MAY 2025 – Build

Joseph Gray AdSphere

Exciting Update: New Beta Build of AdSphere Launches Today!

DRMetrix is proud to announce the release of a new beta version of AdSphere—bringing powerful enhancements to campaign tracking across the nation’s top television markets.

With this update, AdSphere now reports national campaign airings on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX local broadcast affiliates in the top 40 U.S. markets. Additionally, AdSphere now tracks national campaigns appearing in a wide array of syndicated programming across these same local stations. Data for local broadcast and syndication is available going back to Q4, 9/30/24.

For creatives running exclusively in local markets, we encourage clients to upload their spots using DRMetrix’s AVS system. This ensures accurate recognition and tracking. To learn how to register creatives before they air—especially those planned for local-only distribution—please contact us at support@drmetrix.com.

Please note: Because syndicated programming schedules vary by market, ad placements may differ in both day and time. As a result, AdSphere will not be able to map standard ROS dayparts or days of the week for airings reported within syndicated programs across its various reports and pages.

Please note on campaigns buying media in Syndicated Shows, you can include the individual market syndicated airings in airing detail outputs by clicking the box “Include local Broadcast Stations syndicated detections”. By default, the syndicated airings will be reported but not at the individual local affiliate level.

Important Note on Media Type Settings

While subject to change, the initial beta release of AdSphere will default to reporting airings across National, Local, and Syndication. If you prefer to view only National Network data, as in the prior version of AdSphere, simply click the blue “EDIT” button and adjust the new Media Type filter settings.

The Media Type filter is now available on the Home tab, as well as on Advertiser Pages and in other key sections of the platform.

Please note: with the addition of local broadcast and syndicated data, some areas of AdSphere—such as airing detail pages—may take longer to load. To improve performance, you can switch back to National-only reporting at any time.

We’re excited to bring you these powerful new capabilities and look forward to your feedback as you explore the beta. If you encounter any issues or bugs with the new build, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@drmetrix.com

9th Annual AdSphere™ Award Winners Announced

Joseph Gray AdSphere , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

9th Annual AdSphere™ Awards

 Recognize Top Direct-to-Consumer Advertisers in 2024

AbbVie, Progressive, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, E. Mishan & Sons, Great Healthworks, SharkNinja, and LifeLock by Norton among those taking top honors.

SAN DIEGO- (March 17, 2025) – Direct-to-consumer advertisers spent over 21.4 billion on national cable and broadcast networks in 2024 according to DRMetrix, an iSpot company.  To celebrate the industry’s accomplishments, the AdSphere™ Awards will honor the direct-to-consumer industry’s top advertisers and brands.

Awards will be presented to the winners at PDMI EAST 2025, where the leaders in Performance-Driven Marketing will come together in Miami Beach, Florida from April 7-9, 2025.  The AdSphere™ Awards is the first awards program to be inclusive of the entire direct-to-consumer industry with advertisers such as T-Mobile, Columbia Pictures, Chime, Ro, Wayfair.com, University of Phoenix, Sleep Number, The Farmer’s Dog, Trivago, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and many others being honored.

“The AdSphere awards recognize best-of-class advertisers and brands across four industry classifications including brand/direct, lead generation, short-form products, and 28.5-minute infomercials,” said Joseph Gray, founder of the AdSphere Awards and DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company.  “Direct-to-consumer campaigns achieving this level of scale demonstrate consumer popularity and best-in-class creative and media execution.  The AdSphere Awards are the most inclusive award program for the entire direct-to-consumer industry recognizing over 60 honorees including all of our best-of-category award recipients.”

AdSphere monitors a universe of 160+ national networks on a 24/7/365 basis.  In just over nine years, AdSphere has identified over 17,000 direct-to-consumer brands.  In addition to detecting over 900,000 infomercial (28.5 minute) airings, AdSphere has detected over 170 million spots of varying creative lengths up to five minutes in duration.  The awards recognize top brands across a wide range of industry categories representing all facets of the industry.  AdSphere segments campaigns across over 190 major categories and sub-categories. The complete list of AdSphere Award winners is online at www.drmetrix.com/adsphere-awards.html.

