If you are
seriously interested in research and the use of data in media, you need to
attend the annual ARF conference which took place this week in New York City.
This year, presenters from a range of companies offered ground breaking
insights into how media can best be measured across platforms, how creative can
be fine-tuned neurologically and how individual platforms such as mobile can
enhance measurement techniques and add to our knowledge of how consumes behave.
“Studies
have shown that 70% of the impact of a campaign is due to the quality of the
creative,” explained Jasper Snyder, EVP Research & Innovation for the ARF.
“So as well as showcasing key approaches in measuring cross-platform media
consumption, this year's Annual Conference highlights today's leaders in
brand-building across new, traditional and reinvented platforms - including
insights on the six ways to create great mobile advertising,” he added.
The highlights
were summed up by Jed Meyer EVP, Corporate Research, Univision Communications.
”There are many changes in our industry,” he said. ”And we need to rise to the
occasion to meet this disruption. We are looking at the data industry to help us
adjust and we are seeing the importance of creating relevant content.”
Data is the Center of the Universe But …
Data has
become vitally important in all aspects of media from buying to selling. But
not all data is relevant and not all methodology is sound. “We are awash in
data,” warned ARF CEO, Scott McDonald. “Every member company of the ARF is
struggling as to how to manage their data and intellectual assets. We are tentative
and hesitant as to how to integrate data sources. There are methodological
problems, whether they can deliver usable results,” he added.
Wendy Clarke, CEO, DDB North America explained, “Today’s
currency is speed. Are agencies keeping pace? Our approach is to be as dynamic
as the marketplace. The days of the fixed model are over.” And that is where
data comes in. “Data is not a proxy for decision making,” she noted, “But used
correctly data can be used to fuel insights and correct decisions.” She also
warned, “Data can kill creativity when used in the wrong way and wrong time, but
used in the correct way it can enable creativity.”
Agencies Are Undergoing Transformative
Change
“Agencies get it,” stated Clarke. “Our jobs are to manage
the present and invent the future. It is incredibly difficult to do that
exceptionally well.” According to Clarke, this change has to be holistic, using
data at the core and offering the ability to capture consumers' "micro
moments, macro stories and mega events."
To meet this transformative change, DDB looked at their
client’s consumers in a new way. With State Farm, for example, the messaging
went from reactive (State Farm is there to help you when things go wrong) to
proactive (State Farm is here to help your life go right). “This was driven by
deep research analytics and insights and developed into a category breaking
idea,” she noted.
For McDonalds, “We built an entirely new agency; not for McDonalds
but for people who wanted to go to McDonalds. We started with research to
unleash creativity. Data science sits physically in the center of the agency,”
she explained.
Media Companies Look Toward ROAS
No sector of
the industry can afford to remain complacent. Media companies need to keep up
with the frenetic pace of change. David Poltrack, Chief Research Officer, CBS, believes
that, “Many advertisers are not currently realizing the full potential of their
TV advertising campaign.” And to that end, he has been developing the Campaign
Performance Audit or CPA in partnership with Nielsen Catalina, to help quantify
the return on ad spending (ROAS).
“ROAS is defined
as the incremental sales lift divided by the campaign spend,” explained Leslie
Wood, Chief Research Officer, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, who added, “We take
into account flighting, targeting and seasonality. Recency matters a lot here
because advertising closer to the actual purchase is more effective.” As
relatively new as ROAS is in measuring media, the method for ascertaining the
metric is being tweaked. Wood continued,
“We have recently switched from households reached to how many purchases were
reached. This is a big step forward.”
Today’s Needs Are Also Future Needs
McDonald
concluded, “Our industry is rife with conflict and uncertainty which can be ameliorated
by neutral unimpeachable research. We have big hairy audacious problems such as
fraud in the pipeline. But even if we didn't have these problems, we still need
to be able to measure ROI, the impact of an ad on a consumer, engagement and
emotional response.”
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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