IPG Mediabrands launches video ratings across all screens

Launched in Malaysia on a pilot basis, VRPs measure exposure to a plan across four screens: television, PC, mobile and tablet.

The VRP currency was adopted following quantitative research in collaboration with Nielsen. The research was conducted in an experimental setup wherein four panels of demographically matched respondents were exposed to a set of TVCs on one of the four screens. The findings indicated that the performance of the ads run on different screens were at par or better than TV. For example, ads seen on a laptop have 20 per cent higher ability to break through the advertising clutter as compared to those seen on TV.

“If we compare a 100 per cent TV plan with 100 GRPs versus a VRP plan, with 60 per cent budget allocated on TV and 40 per cent budget on laptop screen, the plan provides 8 per cent higher impact on ad recall,” said Prashant Kumar, president of IPG Mediabrands World Markets Asia.

According to Kumar, clients want to move their money from TV to other screens, but can’t find a measurable conduit to allow for relative benchmarking. In the absence of measurable metrics between screens, video plans have not really taken off. “That video mindset is not prevalent because people still operate from a TV mindset or offline-versus-online mindset, and that is why media investments are not moving from TV to online,” he said.  

At present, clients rely on TRPs for TV and the number of views or hits for online videos. Kumar believes that VRPs will kill such silos. 

It is also the final decisive step toward IPG’s plans to dismantle its digital planning and buying departments in an effort to go hybrid, where media planning and buying is not divided as per online and offline. 

"Advertising must evolve for the multiscreen world to help marketers easily reach people with smarter, more relevant ads across all devices," said Sajith Sivanandan, country manager at Google Malaysia. "It is a liberating step forward for the industry.” 

To promote VRPs, IPG Mediabrands is hosting road shows with a host of clients and is already in talks with regional teams of global clients. VRPs will be rolled out in other markets upon successful integration in Malaysia.