The ARF’s Paul Donato Reveals the Path and Speed of Industry Change in Research

Even before the pandemic, the media industry was changing, evolving and adapting to frequent disruptions.  The ARF recently fielded a study called Organizational Benchmarks Study: The Advertiser Report, that reveals insights into these changes. Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer of the ARF, explained, “Research departments are changing rapidly, especially as machine learning and AI are displacing more traditional research skills.” ARF members were asking how other company’s departments were changing and adapting to the new reality. 

To help answer members’ questions, the ARF conducted an online survey of more than 450 industry professionals, half of which were at the Director level or higher. According to Donato, “That would include what they are calling themselves, department structure, skills needed, techniques used and stakeholder satisfaction, to name just a few of the dimensions measured,” and he added, “We will be repeating this survey every year and offer member companies customer studies that benchmark their departments to the overall study.”

Top Findings

- Research department reporting structures varied by company size. The study found that larger advertisers are more likely to have a decentralized structure, while small advertisers tend to be more centralized.  Decentralization tends to lead to a fragmented approach to research requests. Donato noted, “While almost all advertisers (92%) go to a department called consumer research/insights, larger advertisers are more likely to have a decentralized research structure (53% vs. 30% of smaller advertisers) and turn to additional departments for market research and insights, such as the marketing or strategy/planning departments.”

- Notably, according to Donato, there is greater dissatisfaction with decentralized departments. “Advertisers with decentralized departments were less satisfied, which tends to occur with larger advertisers. So, variables related to advertiser size would also be related,” he explained.

- The report found that reporting structures for research departments tend to report into a wide variety of other departments, from marketing to product development. However, Consumer Research/Insights and Data Science/ Analytics were the most frequently reported.

- Departments responsible for research functions tended to have a range of names. “We came across hundreds of names,” Donato asserted, “Most frequently, it is a compound form of research: media research, market research, or consumer research. There were also variations of Data Science/Analytics.”

- Spending for Research hadn’t essentially changed at the time the study was fielded in October 2019. “Spend was more or less normally distributed than the year prior,” he stated.

- When it comes to research KPIs, Sales is the most important followed by Brand equity and Brand lift.  

- Advanced analytics/statistics is the top technical skill sought after for advertisers at both large and small companies, followed by basic analytics skills like Excel and brand storytelling.

Looking Forward

This report is the first of a five-part series, with subsequent benchmark reports focusing on agencies, media, research companies and consultancies, to be released throughout 2020, according to the ARF. Unfortunately, since the survey was completed in October 2019, it doesn’t include any questions about the pandemic. But questions will be included in the next survey.

Donato offered his insights into what the next study wave might reveal. “Some in-person research will be affected such as focus groups or face-to-face research,” he noted, “That being said, research and insights will be more critical than ever as businesses try to navigate this unprecedented time of uncertainty.”

The temptation to restrict advertising during an economic downturn is understandable but Donato warned, “All our studies suggest that advertising during a recession makes the brand stronger at the back end of the recession. Moreover, going dark can take a brand three to five years to recover. To the extent that requires research on new creative messages, new media plans and marketing plans, there is still need for research. What marketers will do remains to be seen.”

From Data Science to Creative. Highlights From the ARF ConsumerxScience Conference

Scott McDonald, President and CEO, ARF, is helming his organization at a pivotal time for research, data and analytics. Between the recent Cambridge Analytica data usage controversy, fake news, and the upcoming EU GDPR data regulation, the use of data and research insights are hot topics.

The annual ARF ConsumerxScience conference (previously Re:Think) brought to light new ways of measuring the consumer journey, understanding the psychological motivations of populations and brought forth, as McDonald pointed out, “A lot of conversation about the accuracy and validity of targeting data and, in the context of recent events, about the ethics of kinds of advanced data-driven targeting that are at the core of digital advertising.”

The Good and Bad of Data

Nothing has impacted the field of research as data has, “in ways both good and bad,” according to McDonald who added, “We have a lot more behavioral data to work with than ever before, but best practices are still evolving for the use of the data for insights.”  He stated that the growth in the amount of available data has outstripped tools for analyzation resulting in older consumer protection guidelines that have not kept pace. “There is some risk now of a privacy backlash that could restrict targeted marketing and cause collateral damage to research,” he concluded.

Where this all has to lead is more priority given to rules around data use and retention, “either through self-regulation or government regulation, more emphasis on data transparency (labeling) and validation (quality scoring),” stated McDonald. But he also believes that tools will continue to improve to get more insight value from data collected and this could lead to a better balance between classical research approaches and data science approaches.

The Influence of Millennial Men

With movements such as #MeToo, there has been less discussion about the influence of Millennial men who, according to Brad Fay, Chief Commercial Officer, Engagement Labs, are, “Surprisingly engaged as Influencers in the marketplace. They are an everyday source of advice and have expertise in a wide range of categories and large social networks.” These digital natives came of age during times of upheaval and have witnessed the backlash of trends.

