COMMENTARY

Is There Value In A One Media Currency System?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 7, 2021

One future “currency” for TV and all media -- or many? If digital media is any harbinger, maybe the one-currency is a bit too old school.

Currencies seem to be a good idea when you can place a value on advertising inventory, and can easily relate it to other platforms -- or what was paid in the past.

That product -- a 30-second announcement on NBC, a 10-second video opportunity on Facebook, a 5-second pre-roll on a mobile gaming app, an influencer video promotional on TikTok -- still means different things to different marketers.

What’s the value of that one currency, then?

Think about cost per thousand, cost per click, cost per action, cost per lead, cost per sale, cost per install. Other combinations and permutations? Perhaps cost per eyes-on-the-screen per-engagement, per-actual online or in-store sale. Come up with your special “cost-per."

OK, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Perhaps one currency is too literal. There are many who are thinking about a one-currency system — or what Nielsen One is positioned to be.

The biggest question might be a transition of historical data -- content, pricing metrics -- to whatever this new one currency is.

What happens to low, historical “base” TV networks price points that Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor, AT&T, State Farm have worked on? Does all this makes a transition to a new Nielsen One world? Does all this go away? And there’s the flip side: What happens to those mid-level TV marketers with less-attractive-based TV network price points?

Multiple currency systems could be the answer, according to many experts -- including different currencies per industry.
Go further: A currency for each marketer that wants one.

Still, in the near term, you might ask this question: How much is that national TV advertising spot in a NFL Sunday afternoon game on Fox or CBS?

In an ever-more fractionalized media world, full of more granular data, with regard to marketing, content, attribution and/or pricing points, there will be more complexity.

No rest for the TV and media-data weary. The pursuit will continue as long as people seek an easy tool to measure performance and predict outcomes. That’s the simple story.