Stop Confusing What’s Measurable with What’s Meaningful: The New Rules of Media Accountability

Six takeaways from Verve, iProspect, and ABCS Insights at Advertising Week New York on driving meaningful media outcomes in an AI-powered world.

“What did we get for that?”

It’s the question every marketer knows is coming from the CFO, and the question that kicked off our Advertising Week New York panel, Show Me the Outcome: The New Rules of Media Accountability, where we tackled a critical conversation: what outcomes mean today, how media accountability has evolved, and what brands, agencies, media partners, and measurement providers must do differently to succeed in an AI-driven future.

Moderated by Tom Acquaviva, Chief Revenue Officer at ABCS Insights, the panel featured James Scruby, our VP of Agency Development, and Michelle Snodgrass, Chief Strategy Officer at iProspect US.

We were pleased to take the stage with these two esteemed industry leaders and valuable partners, where together, we challenged longstanding industry conventions and explored how AI-powered intent signals, connected measurement, and greater collaboration can help marketers move beyond proving that media ran to proving that it worked.

According to the panelists, here is what is shaping the next era of media accountability:

1. Proof of Delivery Is Out. Proof of Purchase Is In.

Five years ago, media accountability largely revolved around impressions, reach, frequency, and attention. Today, the conversation has shifted from how media was delivered to what it actually delivered for the business.

As Acquaviva put it, the industry is moving from “proof of delivery” to “proof of purchase.”

That doesn’t mean traditional media metrics no longer matter, it means that all metrics need to connect to business outcomes.

Snodgrass pointed to dentsu’s evolution of its attention economy research into its Brand Reset work, which examines how attention influences brand health and both short- and long-term sales. One important finding: while attention matters, more isn’t always better. Beyond a certain point, additional attention within an ad unit can produce diminishing returns.

The implication for marketers is clear: optimizing for a metric simply because it is measurable doesn’t necessarily translate into better business performance.

At Verve, we’re focused on helping brands collect and connect high-intent consumer signals in their media campaigns, layering on independent outcome measurement to help brands understand not only whether their media reached the right people, but whether it influenced meaningful outcomes.

2. The Messy Middle Just Got a Lot More Interesting.

For years, marketers have had relatively clear visibility into the beginning and end of the consumer journey. Reach and awareness metrics helped measure the top of the funnel, while attribution and sales data provided a view of the bottom.

The middle? Not so much.

Scruby described this as the “unmeasured middle”: the space where consumers explore, evaluate, compare, and narrow their options before making a purchase.

Historically, search data provided a valuable window into this behavior, but generative AI is fundamentally changing the depth of information consumers reveal as they consider their options.

Scruby posed this situation to the panel to emphasize his point: consider the difference between searching for “best midsize SUV” and asking an AI assistant to recommend an electric SUV for a family of six that regularly travels to the mountains, with a $60,000 budget and specific brand preferences.

The latter reveals far more than a search keyword, it provides context about needs, preferences, constraints, and purchase intent.

As Scruby explained, “if your brand’s not showing up at that point, then you’re largely invisible.”

For marketers, these conversational signals create an opportunity to better understand consumers during consideration, when preferences are forming and recommendations can influence the shortlist.

They also expand the opportunity for media partners to translate consumer intent into more relevant media experiences and measurable outcomes.

3. Audience Is Who Someone Is. Intent Is What They Want.

Audience targeting along doesn’t tell the full story.

Two consumers can share the same demographic profile, household income, and geography, and have completely different purchase intentions.

As Scruby explained, “audience is who someone is. Intent is what they’re looking for at that time and in that moment.”

Knowing who a consumer is helps marketers determine who to reach, understanding intent helps determine what message will be relevant, and when.

But, Snodgrass added an important distinction: not every signal is created equal.

Marketers need to look beyond the most obvious category-specific signals and experiment with non-endemic signals that can reveal emerging needs, unexpected behaviors, and new opportunities to connect with consumers.

Just as importantly, those learnings can’t remain isolated within individual campaigns. They need to feed back into the broader planning and optimization process, informing future decisions and helping brands continuously improve their approach.

More data isn’t the advantage. Knowing which signals matter, and what to do with them, is.

4. Measurement Should Be a Steering Wheel, Not a Rearview Mirror.

Traditionally, measurement has functioned like a report card: a retrospective assessment of whether a campaign succeeded, but our panelists argued that in the next era of measurement, it should help determine the next move while the campaign is still running.

Acquaviva challenged the industry to think of measurement as a “steering wheel” rather than simply a post-campaign evaluation.

Scruby reinforced the point: marketers shouldn’t have to wait until a campaign is over to understand whether they’re headed in the right direction.

