HbbTV and metrics: an exciting way!

The HbbTV phenomenon is growing with unusual strength and is changing the Spanish audiovisual landscape. The chains and cable operators are adapting the metrics commonly used to more reliably collect the true impacts on the viewer.

In the project “New Forms of Interactive Advertising on Television, Internet and Digital Media. Real Applications on HbbTV”, supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and from the research projects entitled “Innovative Systems of Monetization of Digital Journalism" (SIMPED) and “Production systems of Spanish digital journalism in the international context and impact of broadband”, with the support of the Generalitat of Catalonia and various universities, it is observed that communication professionals consider in 81.71% that the flow of data obtained by the recipient's visit must be measured in an integrated way. On the other hand, 17.14% did not support this option.

The metrics that are considered relevant to measure the activity of the HbbTV audience are diverse, inspired by those used on the Internet. That fact is accompanied by hybrid logic. The Click Through Rate (CTR), the Cost per Click (CPC), the Cost per Lead (CPL, that is, the cost of getting a new entry in the database of the chain or the advertiser), the CPA (Cost per Acquisition, which means, the cost of getting a purchase through the ad using the HbbTV) and the CVV (Committed Visitor Volume, the volume of visits committed, that is, those that are above the threshold of time that the advertiser considers essential to reliably transmit the message to the final consumer) are positively rated on a Likert scale of 1 to 5.
The CVV is especially relevant for the audiovisual service of cable operators, since it involves visits with a length of stay above what the advertiser or the chain considers sufficient to guarantee a quality experience, which allows the viewer to interpret properly the message and the advertiser transmit it according to their canons. Hence the relevance for operators to carry out a longitudinal follow-up of that parameter.

We can affirm that the metrics considered with the highest scores are the most basic (the CTR, which on the Internet obtains results that fluctuate between 0.1 and 0.5%) and the deepest from the qualitative point of view (the CVV).
The CTR analyzes the clicks obtained between CTA impressions (Call to Action) of HbbTV on the screen. This, together with the Cost per Thousand Impressions, is located in an epidermal zone in the relationship with the user. From there, the following metrics increase the depth of the conversion, which causes greater ignorance by users. The idea is not to directly associate sales with an HbbTV campaign, since interactive ads are in an incipient phase and giving them excessive pragmatism could adulterate the future relationship with the customer. For the chains, the advertising companies and the media agencies, it is about getting used to the audience to dialogue with the brands, with some seductive hook and a starter intangibility.
That is why a good part of the first advertising campaigns through HbbTV consist of searching for the lead (that is, the entry in the database) of the client (for example, the CaixaBank campaign in DMax) or offering coupons or specialized offers (Burger King in Germany). In this way, the viewer feels in a not so materialistic environment.
With reference to old metrics such as GRP (Gross Rating Point), which measures range by frequency and provides a figure that must be interpreted (taking into account the range or frequency ratio), the valuation is modest. The perception is that the GRP cannot pick up the user's route when accessing the Internet, especially in a more holistic cross media context.
In digital marketing, the number of customers tends to be sacrificed for the sake of quality, measured in terms of the duration of the visit. Along these lines, interactivity facilitates engagement and revitalizes the value of television service, underlying the birth of cable telecommunication networks.
The old metrics (GRP) are skipped to the new ones (CVV), of a more intangible nature and with a view to sealing a high user permanence and a longer-lasting relationship with the brand. That is why in the sector it is considered that the permanence in the advertisement must add the second television and Internet. But this should not be so for the purposes of the legal limits of advertising insertions per hour, which would harm one of the main advantages of HbbTV. Thus, if a viewer is seduced by an advertisement in television code, and extends it in Internet key, the sum should not be taken into account for the purposes of time limits for advertisers.
With 15% of homes fully adapted to HbbTV, the advertising exploitation follows different models. There are options such as sponsorship of the web connection button, self-promotions, static, dynamic and interactive skirts or hypersegmentation (geographical, by devices, by language or by time). Successful campaigns have achieved CTR of 8.5%, greatly above the usual figures on the Internet, often below 1%. A Letsbonus campaign obtained a 2.48% click-through rate and at the time it was considered a high figure, with which the percentages of the HbbTV are especially seductive for all the actors in the value chain.
Another issue to discuss is the frequency capping of the ads, that is, how often they are offered to the viewer. The goal is to show the ad in a balanced amount, without saturating the receiver. It occurs as in the publications of operators in social networks, whose frequency is dosed, to avoid saturating the end customer. In general, between five and eight exposures are the viewer's tolerance threshold, which could be annoying in case of more insistence. For operators, incorporating this list of metrics is a decision that gives them a differential competitive factor and, above all, in the long term, data to improve the subscriber's experience. The relationship between HbbTV and metrics implicates and exciting way.
We analyze HbbTV in this blog, in Research Group about Digital Journalism and Marketing and Broadband and in Research Group on Innovative Monetization Systems of Digital Journalism, Marketing and Tourism (SIMPED), from CECABLE,  Escola Universitària Mediterrani of UdG, UPF and Blanquerna-URL, in Twitter (@CECABLEresearch), Google+, in the group of LinkedIn, in the page of LinkedIn, in the group of Facebook, in Instagram (CECABLE), in Pinterest and in this blog. We will go in deep in the DMTforum-Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (2025).