The media landscape isn’t just shifting - it’s transforming and evolving in real time. Advertisers can no longer rely on a single, one-size-fits-all currency. They need measurement systems that can adapt to the new realities of today’s fluid, fragmented, ecosystem.
That’s the premise behind Comscore’s Currency Series, a four-part podcast collaboration with The Advertising Forum, hosted by Marketecture Media’s Jeremy Bloom and AdtechGod. Across these episodes, leaders from Dentsu, Comcast, Ford, Mediaocean, and Comscore dig into what’s working, what’s not, and what’s needed to in order to keep up with an industry moving with the same velocity and unpredictability of a TikTok trend.
Breaking Free from the Old Model
In a world where every impression is counted differently, we have to look beyond the days of being locked into a single currency for a full buying cycle and instead embrace flexibility combined with tech as the logical path forward - it’s like making the leap from the flip phone to an iPhone.
As I shared in the episode ‘Rethinking Currency In Digital Advertising’, you actually have the freedom to optimize specific buys and better understand your audience. The days of a single, static view of media are behind us.
As with any advancement, freedom comes with friction. Juggling multiple systems without a clear, universal standard presents a swath of new challenges, as stated by Cara Lewis, Chief Investment and Activation Officer at Dentsu in ‘Navigating Media Planning with Client-Centric Strategies’:
“Most platforms only offer one data source or one currency, and we need that to evolve.”
What Even Counts as Currency? It Depends.
Currency used to be simple: count impressions, collect cash, repeat. Now, it’s a full-blown identity crisis.
“Currency is the act of counting impressions—what people actually pay for,” said Karen Babcock, VP of Advertising Strategy and Partnerships at Comcast Advertising during ‘Propelling Advertising Currency into a Bold New Era’.. While this is what most of us would consider the most logical definition, others see a much more complex equation laying below the surface.
“All currency is measurement, but not all measurement is currency,” noted Drew Kane, Chief Transformation Officer at Mediaocean. “It’s not just the data. It’s the people, process, and technology working together.”
From the brand side, it’s even trickier where “every channel and every KPI needs to be optimized for the outcome you’re chasing,” said Molly Seymour, Campaign Measurement Manager at Ford. Auto manufacturers don’t create a single car model for a universal audience, therefore “the dashboard differs by the vehicle” and the audiences they are targeting.
To continue the conversation with me about breaking free from the old currency model, get in touch here.