Fay referenced with Jack Myer’s seminal book, The Future of Men, in concluding, “There's something different about millennial men.” He asked, “What does it mean to be male? The definition of masculinity is changing. We are reinventing masculinity. There are generational differences. Today’s young men struggle to figure out a path forward.” His research concludes that young men are avid consumers who talk about a range of subjects including media and automotives. But versus all men, younger men also talk more about food, finance, travel and even beauty products. Interestingly, they talk less about sports and technology than in the past. Fay offered the following insights: Men care about relationships. They want to see themselves as smart shoppers. They enjoy meal preparation. They still over-index in sports and beer but not as strongly as they used to. He advises marketers to “Start looking at young men that they haven't done before because they influence others. Think of them as a key asset though their social networks.”

Preparing for the Research Departments of the Future

Industry veteran David Poltrack, Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION, is concerned about where research is and where it is going. “We have big problems reach industry now,” he stated. “We embrace insights and now it is coming back to bite us. Insights are intuitive, not empirical. Intuitive means instinctual, what you feel. But Our business is based on empirical evidence and not intuitive.” His advice is to “reeducate our management… and get insights out of your title!”

McDonald noted that any disruption is scary. But Radha Subramanyam, Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS Television, embraces change. “Most people don't like change but we have to stay focused on the objectives. Data is useless without insight and our insights get better with more and smarter data.”

In terms of skills set for hiring, “Surround yourself with generalists,” suggested Subramanyam. “As individuals think of their career, they should amass more than one set of skills and find ways to harness all of them to business goals. As we staff at CBS, we look for people with skills and with curiosity.”

How can today’s researchers prepare for tomorrow? “Classic researchers need to go beyond the usual software and multivariate statistics and learn the approaches favored by data science.  Data scientists need to get better at understanding the domain specialties they study, and also the body of scientific work that they are addressing with new tools.  Both sides need a bit more humility about the limitations of their approaches and the value of hybridizing,” concluded McDonald.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Proven By Research, Fans Respond Well to Fewer Ads. An Interview with Turner’s Jeff Grant.

It’s not surprising that viewers prefer to see fewer ads. But Jeff Grant, Senior Vice President of research for Turner’s Emerging Consumers group has proven through research that fewer ads actually benefit  the network and advertisers as well. 

Grant is a Turner Research veteran, with 21 years at the company. In that time, he’s had opportunities to oversee research for a collection of networks – starting at CNN and gradually adding oversight for each of Turner’s emerging consumers brands, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV and Boomerang, or, as he describes them “all the brands that we have that specifically focus on the Millennial generation, as well as what we call the Plurals generation .” (Plurals are also known as Gen-Z - the generation that follows the Millennials. Grant believes that “’Gen Z’ means nothing,” and Plurals is the term, he adds, “that is also used by such companies Insight Research and Magid Research.”)

In late 2015, one of those “Plurals networks”, truTV, announced a large scale effort to drastically cut advertising by half during traditional prime time hours, starting in fourth quarter 2016. It was all part of a larger company effort to, per their brand tagline, “re-imagine television” and deliver an optimal experience for fans. 

With a year of execution under their belt, Grant and the larger research division now have the ability to share with advertisers what it all means for them. Their research focused on the impact of a lower ad load on truTV and how less clutter improved the viewing experience for fans of the programming, delivering increased ad attention, retention and enjoyment. What also stood out about the research was a deeper dive into purchase intent. “We found that when we provided fans more of what they want - more content and fewer ads - truTV delivered what was good for both the viewer and our advertising partners,” he explained. 

He shared more on the study and its impact in our recent conversation:

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about your recent study.

Jeff Grant: The basic reason behind the study is that we are trying to serve our fans especially the younger generations - Plurals and Millennials - the most optimal experience in media. Our brands are very much about the user experience, keeping the fans happy – and that extends not only to the content but also to the advertising formats. So, Chris Linn, who heads up truTV, took a chance and cut the ad load in half, and gave ourselves enough time and content to evaluate if it would make for better results. What we saw in the variety of categories that we tested was that there was greater attentiveness and greater ad recall especially the day after and higher purchase intent compared to previous studies. And viewers rated the program more engaging and better paced than the same episode with a full commercial load.

Weisler: Does that mean the same number of minutes per hour and just shorter pods?

Grant: No. It is half the number of ads you would see in the normal time in primetime. The ad load has essentially been cut in half. That also meant our production teams would need to ramp up the amount of content per hour as part of our original series. So, it also ends up a win for the viewer who gets more story. 

Weisler: What categories did you test and what metrics did you use?

Grant: We measured incremental sales on advertising in the soft drink category, the QSR category and the Snacks category. We found that there is between 4 and 16 times higher incremental sales among viewers that watched limited commercial formats on TruTV than among those who watched competitive networks. It was very efficient for the advertiser. For the QSR category we used Nielsen NBI which matches household credit card usage purchase data with TV viewing. For the consumer package goods category we used Nielsen Catalina Systems which matches grocery loyalty card purchase data with TV viewing. There were a variety of advertisers. We did several studies within the categories.  We examined well-known brands and the results came back with a strong story for all of them.

Weisler: Do you think these results will translate into your other networks?

