NIELSEN TACKLES AUDIO STREAMING MEASUREMENT . . . AGAIN:  Nielsen is making yet another run at audio streaming measurement.  It’s been a while since you heard about their efforts, because quite frankly it’s been a while.  As you may recall in April’16 Nielsen rolled out a test sample of SDK-based stream ratings with the hopes of a fully commercialized roll out in June’16.  But the broadcasters balked at the numbers, claiming they were much lower than their own server-side listening data.  So Nielsen pulled the product off the road map to rejigger it, and now they’re back.  Will this latest attempt, outlined in the attached Inside Radio link, be successful?  It’s anyone’s guess.  But there’s one clue to how this will go down in a quote from Nielsen’s VP of Audio Rob Kass who said “We’re not going to move forward on it without their seal of approval.”  AKA – if the broadcasters don’t like the numbers (because they’re too small), we won’t move forward with streaming measurement.  Sounds like a solid ostrich-head-in-the-sand strategy to me, because streaming really isn’t that relevant to audio listening these days (insert eye roll here).

AD FRAUD, BY THE NUMBERS:  Think programmatic ad fraud is a problem in the United States?  Trying living in Japan.  According to the attached Digiday article in some countries ad fraud can run as high as 80% of all the web impression purchased programmatically.  In the graphic below you can see the US at a relatively “modest” 37% fraud rate, compared to Japan’s 80% (eeek!)  The causes for this fraud are increasingly sophisticated bot schemes like MethBotting and using arbitrage to purchase lower CPM display inventory and then fraudulently resell it as video at a huge CPM markup.  Keep in mind these stats are for Web only (Mobile ad fraud is much lower, so far), and pertains to Programmatic only.  Direct IOs and publisher-direct preferred PMPs are thankfully still above the ad fraud fiasco you’re seeing in these stats.  On the bright side it’s heartening to know that more brands are pushing for human audience verification, which is already helping to clean up the industry.  But in the meantime it might be a good idea to stay away from any web-based programmatic exchanges in Japan.

GOOGLE GETS ITS HARDWARE ON:  In 2001 Apple invented the modern tech product Reveal when it launched the very first iPod.  Since then they’ve used the stage, and some “One more thing . . . “ stagecraft, to hype and then show off their latest and greatest hardware.  Now other tech players are getting into the Reveal game.  Last Wednesday during Advertising Week Amazon announced a slew of new smart devices integrated in their Echo platform.  Not to be outdone, Google is holding a similar media event this week to announce some shiny new toys of their own.  As reported in the attached CNBC link, most of the speculation is around Google’s hardware including two new versions of their Pixel smartphone, a Google Home Mini (think of Amazon’s Echo Dot), a new Chromebook called the Pixelbook, and a new less expensive VR headset.  There’s also buzz around a potential Android Wear Smartwatch upgrade.  Over the past 18 months Google has been getting its clock cleaned (sorry) by Apple in the wearables category, so it will be interesting to see if they play some offense in this sector.  Should be interesting to watch the Connected Device Wars heat up.

Have a great Tuesday guys!