Media Matters, But Audiences Matter More

Some decades ago the media agency business decided that they were really communication agencies They were right too No other group is better placed to plan truly integrated campaigns using a mix of advertising experiential PR sponsorships and moreAround the same time agencies decided to adopt an audiencecentric approach to planning In other words build the plan around the audience not around the channel That was smart too you still see trade press releases about this or that online specialist coming to the same conclusion years laterIn terms of media research I recently outlined a blueprint for the future of what I deliberately described as audience measurement featuring a much more prominent leadership role for advertisers At the heart of this is the need for crossmedia measurement funded by a levy on ad expenditure A levy such as the one I propose in that blueprint would secure a longterm funding future for this sort of workWhat I had in mind was not so much quotmedia researchquot as quotaudience measurement and insightquotMedia research implies a focus on the medium and researching the audience for TV or video or online It suggests currencies It narrows the scope of what we should focus on to the buying of space or time It limits possibilities and means that anything that tiptoes outside the currency ropes is a project a oneoff nicetohave amp8212 not an integral part of the businessLook at the work undertaken by media marketing organizations such as ThinkBox or Newsworks While their work is fascinating and very well packaged is it really at the heart of the industry How many agencies truly use Planning for Profit and the principles it espouses daytoday It39s great but not embeddedMedia research is a narrow term which is not to diminish its importance but rather to recognize that there are many issues that cannot be solved by the currencies issues they were never designed to solve in the first placeWhen the current media research frameworks were designed we lived in a far simpler world with ad campaigns still being largely singlemedium As mixedmedia campaigns became more commonplace we learned to finagle the data we had to allow for estimates to be made from elements such as total reach and frequencyIn the UK BMRB as it was then invented the TGI which celebrated its 50th birthday last year a single source measure still widely used today More recently Lynne Robinson at the IPA came up with touchpoints another fine addition to the research stable but with equally obvious limitationsAll of this work amp8212 the currencies the TGI touchpoints amp8212 are built around exposure to the media Yes we can run analyses that allow us to build hypotheses around issues such as attention but we39re torturing the data amp8212 pulling pushing stretching it into shapes for which it was never designedMeanwhile we are struggling to come up with a way that allows us to combine social media data with panels We have so far failed to persuade the platforms to open up their datasets to verification We cannot agree on basic standards and definitionsThese are all areas where advertiser pressure can helpBut we need to be far more ambitious than just agreeing what a viewer isWe need to understand audiences Why do they view or read what they do What motivates them to spend more time on one thing than another What are the key elements that drive loyalty and stickiness What is the impact of context How do consumers39 full panoply of media choices truly work for them in combinationWe know a lot about the media but not much about audiencesWe need true audience measurement and insight amp8212 an acronym that Cog Blog readers of a certain vintage will enjoyDon39t stop now Read more from Brian Jacobs in The Cog BlogClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Media Matters, But Audiences Matter More

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Brian Jacobs

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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Media Matters, But Audiences Matter More

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"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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