Measury - a simple solution to monitor multimedia usage
BY Iliyan Stoychev
The fast-evolving cross-media consumption creates great new opportunities for content makers and advertisers alike. However, there is still one major problem which prevents the industry from fully exploiting the full range of solutions and that is the problem of measuring the usage on different devices and platforms. The start-up Measury Inc. claims to have found a simple solution. Anguel Nakov, CFO and Head of US Operations, tells Iliyan Stoychev why their approach could make a difference.
Anguel, what is and who is behind Measury and what are you measuring?
Measury Inc. is a technology startup made up of highly dedicated professionals with extensive experience in media and audience measurement, gained both in the EU and US markets. Within our core team, we have a few high-caliber media executives, an engineer with extensive experience in developing new technologies, and myself, the numbers’ guy who makes sure that it all makes sense financially.

Our goal is to introduce a new generation of cross-media measurement technologies that will track the consumption on all screens in a single panel and database while providing all market stakeholders with accurate granular data continuously.

What is the biggest challenge in audience measurement in the current complex media consumption environment?
Delivering content across multiple devices has existed for quite some time, and providing the full picture in a single source panel appears to be the biggest problem. Currently, the industry uses a mix of registration methods along with technologies that pose considerable limitations, imposing various trade-offs to the data suppliers and users with regards to quality and consistency of the information. In addition, no one is able to make these methods and technologies to collaborate in a single source and to produce consistent and accurate data.

I can give you some examples.

Linear TV consumption is still measured with a method developed in the middle of the previous century, creating large gaps between actual and measured behavior. Panelists have to actively register their viewing behavior and this deteriorates the accuracy of the information.

Audio matching, which is now widely applied by the measurement industry and is one of the technologies used for cross-media measurement, has flaws as proper registration of all consumption requires each panelist to carry a smartphone all the time, which by the way also requires active participation from the panelists.

Measurement companies use various techniques in their desire to produce single source cross measurement data. One way is to develop and run several separate panels: TV panel, online panels including desktop panel, mobile devices panel, etc. This approach, however, requires statistical modeling techniques to be applied to gather the data from separate panels. Another solution is to build a single panel where panelists are registering their behavior actively on every single device, leading to poor accuracy of the final data, high churn rates, and so on.

What exactly is the technology of Measury Inc. and how does it work? How is your proposition different from everything else on the market?
Our technology and methods are unlike anything currently employed. We approached the challenge from a different and simpler prospective and developed a system that measures content consumption based on a single source panel, using one technology to cover all multi-screen and multi-device viewing.

Our product takes a viewer-centric approach and is designed to work with any existing panel measurement system. Any company can easily incorporate our technology and methods into their existing panel, and only adjust their sample in order to ensure representativeness for both linear and nonlinear consumption.

We focus on the user devices where the media consumption occurs – from TV sets and multi-media projectors, to laptops, tablets and smartphones, and even car radio systems are objects that we monitor. Each device in every panel household gets an identification marker, which communicates on a second by second basis, using existing connectivity protocols with our wearable personal meters. Each meter seamlessly tracks the exposure of the subject to any of the devices where media consumption happens, regardless if it is used for linear or non-linear purpose, irrespective of the platform and the place of actual consumption.

This is how we solve two important challenges. First, we have a single source panel for the entire consumption, covering not only all screens and platforms, but also all content forms - not only audio based. And second, we do that in an absolutely passive for the panelists way.

Complete passiveness of our solution is a very important feature. Our technology does not require any interaction of the panel members neither with our technology nor with the consumer devices where the content usage happens. With less subject interaction comes higher reliability and uncompromised data integrity. Our solution is also completely passive for the broadcasters and content producers as well – no input on their part is required, as there is no need for encoding of the content or implementing tracking tags into it.
Lastly, because the measurement happens within a single panel and all information is being recorded in a single synchronized database, we avoid the use of statistical modeling and profile matching in gathering the data as the use of separate panels is completely eliminated.

Have you already received feedback on your technology from the industry? What are the first reactions?
Currently, we cannot announce anything publicly, but we are discussing various options to make fieldwork tests within the network of one of the largest global media agencies. We are hopeful that this will further validate our approach and will allow us to bring about a positive industry change and to ‘future proof’ the audience measurement landscape for the years to come. The initial reactions are encouraging and we are looking forward to the validating phase of this project.

Who are the target customers of your technology?
Our solution will benefit many industry participants – TV networks, digital native media, and content producers, as well as advertisers and media agencies. Consistent data and improved accuracy will allow all media players to count the real performance of their content across all screens and to implement more effective content development strategies and to improve content utilization. Advertisers and media planners will have a complete picture receiving accurate and comprehensive data and trusted audience numbers, which will help them to maintain more efficient media planning and buying processes, and will provide them with a tool to better calibrate their media spending.

Which are the next steps for Measury Inc.?
So far, we developed a working prototype and we are building our IP portfolio. We continue with our development plan while searching for collaboration with interested parties. Our roadmap includes development of other technical capabilities, which we believe will provide media and advertisers with additional functionalities within our technological framework and will be of even greater use for them. ▪
ANGUEL NAKOV is the CFO/Head of US Operations at Measury Inc. Prior to that Mr. Nakov spent over 20 years with startup companies, ranging from real estate and manufacturing to biotechnology and digital and broadcast media. He earned his degree magna cum laude in Business and Management from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and an MBA form Hood College in Frederick, MD.
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