About DRMetrix

DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, monitors over 160 national TV networks 24/7/365, tracking direct-to-consumer ads using all creative lengths including spot, 5-min, and long-form which include web addresses, mobile app response, SMS, or toll free numbers.  For more information, please visit www.drmetrix.com.

8th Annual AdSphere™ Award Winners Announced

Joseph Gray AdSphere

8th Annual AdSphere™ Awards

 Recognize Top Direct-to-Consumer Advertisers in 2023

 

AbbVie, Progressive, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, E. Mishan & Sons, Great Healthworks, SharkNinja, and LifeLock by Norton among those taking top honors.

SAN DIEGO- (March 8, 2024) – Direct-to-consumer advertisers spent over 20.3 billion on national cable and broadcast networks in 2023 according to DRMetrix, an iSpot company.  To celebrate the industry’s accomplishments, the AdSphere™ Awards will honor the direct-to-consumer industry’s top advertisers and brands.

Awards will be presented to the winners at PDMI EAST 2024, where the leaders in Performance-Driven Marketing will come together in Miami Beach, Florida from April 8-10, 2024.  The AdSphere™ Awards is the first awards program to be inclusive of the entire direct-to-consumer industry with advertisers such as T-Mobile, Universal Pictures, Chime, Golo, Wayfair.com, University of Phoenix, Consumer Cellular, Sleep Number, Chewy.com, Burger King, and many others being honored.

“The AdSphere awards recognize best-of-class advertisers and brands across four industry classifications including brand/direct, lead generation, short-form products, and 28.5-minute infomercials,” said Joseph Gray, founder of the AdSphere Awards and DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company.  “Direct-to-consumer campaigns achieving this level of scale demonstrate consumer popularity and best-in-class creative and media execution.  The AdSphere Awards are the most inclusive award program for the entire direct-to-consumer industry recognizing over 60 honorees including all of our best-of-category award recipients.”

AdSphere monitors a universe of 140+ national networks on a 24/7/365 basis.  In just over nine years, AdSphere has identified over 17,000 direct-to-consumer brands.  In addition to detecting over 900,000 infomercial (28.5 minute) airings, AdSphere has detected over 170 million spots of varying creative lengths up to five minutes in duration.  The awards recognize top brands across a wide range of industry categories representing all facets of the industry.  AdSphere segments campaigns across over 190 major categories and sub-categories. The complete list of AdSphere Award winners is online at www.drmetrix.com/adsphere-awards.html.

About DRMetrix

DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, monitors over 140 national TV networks 24/7/365, tracking direct-to-consumer ads using all creative lengths including spot, 5-min, and long-form which include web addresses, mobile app response, SMS, or toll free numbers.  For more information, please visit www.drmetrix.com and be sure and download our latest direct-to-consumer industry study!

7th Annual AdSphere™ Award Winners Announced

Joseph Gray AdSphere

7th Annual AdSphere™ Awards

 Recognize Top Direct-to-Consumer Advertisers in 2022

 

AbbVie, Geico, Adaptive Health, CarShield, E. Mishan & Sons, SharkNinja, Luminess Direct, Ideavillage, among those taking top honors.

SAN DIEGO- (March 6, 2023) – Direct-to-consumer advertisers spent over 22 billion on national cable and broadcast networks in 2022 according to DRMetrix, an iSpot company.  To celebrate the industry’s accomplishments, the AdSphere™ Awards will honor the direct-to-consumer industry’s top advertisers and brands.

Awards will be presented to the winners at PDMI EAST 2023, where the leaders in Performance-Driven Marketing will come together in Miami Beach, Florida from March 20-22nd, 2023.  The AdSphere™ Awards is the first awards program to be inclusive of the entire direct-to-consumer industry with advertisers such as T-Mobile, Universal Pictures, Chime, Golo, Wayfair.com, Southern New Hampshire University, Sheex, ZipRecruiter, NortonLifeLock, Consumer Cellular, Sleep Number, and many others being honored.

“The AdSphere awards recognize best-of-class advertisers and brands across four industry classifications including brand/direct, lead generation, short-form products, and 28.5-minute infomercials,” said Joseph Gray, founder of the AdSphere Awards and DRMetrix.  “Direct-to-consumer campaigns achieving this level of scale demonstrate consumer popularity and best-in-class creative and media execution.  The AdSphere Awards are the most inclusive award program for the entire direct-to-consumer industry recognizing nearly 60 honorees including all of our best-of-category award recipients.”

