Paramount Taps iSpot Technology to Measure Consumer Response to Ads

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When Paramount Global sells commercials in this year’s “upfront” ad market, the media won’t only be guaranteeing the size of viewership for different shows.

It may be in a position to do deals based on the audience’s tangible response to particular commercials they have seen. The owner of CBS and Comedy Central will utilize a new product from media-measurement company iSpot that aims to deliver information about so-called business outcomes, or whether consumers react in specific ways to seeing commercials, such as ordering a product or buying a movie ticket.

The iSpot offering, called “Outcomes at Scale,” gives advertisers access to “conversion-rate tracking that enables them to see which programs, day parts and audience segments generate the best response to ad campaigns.” Examining consumer response to commercials, also known as “attribution,” is seen as critical.

As the linear TV audience has dispersed among streaming video and many other methods of consumption, the industry is struggling to count viewers in a way advertisers will support.