For the last seven and a half years the Cog Blog has provided a weekly platform for me to rant on about this or that pet hate, to vent on what I see as industry wrongs and injustices, to amplify others\u2019 good ideas, and to comment on the latest tit and tattle. To be honest, most of this really doesn\u2019t make a great deal of difference in the overall scheme of things \u2013 but the subject of this week\u2019s post does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Audience measurement is one of those topics that creates a great deal of heat and light amongst a specialist subset of the industry. Audience researchers toil away, mainly un-noticed by the rest and yet what they do is essential to the whole media ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us on the periphery of the subject would agree with two core principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to measure audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to do it properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Properly\u2019 includes remaining objective, and producing data that is acceptable to users, is verifiable and is accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems obvious for in-sector competitors to collaborate. So, in the case of TV the major broadcasters come together in BARB, to the benefit of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we are now in a world where the key players in what is now video include but extend way beyond traditional broadcasters. And so far, many of these major players haven\u2019t felt the need to collaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re coming out of the monochrome, silo-ed world within which each medium is measured separately, to a technicolour world of integrated communication working across multiple channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Audience measurement needs to keep pace, or more accurately to catch up \u2013 hence the flurry of activity around cross-media measurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is that this creates an obvious funding challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within siloes, it\u2019s natural for the medium to fund research into its audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This research is primarily about currencies \u2013 and thus, as the name suggests about buying and selling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Providing data for planning purposes has largely been outside the purview of the audience measurement systems. When the media business was all about buying and selling that was good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trading and currencies remain important, of course but there is a gap when it comes to deciding between as opposed to within channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For over 50 years that gap has been manfully filled by the TGI \u2013 but even TGI media data has been weighted to the currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a need to move forward, to reflect today\u2019s multi-comms world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The obvious group to fund this advance are those who will benefit from the output \u2013 and that means the advertiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But who? Which advertiser(s)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n