AdSphere monitors a universe of 140+ national networks on a 24/7/365 basis.  In just over nine years, AdSphere has identified over 16,000 direct-to-consumer brands.  In addition to detecting over 800,000 infomercial (28.5 minute) airings, AdSphere has detected over 110 million spots of varying creative lengths up to five minutes in duration.  The awards recognize top brands across a wide range of industry categories representing all facets of the industry.  AdSphere segments campaigns across over 190 major categories and sub-categories. The complete list of AdSphere Award winners is online at www.drmetrix.com/adsphere-awards.html.

About DRMetrix

DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, monitors over 140 national TV networks 24/7/365, tracking direct-to-consumer ads using all creative lengths including spot, 5-min, and long-form which include web addresses, mobile app response, SMS, or toll free numbers.  For more information, please visit www.drmetrix.com and be sure and download our latest direct-to-consumer industry study!

January 2023 – Build

Joseph Gray AdSphere

Happy New Year everyone! We are excited to finally release our latest AdSphere build. We’ve added “QR Code” under response types which allows one to filter for these types of campaigns.

When testing the use of QR codes, marketers are able to add or remove them from creatives on the fly. For this reason, DRMetrix had to build a solution that would audit for the presence of a QR code at the airing level. Because DRMetrix is monitoring networks in SD (standard definition), the accuracy of our QR code reader will improve later this year when DRMetrix switches to HD (high definition) monitoring. In the interim, there will be some airings where a QR code is present but not necessarily detected. To insure that all reported QR code airings are of the highest confidence, DRMetrix will only report airings where both a QR code is detected as well as the encoded URL.

The goal in this early phase, is to provide a conservative estimate of airings and spend where DRMetrix has detected the presence of QR codes with a high level of confidence. It was also important to implement a solution where one could playback the QR code version of a creative. To accomplish this, DRMetrix began saving the most recent QR code version of each creative. For older QR code creatives, that were discontinued before this feature was implemented, DRMetrix will not have video playback of the QR code version of the creative. Instead, the system may only be able to playback a version of the creative without the QR code. That said, users will be able to use DRMetrix’s airing level video thumbnails to see the QR code implementation in many cases.

For questions, or to report any bugs, please email support@drmetrix.com.

Tracking of QR Codes in TV Advertising

Joseph Gray AdSphere

Over the past year, there’s been a lot of industry buzz around the use of QR codes in direct-to-consumer and direct response advertising.

Thanks to Covid-19, the use of QR codes was popularized by the restaurant industry for accessing menus. This has helped to create mass consumer awareness of QR codes and how they work. Both iPhone and Android devices have integrated QR code readers into their native camera apps further popularizing the use of QR codes.

The rich data that can be included within the QR code can serve many purposes including tracking which TV network and specific creatives consumers are responding to. QR codes are great for tracking digital activity and also provide advertisers with a novel way to engage consumers. Over the years, there have been far less elegant solutions used such as visible codes appended at the beginning or the end of a URL. Examples include: www.brand.com/TV1, www.brand.com/TV2, 1brand.com, 2brand.com, etc. Advertisers using this approach have struggled with various problems. For example, consumers would often ignore the appended codes. Also, many advertisers feel that messing with the visible URL dilutes brand awareness. In comparison with such approaches, the QR code is arguably a more elegant and versatile solution.

The team at DRMetrix has been working to be able to detect when QR codes are used in television ads and to be able to extract and report the data contained within the QR code at the airing level. This supports the use of differing QR codes running on the same network / creative where additional segmentation is required.

We are excited to announce that this capability has been integrated into DRMetrix’s Airing Verification Service (AVS) system. A new “QR Code” field can be enabled in any AVS output or pulled via API.

DRMetrix has also added a new response type filter for “QR Code” in AdSphere which will allow subscribers to better understand the use cases and growth of QR codes. At the time of this writing, 374 creatives using QR codes have been identified across the 140+ networks monitored by DRMetrix. To provide some context, that is roughly 2% of traditional direct response airings including long form 28.5m infomercials.

