From Survey To Server

When you look at the shape of most media plans, they all look remarkably similar. This is largely because media choice is led by what data are most available. And by what data planners are most comfortable with.

But there is a fundamental change taking place with regard to 'media' data, in line with the changes taking place as a result of the new digital world. The sort of data we are most comfortable with as planners and strategists are gold standard media currencies. These are long established, committee led, peer-reviewed, stable (mostly), trusted sources. I'm talking BARB (TV), RAJAR (radio), NRS (print), and so on. You can also include TGI in this as it has almost become a currency in itself.

Whether they are accurate or not is another point. And to be honest it doesn't really matter that much. It's more important that they are stable, to allow trading to take place. When you lift the lid on some of these they are in fact creaking under the strain and almost quaint in the way they measure media. However, measuring media is a huge challenge and they are the best we've got (I wouldn't knock things like BARB, they are very professionally run).

However, the internet and mobile can offer a different type of data. Instead of measuring them via surveys, we are starting to see data emerge that is closer to a census, in other words just counting what happens. There has always been a discrepancy between web measurement surveys (ie Comscore, Nielsen) and server data. But these issues (around things like cookie deletion) are slowly being resolved so the two are starting to align. Comscore is now integrating the two with their web measurement and their mobile measurement is purely server based.

Of course the downside of moving from measuring the person to measuring the device is that you don't know much about the individual, or at least you have to make an educated guess.

The other problem with server data is that there is too much of it. It's bottom up, not top down. You get everything, when in fact you only want some simple metrics. And that is the stage where we are now. The data are there, but no-one has yet figured out a way to make sense of it. Interestingly, this also happened with cable TV in the UK. Everyone thought that measurement would be simple using set top box data. I remember a project with Videotron to try to make sense of their set top box data. It was killed-off as unworkable as there was too much data in too many different places. Looking back this should have come as no surprise - they couldn't even issue their customers with correct bills.

So we need to bring in some different skills to reduce this mass of data to something that a planner can use alongside the other media data they already know so well. Comparable metrics that allow a mobile app to be judged alongside a full page ad in The Times. Traditional research companies with skills in sampling and survey design might not have the ability to do this. On the other hand the tech guys don't understand what metrics are needed. Some hybrid of the two is going to be required. A sort of techy researcher - a genuine nerd.

Despatch from the frontline of the online measurement war

There is increasing hostility between the internet audience measurement rivals Comscore and Nielsen. As a Comscore subscriber Sigint received an email from their top brass to ‘set the record straight’ following a press release from Nielsen boasting about the size of their own measurement panel.

Clearly on the offensive, Nielsen had claimed to have the largest and most representative online measurement panel in the world. Comscore, now out-flanked, hit back hard saying that Nielsen’s claim was ‘factually untrue’. In other words a lie (this is about as good as it gets in the world of media research believe me). We eagerly await Nielsen’s next move.

But does any of this really matter outside of the PR departments within each camp? Sample size is an issue for any type of research but for gold standard currency data it’s generally accepted that while it would be nice to accurately report everything, in reality you don’t need to. The vast majority of ‘currency’ data users (who also fund the measurement systems) are only interested in the audiences to the more established channels and titles – the bottom of the long tail is simply classified as ‘other’. It makes it hard for new entrants, but no subscriber is going to double or triple their contribution just to measure the tiniest niches in the market.

In the US Comscore claim to report on 70,000 sites monthly, in comparison to the measly 30,000 that Nielsen now covers. But do we really need to know the audience profile to internet site number 70,000? Probably not. What we are really seeing are tactical exchanges of fire in the continuing battle for domination of the online audience measurement world. Meanwhile subscribers hold out for a ceasefire and maybe even the unthinkable, a single, better and cheaper measurement provider.