Technology Provides Media Measurement Tools

Research vendors and their clients continue to grapple with correlating raw data to survey and panel methodologies, and to weave audience measurements across platforms into a holistic campaign. Even second-by-second data gathered digitally from a census of hundreds of thousands or even millions of television viewers can’t necessarily help discern how persuasive ads are, especially in brand-building campaigns launched over months or even years, explained Jack Myers.  

But clearly, the media and advertising research industry:

• has catapulted itself into the digital age,
• is proactively exploring myriad new research models for both traditional and new media,
• is empowering marketers to test a seemingly limitless array of media opportunities,
• is enabling content owners to track intellectual property across an expanding universe of distribution options,
• and is generating honest hope that John Wanamaker’s infamous criticism of advertising (“Only half my advertising works, but I don't know which half!”) will finally and forever be put to rest.

Today, marketers, media sellers, agencies and content developers find themselves with a wealth of new tools, technologies, systems and techniques that provide reams of useful data generated by digital signals from set-top boxes, DVRs and the Internet. Media and marketing analytics that estimate the contribution of different media options to actual marketplace results have laid the foundation for an emerging group of research companies that use technology to actually connect media consumption patterns to consumer purchase behavior at the individual level.

Ironically, since digital technologies are a primary driving force behind these companies, most of the innovative work is in the television industry while online research remains primarily focused on measurement of impressions and “clicks.” As marketers integrate more campaigns across multiple distribution platforms, they will not only require more sophisticated content tracking techniques, but will demand common measurement tools.

Innovative research initiatives are being developed across the media landscape. In the out-of-home (OOH) medium, the Traffic Audit Bureau will unveil its multi-million dollar “Eyes-On” research in late 2008, promising to deliver sophisticated traffic and demographic data to outdoor and digital out-of-home advertisers.

The magazine industry, spearheaded by the Magazine Publishers of America, is investing heavily in engagement research to prove the value of that medium and validate the relevance of magazine brand equity in a cluttered media landscape. Magazines are also investing extensively in Web site development and are extending their brands to online, video and mobile content. As they adopt the emerging measurement tools for their digital properties, it will be more natural to extend these same tools, when possible, to their print assets. The online industry has incorporated sophisticated behavioral and contextual tracking methodologies into its ad serving processes, enabling media companies and marketers to address banner display ads to audiences pre-qualified based on their past online usage.

Although still primarily a tool for more targeted audience aggregation, the behavioral and contextual techniques being used by the online industry will inevitably be incorporated into video advertising and will eventually be a standard criterion for other digital ad placements. While ad buyers and marketers complain they are not yet close enough to the “Holy Grail” of marketing communications — direct sales data correlated to ad messaging through a single source methodology Æ the industry is clearly actively engaged in advancing toward that goal. “There’s a massive drive to have data that’s actionable and have confidence in the data,” notes Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax.

Myers Publishing's full 25-page report, GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Research Industry Looks Toward New Era in Media Measurement is available at no cost at www.myersreport.com. The report was underwritten by Teletrax. For more information: www.myersreport.com

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