Fox iSpot measurement deal aims to show if ads actually worked
Fox and iSpot are expanding their ad-measurement deal to give marketers faster data on whether commercials drive purchases and visits.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Fox iSpot measurement partnership is getting a sharper sales pitch: faster answers on whether TV and streaming ads helped drive real-world business results, Variety reported.
Fox and measurement-technology firm iSpot are expanding their long-running relationship to include broader “outcomes” data for advertisers, according to the report. That means information designed to show whether a commercial helped lead to actions such as buying a movie ticket or visiting an auto showroom.
For TV advertisers, that is the gold-star question after the usual audience count. Brands already get regular reports on how many people their spots reach. Fox now wants to give them speedier information on whether those ads nudged consumers toward measurable behavior.
What is Fox measuring with iSpot?
Fox and iSpot are focusing on business outcomes, a category of ad measurement that tries to connect a campaign to consumer actions beyond seeing the spot. In plain English, it asks whether the ad did more than rack up impressions.
Kym Frank, senior vice president of research for Fox Corp., told Variety that brands care about more than impression counts. She said Fox wants to help clients answer whether what they bought “worked,” and use that data to improve media plans and expectations by category.
The expanded arrangement will make the data available across Fox’s advertiser base, iSpot executive vice president of media partnerships Stuart Schwartzapfel told Variety. He said the goal is to get it to more than just the largest buyers, and without making clients wait six weeks after a campaign.
Schwartzapfel also said the data could support national advertisers as well as small and midsize marketers using connected-TV platforms.
Why advertisers want more than ratings
The push comes as marketers keep pressing media companies for proof that ads move the needle. Variety noted that linking commercials to consumer behavior has been a long-running goal for Madison Avenue, and streaming has raised the pressure because viewers can interact more directly with what appears on screen.
Fox has already been moving in that direction. In May, the company introduced a data report for clients that evaluates commercial performance, Variety reported. That report looks at factors including whether ads made consumers more aware of a product, affected purchase consideration, kept viewers engaged and produced other outcomes.
iSpot has become one of the measurement challengers trying to win business as advertisers and networks look beyond traditional TV ratings. Variety reported that iSpot previously worked with NBCUniversal on a system NBC hoped could serve as a strong alternative to Nielsen’s counts.
That NBCUniversal effort met resistance from media-buying agencies that felt they were being pushed toward a vendor selected by NBC, according to Variety. The reaction helped leave room for other measurement providers to compete for attention from networks, agencies and brands.
How long have Fox and iSpot worked together?
Fox and iSpot’s relationship dates to 2015, when Fox began using iSpot’s real-time TV ad measurement across its portfolio, Variety reported.
Since then, the partnership has widened to include creative measurement, audience verification and business outcomes attribution across both linear television and streaming. The new expansion puts the emphasis on faster, broader access to data that tells advertisers whether their ads produced results they can use.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.