For more information on our new QR Code filter in AdSphere, please click here.



September 2022 – Build

Joseph Gray AdSphere

Today we released a new build of AdSphere that includes a new response filter “No Response” under which we will include creatives for certain DTC brands that may have dropped use of a dot com address in their creatives. Think of dot com brands that have become household names such as Chewy, Amazon, Geico, Instacart, Wayfair and many others. Eventually these brands are able to drive online traffic without having to include a web address in their TV commercials.

By default, such creatives will be included in AdSphere despite not having a visible web address thanks to the new “No Response” filter type as shown below.

This will primarily impact campaigns with the brand classification of “brand/DR”. One can remove these types of creatives, and associated units and spend, by toggling response type to “At Least” and unchecking “No Response”. Or, if you want to checkout all of the new creatives in the system that meet the criteria of “No Response” change the response type selector to ONLY and only select “No Response”.

As a new build, we’re on the lookout for any issues/problems! Should you encounter any, please email support@drmetrix.com

6th Annual AdSphere™ Award Winners Announced

Joseph Gray AdSphere

6th Annual AdSphere™ Awards

 Recognize Top Direct-to-Consumer Advertisers in 2021

AbbVie, Geico, CarShield, E. Mishan & Sons, SharkNinja, Beachbody, Luminess Direct, Ideavillage, among those taking top honors.

SAN DIEGO- (February 28, 2022) – Direct-to-consumer advertisers spent over 20.2 billion on national cable and broadcast networks in 2021 according to DRMetrix, an iSpot company.  To celebrate the industry’s accomplishments, the AdSphere™ Awards will honor the direct-to-consumer industry’s top advertisers and brands.

The awards presentation will take place at PDMI EAST 2022, where the leaders in Performance-Driven Marketing will come together in Miami Beach, Florida from March 13-15th, 2022.  The AdSphere™ Awards is the first awards program to be inclusive of the entire direct-to-consumer industry with advertisers such as Amazon, Samsung, Southern New Hampshire University, Consumer Cellular, Zip Recruiter, NortonLifeLock, Wayfair.com, Chewy.com, Quicken Loans, PetSmart, and many others being honored.

“The AdSphere awards recognize best-of-class advertisers and brands across four industry classifications including brand/direct, lead generation, short-form products, and 28.5-minute infomercials,” said Joseph Gray, founder of the AdSphere Awards and DRMetrix.  “Direct-to-consumer campaigns achieving this level of scale demonstrate consumer popularity and best-in-class creative and media execution.  The AdSphere Awards are the most inclusive award program for the entire direct-to-consumer industry recognizing nearly 70 honorees including all of our best-of-category award recipients.”

AdSphere monitors a universe of 130+ national networks on a 24/7/365 basis.  In just over eight years, AdSphere has identified over 14,000 direct-to-consumer brands.  In addition to detecting over 700,000 infomercial (28.5 minute) airings, AdSphere has detected over 90 million spots of varying creative lengths up to five minutes in duration.  The awards recognize top brands across a wide range of industry categories representing all facets of the industry.  AdSphere segments campaigns across over 190 major categories and sub-categories. The complete list of AdSphere Award winners is online at www.drmetrix.com/adsphere-awards.html.

About DRMetrix

DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, monitors over 130 national TV networks 24/7/365, tracking direct-to-consumer ads using all creative lengths including spot, 5-min, and long-form which include web addresses, mobile app response, SMS, or toll free numbers.  For more information, please visit www.drmetrix.com and be sure and download our latest direct-to-consumer industry study!

Exciting New Developments

Joseph Gray AdSphere

Dear Clients,

Since iSpot.tv acquired DRMetrix in October of 2021, we have been working together to improve the accuracy of DRMetrix’s automated content recognition (ACR) which is the core technology that tracks TV ad occurrences. As a result of this collaboration, we are pleased to announce that DRMetrix has migrated to its new ACR backend technology powered by iSpot.tv!

Media Week 8 (Week of 2/14/22) marks the first full week running on our new ACR technology platform and we are really excited about the improvements that have been made.