Grant: Yes, it’s worth noting that TNT is also evaluating the effects of limited ad loads within its new original series, and experiencing similar results. The general principle behind this – that viewers respond better to fewer ad messages in a lower clutter environment – is fairly universal. It lends itself to serving the fan base and what it is that the viewer is expecting as they consume content across the variety of platforms that are out there.

Weisler: Did you look at other Nielsen measurements such as C3 and C7?

Grant: Yes. We are adding ratings growth not only among new viewers to the network’s content, time spent viewing per premiere telecast went up about +18%. truTV C3 delivery grew +17% across all premieres for 18-49 year olds and during that same period, our Live +3 grew +12% suggesting that commercial minutes grew faster than the programming itself. That is a difference in commercial index growth of +3%. With other metrics, truTV had +10% deeper engagement from length of tuning for P18-49 and +30% higher brand unaided ad recall among 18-49 year olds versus traditional pods.

Weisler: How has this been received at the agencies?

Grant: To my knowledge, very well. Any time that you can tell a client that people are sticking around and remembering your messaging, especially the following day, is a strong argument to come back. To be able to share purchase intent with our partners is critical as our sales division is eager to evolve to outcome-based conversations. So what we’re able to tell them based on the research we have done so far is that we have seen +30% higher 18-49 unaided ad recall and +7% 18-49 intent to purchase. For 18-34 it was even higher +15%. That is the average uplift across all advertisers lower ad load vs higher ad load. Ads in truTV limited commercial interruptions deliver anywhere from 4x to 16x more sales of the advertising product compared to the competition. So even the worst category sees a 4x lift. The bottom line is that this research delivers what matters most-evidence that limited ad formats delivers higher ad recall, purchase intent and actual purchases, better than the competition.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

The Road to Automotive Attribution Driven by Nielsen

Attribution, especially when analyzing purchases such as vehicles which have a longer term decision process, is becoming one of the hot discussion topics in data-driven advertising. Nielsen has just released the results of an extensive research study that adds to our arsenal of automotive attribution. 

Nielsen Auto Segments – ‘Decideds’ and ‘Undecideds’

This study divided auto purchasers into two groups: Decided buyers (Decideds) and undecided buyers (Undecideds). As the name implies, Decideds are fairly clear about what vehicle they want to purchase while Undecideds are still in the decision-making process and are open to messaging. “We have found that Decideds and Undecideds are very different demographically with different paths to purchase including the length of time in the market and use of media in the buying process,” noted Carol Edwards, Media Analytics, Nielsen. She added, “But what we also found is that consumer purchase triggers vary by individual market. Such differences can impact how advertisers frame their messages demographically, buy their media and even choose which markets receive which messages.”

Differences Between Decideds and Undecideds

Nielsen chose San Diego and L.A. markets in which to test. These two markets, while geographically close, are surprisingly different when it comes to auto purchasing habits. In San Diego, Decideds and Undecideds were evenly split 50%/50% while in L.A., 60% of auto purchasers were Decideds. This indicates that advertisers who seek to change minds may find more fertile ground in San Diego.

Even within a market, the demographic differences between the two segments were stark. In L.A., Decideds skewed older (37 to 51) and wealthier, were more gender balanced and from larger families while Undecideds were younger (20 to 36) more female and Hispanic.  

In San Diego, it was the Decideds that skewed younger and were from larger households. “They were also more ethnically diverse with almost 40% of Decideds identified as Hispanic or Asian/Other,” noted Edwards. “And the San Diego Undecideds were more evenly split male/female, married and more upscale.’ 

 

Attribution of Auto Purchasers

In addition to delineating the differences between purchaser segments, Nielsen also discovered differences in the attribution path to auto purchasing. Advertisers should take note.

Since Decideds are fairly certain and confident in their purchasing decision, they tend to make quicker decisions – often a week or less to purchase the vehicle. And they tend to buy new vehicles rather than used or pre-owned. In both markets tested, Undecideds take longer to make a decision, as much as three months, and often visit multiple dealerships in their consideration process.

Media platforms also play a role in channeling certain consumer behaviors. According to Nielsen, all automotive advertising is effective in driving consumer behavior. However, it was found that local TV, direct mail, out-of-home and print drives consumers to visit dealerships while radio drives purchasers to an auto manufacturer’s website. But to target most effectively, advertisers need to take into consideration the two auto purchasing segments by market by media. 

Nielsen found that Decideds and Undecideds use media differently within a market. In L.A., for example, Undecideds are more likely to use traditional media such as local TV, radio, billboards, newspapers and direct media when deciding on their purchase or lease, relying less on digital. Decideds, on the other hand, tend to visit local dealer and manufacturer websites for their decision-making process. 

Conclusion

The takeaway for advertisers is that a careful assessment of their core consumer by market and by media is vital in order to have the greatest advertising impact. Edwards concluded, “Curating your message and media by individual market is vital to success because consideration behaviors and shopping patterns vary by market and by consumer segment.”

Attribution just made a giant step forward.

Methodology: Los Angeles, San Diego Auto Path to Purchase 2016 Release 2

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com