Sarah Hofstetter
President at Comscore

People are watching more content than ever before, but they’re watching on their terms across multiple screens. We spoke to Sarah Hofstetter, President, Comscore, to understand the definition of “attention” and how marketers can truly understand attention in a cross-platform world.

Tell us about your role at Comscore and the team you handle.

I joined Comscore as President in October this year. The biggest focus within my first 100 days is to listen to our employees, our customers and our industry, and develop an enhanced go-to-market strategy to raise the bar for measurement across the industry.

How did you arrive at the idea of launching Comscore Campaign Ratings in beta?

This idea preceded my arrival and was announced a few months before I joined, starting with Bryan Wiener speaking with over 100 customers. The feedback was consistent — the industry is demanding a currency grade solution to plan, transact and evaluate video advertising across TV, OTT, mobile and desktop. CCR was built in direct response to these conversations — addressing real-life customers’ pain points when it comes to cross-platform measurement.

We are exceptionally lucky to have several leading media partners on board for our beta who are highly engaged and excited to collaborate with us, providing ongoing feedback to help us iterate and enhance the solution over time. As a customer-obsessed company, we’re committed to shipping products that meet our partners’ most pressing needs, which means giving the best and brightest minds in media a seat at the table

In 2018, what’s the true definition of “attention”? How can marketers truly understand attention in a cross-platform world?

People are watching more content than ever before, but they’re watching on their terms across multiple screens. This proves to be a challenge for marketers who are trying to gain an accurate and holistic view of their audiences. To truly understand the full ROI of attention, advertisers need unduplicated, cross-platform measurement that also accounts for incremental reach through co-viewing. This is Comscore’s core focus — to give our customers insights across platforms to empower them to make more strategic business decisions throughout the advertising lifecycle.

How does Generation Z disrupt the whole attention-engagement philosophy in cross-media marketing?

The majority of Generation Z grew up in this cross-platform landscape (or at least it’s been most of their consumption experience), so it’s really all that they know. They expect to have the flexibility to consume what they want, when they want it, where they want it. It’s the instant gratification economy — and I expect that to continue to impact all aspects of media. In this environment, it’s all about the consumer and creating seamless, less intrusive and more relevant experiences.

How should businesses harness data to drive better results?

Marketers have access to more data than ever before. Both brands and publishers are collecting their own first-party data, which while valuable in understanding individual customers/audiences, is innately biased when used as a currency. That’s why third-party data is essential to creating a fair marketplace.

While first-party data gives you direct insight into your individual consumers, third-party data helps you to more holistically understand these consumers beyond their interactions with you and to expand your target audience. Even more so, without third-party validation, it’s easy to run into challenges associated with cookie deletion, multi-user devices and stale data, meaning that you may never actually reach the audience that you think you are targeting.

For quality measurement of campaign audiences across platforms, you need deep panel insights and scalable data sources. This multi-sourced approach to demographic validation eliminates bias, reduces errors and provides the most accurate audience insights to drive better business results.

Thanks for chatting with us, Sarah.

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