“Media buyer and seller negotiate inventory price” is a sentence that has about as much charisma as “Dog bites man.” But for those of us in media, we all know #thestruggleisreal. Getting on the same page requires established metrics from which pricing can be developed and performance measured. Seems simple, but it is no easy task in today’s increasingly chaotic media environment.
That’s why we spoke with Gerard Broussard, principal of Pre-Meditated Media. Gerard outlined his thoughts on the need for both a primary and secondary currency to get buyers and sellers on the same page in today’s market. You can listen to his thoughts in full here:
As Gerard says, “TV is probably trying to reinvent itself to look more like digital…and digital wants to be able to look a little bit more like TV as far as being able to sell the currency that is applied to television.”
Many measurement services are creating this combined “digital and TV” market, such as Nielsen (Total Content Ratings) and comScore and Rentrak (combined digital/video ratings). But, for the time being, media professionals will be “living in the two-platform measurement world” according to Gerard.
Survey research has had a wider audience than usual these past few months, given the blowback on panels and surveying. So we asked Gerard for his thoughts on the evolution of measurement techniques. He feels panels will continue to have a role, given the need for a person’s estimate (versus a household estimate).
“…maybe that will form a primary currency, and all these other measurement devices will form the secondary currency that the buyer and seller can use to negotiate the price and value of the inventory,” he said.