media update’s Adam Wakefield explored these topics in depth with Smit.

The theme of cross device and cross-media measurement loomed large in Smit’s address, and that’s because it will provide a clearer picture of how a consumer is exposed to a specific campaign as a whole. From there, it will be possible to deduce where the most impact was made.

“That’s the main benefit of cross-device measurement, and more so these days. People using their own DMPs (data management platforms) are able to do that on their own campaign,” Smit explains.

“For instance, they can track that you have been exposed to my ad on this platform and my ad on a different platform, but that’s only for the use of their own campaign and only in the digital space. Once you get to a cross-media platform, which is the ambition, then you can do full attribution and analysis across all the different types of channels.”

The challenge for South African digital measurement and mobile

When dealing with measurement in South Africa, Smit admits that a large proportion of the population living outside measurable channels is a challenge. The IAB measured around 36 million browsers in 2016, and, even though they take a “high sample” of 300 000 demographic profiles a month, some consumers do fall through the cracks.

“For instance, if they’re only consuming content from a peer-to-peer perspective, we might not necessarily be able to see what type of media they’ve been exposed to, if it’s WhatsApp Chat or whatever it may be,” Smit says.

“There are those constraints. However, I think we do cover a very, very large percentage of South Africa, at least the internet active population and our sample, on the whole, is very representative.”

Mobile plays a critical role, as it is where the majority of demographic profiles are sourced from, “by a huge percentage”.

“With mobile increasing, certain publishers that had a stronger mobile offering are climbing up the overall table, where those who traditionally have more desktop usage are finding it a little more difficult,” Smit says.

“Mobile is playing quite a big role in the shifting dynamic of who the top 100 publishers are in South Africa, but, from a measurement perspective, we do it just the same.”

The future of measurement and purchase data

The “holy grail of measurement”, as described by Smit, would be being able to link purchase data directly to media exposure.

“If someone can say ‘This ad was delivered to this specific consumer over a period of time and then they went and bought your product’, that is exactly what any campaign manager would like to say,” Smit says.

“The reality is purchase data is getting more and more digitised, so even when people are using mobile payment systems, Snapscan, whatever it may be, that data is being collected. The challenge with measurement is almost always less of a technological problem as a political problem.”

The problem Smit refers to is different groups or persons possess important data, one of their greatest assets. They do not necessarily want to share it with others for that reason. However, the solving the political problem means working together and combining those data assets for a fuller picture.

If there is no collaboration, it will be difficult to reach that “holy grail”.

“That’s what we need to get over to get to that point,” Smit says.

An exciting area of measurement that Smit says will 100% become part of the overall measurement mix is the impressions and data produced by both virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.

“It has to be counted. If you’re walking in a virtual reality world and, let’s just say you’re playing FIFA, for instance, and on the boards there are banners of whichever brand, those should be counted as impressions in that perspective,” he says.

“That needs to be combined in the overall digital, digitised media space. It’s definitely going to change things and it’s going to make it very interesting and a little bit more complex in bringing it all together.”

For more information, visit iabsa.net.

Want to find out what went down at the conference? Read more our article, IAB Digital Summit broadens the digital mind.

*Image courtesy of Pilira Mwamba