To illustrate, he highlighted a campaign involving Verve, dentsu, ABCS Insights, a major retailer, and a well-known cookie brand.

During the campaign, add-to-cart activity significantly exceeded expectations, reaching approximately 77,000 against a goal of 32,000.

Those signals indicated strong engagement and provided valuable intelligence for campaign optimization, they weren’t proof of business impact on their own.

Independent measurement from ABCS Insights subsequently validated strong household sales lift and return on ad spend (ROAS).

The example illustrates an important distinction: intent signals help marketers optimize toward outcomes, while independent measurement validates whether those outcomes were achieved.

Snodgrass emphasized that making this work requires a learning agenda and decision-making framework established before a campaign launches.

Teams need to know which signals matter, what actions they’ll take when those signals change, and how they’ll evaluate success.

In other words, measurement can’t just tell marketers what happened, it has to help them inform what happens next.

5. Accountability Is a Team Sport. So Why Are We Keeping Separate Scorecards?

Who owns the outcome?

The brand? The agency? The media partner? The measurement provider?

According to the panel, the answer is everyone, but each has a distinct responsibility.

Scruby outlined a shared accountability model:

• Brands define the business objectives and desired outcomes.
• Agencies establish the strategic framework and learning agenda.
• Media partners deliver quality signals and optimize media performance.
• Independent measurement partners validate the business impact.

Where this model breaks down, Snodgrass explained, is when teams operate in silos, each optimizing toward their own KPIs without a clear connection to the overarching business objective.

The panel also challenged the industry’s tendency to apply separate scorecards to upper- and lower-funnel activity.

Scruby argued, Marketers need to stop treating the upper and lower funnel as separate measurement exercises. He explained that short-term conversion metrics may be faster and easier to measure, but that doesn’t mean they represent the greatest contribution to business growth. Brand-building effects often unfold over longer periods and need to be understood as part of the same connected consumer journey.

Independent, consistent measurement also plays a critical role. When every media partner brings its own methodology and success metrics, comparing performance becomes unnecessarily complicated.

Transparency and interoperability are essential to creating a more unified view, according to Snodgrass.

In summary, shared business objectives require shared accountability, not disconnected KPIs.

6. Stop Measuring What’s Easy. Start Measuring What Matters.

Snodgrass captured one of the industry’s biggest measurement challenges in a single line:

“Stop confusing what can be measured with what is meaningful.”

It’s a distinction that cuts to the heart of modern media accountability.

With an abundance of platforms, dashboards, and optimization tools, marketers can measure more than ever, but the availability of a metric doesn’t automatically make it valuable.

Optimizing toward the wrong KPI can create the appearance of success without delivering the business results that matter.

The solution isn’t necessarily more measurement. It’s better alignment between measurement, media strategy, and business objectives.

Snodgrass shared iProspect’s approach through its Signals, Stories, and Systems philosophy:

• Signals: Identify and leverage the data that enables better decisions.
• Stories: Build meaningful connections with audiences and overcome barriers to action.
• Systems: Connect the capabilities, partners, and processes required to turn insights into outcomes.

For media partners, this framework offers a clear mandate: bring more than inventory or platform-specific performance metrics. Bring intelligence, relevance, transparency, and the ability to work within a connected system.

As AI creates new ways for consumers to discover and evaluate brands, the ability to connect these three elements will become even more important.

The Future of Media Accountability Is Connected, Intelligent, and Outcome-Driven

Looking five years ahead, the panelists predicted that today’s fragmented measurement landscape, and the practice of waiting months to understand campaign performance, could look increasingly outdated.

Scruby predicted that marketers will find it hard to believe they once waited 90 days after a campaign ended to understand whether it performed, or planned media without the rich consumer intent signals emerging from AI-powered conversations.

Snodgrass envisioned an equally significant shift: an industry that moves beyond fragmented measurement toward a more unified view of the consumer journey, where brands, agencies, media partners, and measurement providers work together to drive business outcomes.

At Verve, we believe the opportunity lies in turning rich consumer intent intelligence into media that delivers measurable business outcomes. We believe in a future where capturing and acting on consumer LLM data is critical to success. 

By understanding not just who consumers are, but what they want and when they want it, we can help brands make more informed media decisions and connect their investments to real business impact.

The CFO’s question isn’t going away, but with richer consumer intelligence, smarter optimization, and independent measurement, marketers will be better equipped to answer it with evidence of business impact, not just a report of media activity.

Watch the full Advertising Week New York panel, Show Me the Outcomes: The New Rules of Media Accountability, with Verve’s VP of Agency Development, James Scruby, Tom Acquaviva, Chief Revenue Officer at ABCS Insights, and Michelle Snodgrass, Chief Strategy Officer. at iProspect US here: