Some might view it as a dry subject, but research has propelled itself to the top of the media agenda in recent weeks. First Barb handed its research duties to TNS with a brief to focus on emerging viewing trends such as time-shifted viewing and video-on-demand.
Then out-of-home research body Postar awarded a multimillion-pound contract to Ipsos Mori to roll out measurement tools across all outdoor platforms for the first time.
And now Jicims, the joint industry committee for internet measurement systems, is inching towards a single, online measurement panel, akin to Barb.
The outdoor sector has certainly welcomed the enhanced Postar research with open arms, pointing to the strong growth of the medium in recent years as a driver for change, not least because of the explosion in digital. And since out-of-home is notoriously difficult to measure because it is consumed passively, with no clear-cut editorial environment, any tool that provides more detailed information on how consumers interact with the medium can only be a boon for planners.
Inferior data
Simon Jenkins, strategist at media agency MPG, says the quality of outdoor data at the moment is inferior, relatively to other media.
"Historically, everyone has bought into the fact that Barb is fantastically accurate, so TV often comes out as the dominant medium in an econometric model," he explains. "Current models can under or mis-attribute the value of outdoor, which is a big problem in an age of ROI and accountability."
The new Postar research, which will report its first results in the second half of 2009, will provide a unified currency for audience measurement for a much broader range of out-of-home platforms, now taking into account buses, taxis, rail, retail and leisure, as well as all roadside formats and the London Underground. It will record data drawn from hand-held GPS tracking devices, which monitor consumers' exposure to outdoor advertising.
Steve Hatch, joint managing director of Mediaedge:cia, agrees with Jenkins. He says: "Historically, outdoor measurement had no imperative to change. The methodology was based on static images versus the digital reality, which is fundamentally different. The Postar money is well-spent; outdoor is evolving and it needs the measurement tools to reflect that."
Crucially, the revamped Postar system will integrate with other key industry research systems, such as Target Group Index, which studies consumer groups' preferences, and IPA TouchPoints, which measures consumers' exposure to specific media. An improved version of IPA TouchPoints is due out in July. This notion of integrated research mirrors what many perceive as a move towards integrated media planning, at the expense of specialist agencies.
Gerry McKenna, managing director of football stadium TV network MDM.TV, explains: "Traditional and emerging media channels cannot exist in isolation, so there does need to be a standardisation in the measurement and relevance in values. This will allow brands and advertisers to plan and buy consistently across a plethora of media."
The new online measurement panel conceived by Jicims will, like its outdoor equivalent, integrate with other research tools. Jicims is on the hunt for a sole supplier of an online measurement currency, which it hopes will give online the same accountability as other media.
Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, one of the four Jicims stakeholders alongside the IPA, the AOP and Isba, says: "More and more, brands are demanding a single currency. We can increasingly measure click-throughs, but have to offer more than that to put online on the planning table."
High demand
To observers, online appears not to need a leg-up onto the planning table, given its well-documented growth and soaring ad revenues. But Peter Bowman, general manager of Jicims, insists there are gaps in current research tools. He says: "For all the detailed site-centric research, there isn't user-centric research, such as Barb, which would take panels of users across sites, to find out what types of people use them."
He wants an industry-agreed "stake in the ground" that will sit below agencies' bespoke online planning tools as a basic resource. He also reveals that Jicims is likely to be concerned with boosting understanding of display advertising, which has lagged behind search.
At the heart of the proposed Jicims panel and Postar is a drive for more data, better understanding and, most importantly, accountability. Far from fearing the increased scrutiny of media budgets by procurement directors, agencies welcome the opportunity to plan more effectively.
As MEC's Hatch says: "If the outcome is that we make smarter decisions and clients get better sales, that can only be a good thing."
NEW ONLINE AND OUTDOOR RESEARCH
Postar
- Postar will use GPS technology to track consumers' movements
- Greater coverage of out-of-home media, extended to include buses, rail, taxis, retail and airports, as well as roadside and London Underground
- A bigger sample, trebling from its current base to 20,000 people
- A £10m investment in research and measurement
- The potential to integrate with other research, such as TGI and IPA TouchPoints
Online
- The chosen supplier will play a similar role to that performed by Barb for TV and Postar for outdoor
- The panel will feature a single measurement currency incorporating the number of people visiting.