Advertisers and Accurate Audience Measurement — Who Pays?

Smith39s paper marked a significant moment in arguing for an quotalwaysonquot measure of audiences crossmediaAdvertisers have traditionally sat outside the various debates about how the industry should measure audiences amp8212 in much the same way that they have until recently not engaged in other more commercial aspects of how media is bought and soldThe ISBA initiative seems a natural next step along a road marked by milestones of trust and transparency inhousing walled gardens and data controversies Greater advertiser involvement in audience measurement seems like an inevitable progressionOne outstanding issue revolves around what a famous English comedian from bygone days referred to as quotthe sordid business of coinquot Advertisers need to contribute more both financially and intellectually to the audience measurement worldConsider the alternativesAgencies can39t agree among themselves on anything This has always been the case Some might remember the suggestion that UK agencies combine to create a competitor to Kantar Media39s TGI one of many initiatives that went nowhereMost OOH vendors print and online publishers and video and audio broadcasters have a naturally limited interest in funding anything not directly related to their own media channels amp8212 let alone anything that threatens to assist revenue drift to Google Facebook and the likeThe platforms seem to be managing just fine as things stand The risk to them is being exposed as less effective than say TV if the rules BARB created were applied to themWhy would research companies risk creating something without a guaranteed endclient And who benefits from an independent crossmedia measurement system Those who buy that39s whoSo the advertisers need to pay or at the very least persuade everyone else to stump up the cash amp8212 which will be nearly impossible to do without someone ceding controlThat39s why I am proposing a levy on ad spend to fund independent advertiserdriven audience measurementThis is not such a weird ideaIn the UK we have ASBOF the Advertising Standards Board of Finance that in effect funds the industry39s selfregulatory service via a levy and has done so successfully since 1975As a planner I remember adding the 01 percent to all press campaigns and explaining the benefits of selfregulation avoidance of legal costs flexibility and speed to my advertisersSo why wouldn39t a levy work as a means to fund audience measurementSome might say it39s a bit niche a tad arcane but that is simply not the case Advertisers and the agencies they employ clearly need independent reliable and verifiable data to help them plan buy and evaluate campaignsIn an era of fake news and madeup data and facts this becomes more important than ever beforeWhat we have now via the JICS is outstanding currency data for use in trading Where are the crossmedia planning initiatives Before someone writes to me about Touchpoints amp8212 an excellent initiative in many ways amp8212 it39s UKonly and measures a snapshot in a time of great dynamism in mediaTGI is 50 years old this year and was a great idea But surely it39s time for a fresh look We should be building on the work that39s already out there giving priority to developing planning tools that sit on top of the trading currenciesAn audience measurement levy has been tried before with as far as I can gather success in South Africa Why not try it in the UK as a way of funding the ISBA initiative If it works then export it globally via the WFATotal UK ad spend is equivalent to about 30 billion 01 percent the ASBOF benchmark is therefore 30 million It would be unrealistic to expect a 100 percent success rate for the levy collecting ASBOF has never been completely successful but it does seem reasonable to apply it to all media forms as it is currently pressonlyEven at a 25 percent success rate pessimistic that still generates a quotfighting fundquot of 75 millionI know that BARB alone costs tens of millions in the US but we39re not talking about replicating or replacing BARB Rather what39s being proposed is an advertiserdriven initiative to provide an industrywide planning framework for crossmedia decisionmakingThe audience measurement business has done a wonderful job measuring intramedia audiences for use in buying It has largely ignored intermedia initiatives designed to assist in planningBut in a time of evergreater complexity we need to move the debate forward The only group in a position to do this are the advertisers as the beneficiaries of better media planning decisionmakingThe cleanest and neatest way of funding is via a levyClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Advertisers and Accurate Audience Measurement — Who Pays?

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Brian Jacobs

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