Data is Free

For a while the "Holy Grail" of television advertising has been crafting a response to the Internet's ability to track and measure ad clicks. Millions of dollars are being spent on multiple projects and products designed to give marketers the ability to target ads and measure their effectiveness. Project Canoe, Google, Microsoft's Navic, and TiVo are all in hot pursuit of the technology that's going to do for TV what Google did for text ads.

MediaPost just covered the "Viva" app which promises to do a lot of interesting things for marketers and agencies. The article, I think, is a clear example of burying the lead. Quoted here for your enjoyment are the last 4 paragraphs.

Pares acknowledged that "representativeness" was a key issue, but he also noted that DVRs are now present in two-thirds of households with incomes of $100,000-plus, and noted that advertisers and programmers need to understand how TV audiences behave in a DVR universe. Among other things, he said TiVo has found that so-called addressable commercials - TV spots that are relevant to specific types of viewers - do not perform as well as many people might think in a DVR environment.

Both Rentrak President Ken Papagan, and TNS Media Research President George Shababb, said it also is important to think of the new data as being more than just "set-top" data, but as one component of a new array of data streams being derived from a variety of new video platforms that also include online and mobile video.

"We call it return path data," Shababb said.

As important as access to the new data streams is, Shababb said the biggest issue in the business is not processing the data. "It's about how the data is being edited," and the business rules and guidelines the industry develops for valuing them.

Wait. What was that. Two of the top guys are saying that targeted TV spots do not perform as well as people think in a DVR environment. But I thought that the whole point of was to target television ads. Now you are telling me that, it turns out, targeted ads don't perform as well as people might thing. Furthermore, you're saying that "set-top" box data needs to be considered along side online and mobile video. AND you are saying that, at the end of the day, what really matters is how the data is "edited."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn't the real story here that a bunch of really smart guys have run the numbers and it turns out that targeted ads on television isn't the Holy Grail after all?

Let me be clear, I think that the research and the work that TiVo and the other people quoted here is incredibly valueable. The work they are doing is incredbly valuable. I wouldn't want anyone to confuse my criticism of this article with their work. In fact, my criticism of this article is rooted entirely in my belief that this team has uncovered a valuable insight.

If technology folks like myself want to add value to marketers we need to make sure that we are doing exactly what the TiVo et.al. team is doing run the numbers and overthrow gut reactions. Once we do that then we'll have products and services that drive value for our customers.