websites. It was an interesting experiment that worked. There's just a lot of waste out there,” he said.
“So, we've pivoted to broaden the reach, reduce the frequency and then made sure we don't show up in certain places. It's a culling effect – greater focus to get greater effectiveness.”
He also confirmed that the company has increased exposure of some brands on TV, but again the policy is always to make sure that money is not wasted and that the spend really correlates to growth.
“The only thing they [the P&G executive team] would push us to do is find effective media. They want it to work. They are exceedingly supportive of the direction we're taking. They see that if we're spending money and it's waste, cut that out.”
Sourced from AdExchanger; additional content by WARC staff