The team at iSpot.tv has been amazing and they have worked very hard to accommodate the unique needs of DRMetrix, and the direct response industry, including the development of 28.5 minute infomercial detection, airing level videos, video thumbnail images, and so much more.

We are looking forward to building upon this new technology framework to bring a number of industry firsts to market. To begin, over the course of the next few weeks, we will begin expanding the number of networks monitored and, later this year, we will begin tracking ad occurrences across ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates in the top 27 markets.

We are grateful for the support of our clients during this transitional period and we look forward to bringing many new innovative capabilities to the DRMetrix platform.

Please stay tuned for more exciting announcements!

iSpot Acquires DRMetrix To Bolster DTC, Direct Response Offerings and Addressable Advertising Capabilities

Joseph Gray AdSphere , , , , ,

BELLEVUE — Oct. 11th, 2021 — iSpot.tv, the real-time platform for measuring the business and brand impact of cross-platform TV advertising, today announced the acquisition of DRMetrix, a real-time TV ad measurement company specializing in products for direct-to-consumer and direct-response TV advertisers. 

The deal expands iSpot’s measurement of emerging formats for addressable advertising and enhances its ability to track rotating calls-to-actions, including website URLs, SMS and toll-free numbers. This capability — coupled with iSpot’s ability to track distinct creatives at scale and correlate ad exposures to conversion events such as digital actions and in-store traffic — gives brands of all sizes the expanded ability to measure the business impact of complex and dynamic ad buys across platforms. 

“iSpot is constantly investing in the development and acquisition of technologies required to accurately measure the TV advertising of tomorrow,” says Sean Muller, founder and CEO of iSpot. “DRMetrix has developed unique and real-time measurement capabilities around creative versioning and dynamic advertising that will become increasingly important as the TV ad market evolves.” 

DRMetrix’s AdSphere™ developed a measurement system for monitoring all TV ad formats and executions including those delivered via digital program insertion (DPI) ad breaks. The DPI measurement capabilities allow precise identification of ad creatives that are sold by the cable networks as “cover-ups,” which MVPDs inconsistently overlay with their own inventories. 

This inventory, which includes addressable and local advertising, creates a continuous blind spot for networks, agencies and brands. The cover-ups are a favorite means for DTC and DR advertisers to invest in and test television, as they often come at a heavy discount. But both the buy and sell side struggle to accurately quantify the performance and value of this inventory because, until the combination of DRMetrix and iSpot, they could not be measured precisely at scale. 

“We developed a unique system for accurately measuring one of the most dynamic and difficult portions of TV advertising, and we amassed a client base that represents a growing and important part of the TV ecosystem,” says Joseph Gray, founder/CEO of DRMetrix. “In iSpot, we’ve found a home for our innovations to thrive and a vehicle to accelerate our shared goals of making all TV ad measurement more transparent, more actionable and easier.”

The combined capability will also create cost savings for advertisers that traditionally rely on spike analysis, rotating phone numbers and links as the primary means for attribution.

DRMetrix serves 120 brands, networks and agencies, growing iSpot’s customer footprint to more than 450 annual brand subscriptions representing 60%+ of brands in the Ad Age 100 and 95% of TV networks in North America. This is iSpot’s second acquisition of a real-time ad measurement company. It acquired Ace Metrix in January to combine business and brand impact using Ace’s comprehensive qualitative approach to measurement and scoring of creative performance. 

About iSpot

iSpot.tv is the market leader in real-time cross-platform TV ad measurement and attribution. The company’s always-on platform measures the business impact and brand impact of TV advertising and offers fast, accurate and actionable information that empowers brands to justify and optimize TV and video investments.

iSpot persistently measures TV-device impressions and second-by-second attention for all TV ads in a unified manner across linear, time-shifted, VOD and streaming environments. iSpot’s Ace Metrix product measures brand perceptions for TV and video creatives using rapid qualitative panels, and its market-leading attribution solution enables advertisers and TV networks to plan, optimize and transact on business outcomes. 

iSpot delivers its solution in real time via intuitive and modern dashboards as well as APIs and customized analytics. iSpot.tv has hundreds of brands and all major TV networks licensing its enterprise solution and has become a trusted currency for both networks and brands. Founded in Bellevue, Washington in 2013, iSpot has offices in major cities across America.