In Netflix, Disney+ & HBO Max face the question, "What constitutes an impression?", I wrote “there may be real value in the impressions data from [Connected TV (CTV)] streaming; but, that data will have limited upside without the ability to tie it to individuals within households.”

I learned at the Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference earlier this month that there are multiple challenges to tying data to individuals:

• In digital, data can be tied to the subscriber, but is otherwise imprecise;
• Addressability in linear advertising can go national, local, DMA, street, person but otherwise unable to get more granular within household (e.g., who is and isn’t watching the TV set); and,
• Every household has very different purchase behaviors and every person within each household has different purchasing behaviors.

All of these point to the “attribution gap” between (1) where people learn about products, services and brands, (2) which members of the household were impacted by the ad impression, and (3) the mediums where they actually do the shopping and the buying. 

The looming question for CTV is which data advertisers and sellers can agree upon to help build a data story for that attribution gap. The sense is that Nielsen has fallen out of favor, but after the past few weeks, that outcome seems less certain.