Trust in measurement is the backbone of the ad industry, Jackelyn Keller says

The saying “Don’t grade your own homework” is prevalent in advertising. With black boxes like Facebook expecting ad buyers to simply trust them, measurement gurus like Jackelyn Keller believe there needs to be trusted measurement based on transparent results.

Keller has worked across the map — from Turner, Univision, The Atlantic, People and Samsung to Comscore. She spoke with The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik about who to trust, the changing form of measurement in TV and streaming and Taylor Swift.

I’m going to ask you a question that I think is surprisingly controversial. And it is: How do you define currency?

The good old currency question. This is really good because — with the growth of CTV and programmatic — I think the question has existed for a couple of years now. Even when I was at Samsung Ads, we were like, why are the dollars not following the eyeballs during the upfront buying season?

And going back to how old habits die hard, I think in traditional TV measurement there is accredited currency. And a lot of media buyers have been buying with this accredited currency.

We need [a] bridge to get us from what we’ve known, with traditional linear pipes not going away. I believe local broadcast is going strong and will continue to. It kind of serves a purpose just for everyone across America — getting that news that they need. But then [we] also [need to be] able to take that dollar and exchange it for something that makes sense in the programmatic ecosystem.

With so many different channels, different modes of currency, different ways of measurement — how can brands trust what is getting resolved? Is there a way for us to all circle the wagons and agree on what is true, what is working?

That is where that trust of having measurement partners that do not have ad models is really important. Because at the end of the day, in the era of digital, everyone has their own data. It’s first-party data.

I worked at Samsung Ads. We had our own deterministic data. All of these streaming apps, Netflix, everybody has their own data.

It’s different between having your own data and grading your own homework. And it might be accurate, but having that trusted partner who is not incentivized to say this is what happened.

That is really important, that the nuance is different, because there are not a lot of partners that have currency, that have data and have that trusted currency to say, “OK, this is the campaign. It did run during this program, during this episode. This is actually what happened. You need that for a healthy ecosystem.”

And that gets down to the sturdiness of the data as well as the level of objectivity.

I think we’re saying, “At 6 o’clock, do you know where your kid is?” It’s like, “Do you know where your ad ran?” I think that’s actually, like, a concern for many brands. How are they supposed to trust these platforms when it almost feels like a black box?

Last thing I have for you, I have five rapid-fire questions. Aisle or window seat?

Oh, definitely window seat.

New York or LA?

It depends on the context. I talk a lot about creative alchemy. I know this is supposed to be rapid fire, but like the creative passion that’s in California, in Austin — you can’t not have that. I love that so much. And I feel like New York, there’s the spark of inspiration, and you’re going to get stuff done.

Tortured Poets Department or The Life of a Showgirl?

Tortured Poets Department. I saw her live in Amsterdam with that, and it was amazing.