On the Importance of Audience Research

It was all rather odd I had failed Maths OLevel hadn39t gone to university and yet somehow I found myself spending all day looking at numbers and having my opinions listened to on industry committeesI decided to quotspecializequotamp160in radio audience measurement on the basis that the total number of people in the entire industry who knew anything about it was shall we say quotfewquotamp160 and none of them worked in ad agencies Getting the gig to represent the agencies on what was then JICRAR now RAJAR was a cinchI find myself reflecting on the whole topic of audience measurement ahead of the annual asi video and audio research event taking place as usual the first week of NovemberToday of course there are qualified experts everywhere on everything I am not sure enthusiastic amateurs like me would have made much of an impact today as opposed to back when in the land of the blind the oneeyed man was kingWhat attracted me to audience measurement in the first place was not so much the techniques the formulas or the theories but more a sense of curiosity I loved ads and was curious to know how they worked and whyI believed that understanding a little about who had seen them might be helpful as a step along the way to understanding how they workedI still think thatI know and understand that audience measurement has many uses not least in editorial creation and in commissioning and scheduling I once got into a scrape with BARB for using the data I had bought to advise an independent production company on negotiating their show39s place in the schedule as part of the process of having the show commissioned by a broadcaster I do get thatBut within the ad world we can become myopic on all sorts of topics and audience measurement is one suchAs the industry starts to quotgatherquotamp160virtually of course for the asi event I would encourage everyone to lift their eyes and raise their ambitions Start by appreciating the bigger pictureResearching audiences is an important role After all if your bricks are substandard your house will fall down Audience measurement is an important brick and the fact that most people in this industry don39t spend their time looking at bricks doesn39t lessen their importanceWhen you buy a house you buy more than a collection of great bricks You buy a structure one that is fit for purpose and meets your needs By doing so you39re not arguing to stop the brickimprovement program The fact you don39t know about brick RampampD doesn39t mean that such work is not essential it39s just that better bricks make for better houses and it39s better houses that people want need and buyOur industry needs a better houseWe are poor at understanding how commercial communication works maybe not as poor as we once were at least we now talk of communication rather than ads but we39re still pretty poorWe are poor at building plans across all communication channels at seeing how PR adds to advertising how experiential can work alongside sponsorshipsWe can39t even agree on the words we use the definitions We can39t sortout how best to bring together the various strands within video measurement although kudos to ISBA for at least starting to tackle that thorny topicIn other words we39re still faffing about with the bricksWe lack a vision an architect Unless we39re careful we39ll end up with a pile of great bricksWe won39t even have a Tower of BabelClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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On the Importance of Audience Research

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Brian Jacobs

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On the Importance of Audience Research

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