It’s been three months since OzTam first released VOZ. Designed to eventually replace the metro overnight figures, VOZ combines Broadcast TV and BVOD audiences into one dataset. So are the new figures having any impact on ad spend?

Key Takeaways

● VOZ is helping agencies to allocate spend but change is slower than expected

● The measurement is particularly useful when it comes to reaching certain demographics

● It is helping to ‘hold’ TV spend with Networks using VOZ and additional software to demonstrate BVOD uptick

Change Is Slower Than Expected

Whilst there is no doubt that VOZ is becoming increasingly involved in conversations around ad spend, change is slow.

So far it’s “not having a major impact on spending decisions,” Chris Walton, managing director at Nunn Media, told B&T.

“This is due to a combination of factors – how viewing currency is split, which demos we are buying, what environmental factors we are focussed on,” he said.

He did add, however, that this is not negative and that he has “no doubt in my mind it will have a bigger impact in time.”

Lorraine Woods, national head of trading at Atomic 212°, agreed – “ we haven’t seen a lot of change yet,”she said.

“We’re working through different demographics that we can target, and we are in discussion with Oztam about streamlining them.”

“We’re still waiting for the third party software suppliers to be certified gold standard. And once that comes through, it definitely will be a game changer. But at this stage, it’s still all for planning & buying purposes”.

Chris Walton, Nunn Media

Having An Impact On The Demos

Despite change being slow, VOZ is helping to improve media allocation as well as the quality of conversations, Woods said.

“We see a lot of benefit of it within our teams particularly with finding out what the optimal spend levels are and where we should be allocating this”.

“It allows us to have better conversations, optimise our campaigns, and try and determine the right budgets that should be allocated to both of those channels based on audience insights”.

Additional software can be a very useful tool when it comes to the broadcast industry using VOZ figures to justify ad spend, Steve Allen, director of strategy and research at Pearman media said.

“We’re buying more and more BVOD and our clients are asking more and more questions about BVOD.”

“We purchase software which allows us to join up broadcast television plus BVOD and see what the whole schedule is. We can see on our campaigns what BVOD is adding in reach and it is a considerable amount, about 12 per cent on average.”

This is only true for schedules with “reasonable” schedules, not “nickels and dimes”.

Streaming Is Often More Popular With Younger Demos

Helping To Hold TV Spend

TV networks have been quick to pick up on the figures, Allen said, adding that the new measurements have been a good way to keep media spend within TV.

“I attended a presentation about six weeks ago where the Seven Network came in and demonstrated the same point”.

“They demonstrated across four or five different target audiences how much BVOD adds in reach and it’s considerable”.

Whilst it isn’t necessarily leading to an increase in TV spend, Allen said, it was certainly helping to “hold” TV spend.

Like Woods, Allen agrees that VOZ can be particularly useful when it comes to trying to efficiently reach a certain demographic.

“We had a client who only spent their money on BVOD. But that was a computer game client. All they wanted was gamers.”

Going to the BVOD channels was “considerably more efficient” because of the “segmentation tools on those platforms”.

“We could basically specifically target viewers who are gamers”.

BVOD can be a great way to target special groups such as gamers

What is the future for VOZ?

Despite the slow progress, buyers are generally hugely positive about VOZ and the impact that it will have on the media industry.

“It’s such a fundamental shift to how we have previously been able to plan and measure television and video audiences. So I think if anything, it’s only going to get better from here,” Woods said.

Walton agreed that VOZ being launched has provided a benchmark that buyers can use to measure the success of BVOD.

May the 1st marked the start of a transition period for the industry to become accustomed to the VOZ data and be ready to transact on VOZ. The goal is for VOZ to become trading currency in the calendar year 2024.

Speaking to B&T, a spokesperson said: we’re in the transition period working across the industry to educate and enable VOZ adoption. Key to this is the in-progress Gold Standard implementation and accreditation activities with the Third-Party Software Suppliers (TPSSes) whose tools facilitate media planning, trading and reporting activities. We’re seeing enthusiasm across the industry to realise the benefits VOZ offers, in particular incremental BVOD Reach as evidenced in our insights here. For instance, the chart below:

Source: OzTam