By Jay Bemis | Advertising Systems Inc.
App-tracking opt-outs in Apple’s latest operating system and the upcoming phase-out of third-party cookies are among the latest hurdles that marketers and advertisers alike will face in the months ahead — following what already has been a year of challenging times.
With such changes and privacy concerns, targeting ads to the proper channels while building brand awareness is becoming more important than ever. Fortunately, some bigger players in the marketing business, such as Nielsen, are leading the charge in finding ways to battle the upcoming challenges.
Nielsen, the longtime rater of network TV shows that drove ad buying before there ever was a streaming world, announced earlier this year a new attribution model to help companies identify new targeting strategies in the 2020s. At the heart of the model is “Nielsen’s ID,” a resolution system that provides “device-agnostic identifiers” and demographic characteristics for marketers, as well as measures “media exposure over time, across all media.”
“By underpinning our audience and outcomes measurement products with our unique ID resolution methodology, we are futureproofing our business and products from ongoing technology and regulatory changes,” Mainak Mazumdar, chief data officer at Nielsen, said in announcing the new attribution model.
“Backed by Nielsen’s gold-standard panels, we are building the blocks for a privacy-centric, flexible approach to measuring individuals’ exposure to ads across all media to power the media industry well into the future,” he said.
To keep their targeting capabilities in vogue, smaller businesses most likely will continue to rely on their marketing consultant expertise to keep track of such changes as Nielsen’s.
But bigger businesses already are taking note of the new Nielsen model.
Nielsen just released a related report on the new attribution model for smaller and larger businesses and their marketers to study, titled “Take Command of Your Brand: Long-Term Growth Requires a Balanced Marketing Strategy.”
The downloadable Nielsen report details such topics as:
- The Importance of Awareness & Consideration. “The most reliable way to grow your bottom line in the long haul is to grow your purchase funnel, starting with awareness,” Nielsen says.
- How to Achieve the Right Channel-Messaging Mix. “Modern campaign strategies should factor in the full picture to have the highest impact.”
- The Need to Rebalance the Marketing Funnel. “When it comes to resonating with audiences, marketers need to be constantly measuring, balancing and building to stay ahead.”
In describing the new attribution model when it was announced in February, Matt Krepsik, Nielsen’s general manager of planning outcomes products, said:
“At Nielsen, we’re committed to helping our clients navigate the cookie-less world and unlock the next generation of metrics that enable them to drive outcomes, maximize reach, and optimize their budgets.
“With our transformed approach to attribution, we’re turning data into actionable insights so advertisers can understand the impact of their marketing efforts and publishers can continue to prove the impact of advertising on their platforms.”
