Opportunity or Engagement ?

Does the model of media effectiveness hinder the assessment of media in 21st century ?

What impact does this have on assessing different types of use of media on different media platforms ?

Are there areas that can be researched and developed to overcome these questions ?

Does the university sector have a role to play in this and what might it be?

Vic DaviesCourse Leader & Senior Lecturer

Why is this important ?

• 85%-- Media has always been bigger than creative

• Moore’s Law Growth – Types of media Media brands on different technological platforms

• Social Structures Ageing Baby Boomers( Prensky’s ‘Migrants’) Variations in levels of digital literacy ( Carat, Ofcom, Davies)

• ‘The New Kid on The Advertising Block’ Google

• ‘What We Already Know’

Bank of academic and commercial ‘user and gratification’ research

• What role does a medium play in the consumer’s life ?

• Is that relevant to what I need to say about about a brand ?

i.e. How does the consumer’ engage with media ?

• If yes how can I then commercially use the ‘2 R’s’ and how can I measure if it has worked in the way I wanted to ( ‘ordered transference of meaning’)

Industry Media Surveys; Why And What For ?

• Neutral Agreed definitions between two sides of industry

• Currency Basis for buying and selling media space and airtime

• But also a language A definition of ‘communication’ and ‘effectiveness’

Coverage , frequency , cost per thousand

The Mantra : ‘70% coverage at 3.0 OTS’

How Do These Surveys Define ‘Communication’, The Power of Media?

• They measure ‘opportunity’ , not ‘exposure’ or ‘engagement’

• Media communication in the buying process = opportunity

• Indirectly stated:

TV = In the room with the set on

Press = have you read or looked at over the past 6/12 months a copy of this title

• The communication power of media is defined by:

How many of a given group it can deliver at the opportunity level

Matched against its advertising cost : ‘CPT’

• Implication of this definition :

If media gains audience at opportunity level it is deemed to be more powerful

If it loses audience at opportunity level it is deemed less powerful

Wider Implications

• Type and context of opportunity

Are breakfast TV viewing and late evening peak the same?

If someone gets up and leaves the room, but others remain, what does this imply about their engagement with programming ?

Which issue did someone read– the current one, or the old one in the hairdressers ?

Am I ‘reading or looking’ at digital versions of print titles?

Implications Beyond Media Planning And Buying

• ROI

Tracking and econometric studies relate ad communication /sales analysis to media information from these surveys

• Impact on issues and debates over does advertising ‘work’ and ‘how’

• Clients The role marketing

Competitive Economy

Advertising = 10%-15% of time

The lure of digital

• The structure and skill sets required in agencies

‘How long have we got left to answer Leverhume’s

question?’

Why Is Media Still Evaluated Like This?

• UK Surveys

Began as Industry Surveys in mid 1950s

• Context • Limited media• Mass audience• Mass products, emerging brands • Emerging (full service) ad agencies

• Prevailing Theories Linear models Advertising:

• AIDA, DAGMAR Media

• As propaganda vehicles• Omnipotent power • Shannon and Weaver• Bernays• ‘Orwellian Big Brother’

Message Medium Audience

Opportunity Works !

Individual Savvy Consumer

Mass Market Naïve Consumers

Manufacturing Economy

Service

Economy

Commodity Selling

Marketing

Classic Branding

Customer Driven Marketing

Post Modern Marketing

Marginalised

Statistical

Secretive

Sophisticated

Satellite

Multi-headed

Physical

Safety

Relational

Esteem

Self Actualisation

Goodyear’s Evolution Stages

Gordon & Valentines’ Consumers

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Key

Changes in Economy And Consumer Since 1950s

Planning Moves On, But Media( Buying) Is Locked Into The Past

• 1968 JWT Study ‘What People Do To Media’

• Late 1960s Account Planners

• 1970s – 1990s Media Independents and then Agencies

• Widening gap between commoditised buying and sophisticated planning

• Change the model in the survey and you alter the currency Media owners fear lost of ad revenue How do media agencies differentiate themselves ?

• But Moore’s Law and Neuman show you will lose any way

• If OTS does not work anymore – what does ?

“What Is To Be Done ?”

• Are we still selling products to the masses, or brands to individual customers?

• Measuring communication in that multi media ‘moment of identity’ within any one piece of brand communication

• Planning and buying must reengage with one another or we may find Google analytics dominating social media and iplayer

• What will media owners and agencies do ?

• Role for universities

Research and development• Definitions and uses across Europe• What do we mean by ‘engagement’?• Means of measuring value

Educating students (and Industry) that media is not just an ‘opportunity’ or a ‘click’