Happy Valentines Day! We regret to inform that a bug was introduced with our recent QR code build that was remedied today. The issue caused AdSphere to under report airings for certain brands that may have incorporated a QR code in their creatives. With default filter settings, all airings should now be properly reflected for current and prior weeks in AdSphere. To report any discovered issues, please email support@drmetrix.com
Author: Joseph Gray
January 2023 – Build
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.
System Status – 10/31/22
AdSphere went down around 5:30A PST this morning due to a power related issue. We’re working on bringing our systems back online. No firm ETA as of now but we’ll post updates here. Sorry for the inconvenience and happy Halloween!
11:49AM – Some systems are back online and it appears AdSphere is up and running. That said, our platform is not running at 100% and there are issues with report generation. We hope to have everything back to normal by tomorrow AM if not sooner. There’s still a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We apologize for the inconvenience!
Tracking of QR Codes in TV Advertising
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.
Delayed reports
Due to a technical issue, reports that would ordinarily be delivered on Monday, September 19 will be delayed 24 hours and will be delivered on Tuesday, September 20th.
We apologize for this inconvenience
September 2022 – Build
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
System Status – 5/2/2022
We are having issues with playback of airing level videos and thumbnails today. The wrong files are being played back in many instances. We expect this issue will be resolved in 48 hours or less.
There is also an issue with extra short form spot detections during infomercial blocks that will be fixed momentarily.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
5/4/22 Update – Fix was pushed to production for airing level videos yesterday. Also, we have removed all of the erroneous short form detections that creep into our data during infomercial time blocks. Please email support@drmetrix.com if you encounter any issues!
6th Annual AdSphere™ Award Winners Announced
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
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!
System Status – 12/24/21
DRMetrix will be performing scheduled maintenance starting at 6PM EST on 12/24/21 through 6pm EST on 12/26/21. During this time some features and data may not be available. Warm holiday wishes for the remainder of the season!