For example if a Brit is in “rude health” it means he or she is in “very good health,” which is not apparent to us American upstarts. The same can be said for advertising.  Reach and frequency are generic terms we use with ease, but measurement systems (including Nielsen, Arbitron and TAB) use complex independent metrics to interpret their meaning.  These systems gauge success within media categories differently, without a Rosetta Stone or a “common key” to create a common denominator.

The amazing success of web and mobile advertising has created a forcing function around metrics. Web and mobile’s advertising rise was made possible because they offered something easier to value and buy than traditional media.  The amount of ad dollars spent on web and mobile has grown from $12 billion in 2005 to almost $60 billion in 2015 according to eMarketer.  That size and the growth rate are a testament to their “digital” media characteristics.  Web and mobile provide vast underlying ad stats, in a common form, that can be easily compared across different ad units and against which value can be attributed. The use of a universal currency, just like in the world of finance, is the foundation for a liquid marketplace that operates with efficiency and establishes true value.  This should be the goal of the entire media industry.

Some traditional media types have benefited from today’s lack of efficiency and transparency (television) while others suffer because of it (out-of-home).  Thus certain traditional media publishers will be slower to adopt “digital” characteristics than others, but all will be compelled to aggregate data and build these tools in order to have access to the ever-increasing digital dollar pools.

There are five characteristics that define “digital” advertising.  In order to be considered “digital” media must (be):

1) Close to the point of purchase — You are only a click or two away from the buy decision.

2) Provide Data with Common Keys — Deep audience statistics that are derived from the publisher’s own assets but supplemented and enhanced with third party sources in order to give greater insights to advertisers about the strength of the publisher’s media.

3) Measured by Simple Metrics — with which advertisers can plan and evaluate a campaign’s success — using hyper accurate impression counts (audience data) sold against a CPM, that can be compared across the many different media categories (from video pre-roll to display to search, billboard, Cinema, TV and radio spots).