IPA: Not another survey!
Alex Hunter, the IPA’s finance director, explains why media professionals shouldn’t be too quick to bin survey requests – “not only is it of statistical importance to the person sending it to you, but its result could be of real commercial benefit” ….
On Christmas Eve I found one of those regular survey invitations in my e-mail: “Your professional opinion is needed” it was headed. Really? Surely not over Christmas. So it was duly deleted. Assuming my reaction was typical, what was the value of that particular bit of research?
Usually I am only too pleased to contribute to surveys since, if I don’t present my views to the researchers, I can hardly complain that this or that marketing doesn’t cater for my generation, socio-economic group or ethnic majority. That said, I get riled when the on-line sequence of questions comes to an early and abrupt end, without so much as an “excuse me”, the moment I enter my age, post code or education level. Goods and services are not bought exclusively by what used to be referred to as ‘yuppies’ – some of us ‘skiiers’ have extensive purchasing interests too. I am reminded of the old story of a pre-war phone survey, which led to a completely wrong election prediction as the compiler had lost sight of the fact that telephones then were the preserve of an unrepresentative section of the population. “Garbage in: garbage out” is not the sole preserve of your CRM system.
Some years ago, a government department commissioned a survey of ethnicity in the advertising industry. The delegated author only circulated 40 agencies (19 responded) and confined the ethnic choice to British staff. Not surprisingly the result indicated that our industry was less ethnically diverse than the national statistics. It is probably no coincidence that that government department continues to hold to this view despite evidence to the contrary produced annually by the IPA. The IPA census is based on a survey of its 270 members and using the same ethnic definitions as the Office for National Statistics, and reports a clear trend in this respect. As Karl Marx put it – “to leave error unrefuted is to encourage intellectual immorality”. Full and accurate input will produce valuable output.
Valuable surveys can be put to real commercial benefit: Typically, but especially at present, there is pressure to find an alternative cheaper supplier for the same quality. But how do you know that cost is genuinely the lowest possible for what has been asked for? Statistics can be terribly dated, selective or simply inappropriate. The devil is always in the detail: Perhaps the alternative supplier’s quote omits project management costs that it does not take responsibility for, but will be a cost somewhere in the campaign. Perhaps that labour cost estimated an overhead recovery rate that was out of line with the market norm. Certainly that agency has to cover higher London office costs, but does it spread that premises cost over more staff than its provincial competitor?
The IPA conducts regular benchmark surveys of agency costs, salaries and benefits, agency management systems, charge out rates and ad hoc sector-specific surveys (details are on www.ipa.co.uk). With so many members it can generally provide a statistically reliable break down over agency types, geography and staffing levels – to those who provide input. One would like to think that the obvious value of this data would be enough incentive for IPA members to participate but human nature being what it is, even agencies are tempted to expect quality output for next to no input!
As a result, participating member agencies can, for example, ensure their compensation packages are enough to retain/attract the right talent. Equally it allows agencies to explain the costs contained in their bids with a high degree of confidence of how it compares to the norm for the industry, currently and in relation to their size and type of agency. Surveys are not merely an academic exercise: Good benchmark data can ensure a fair basis for a trusting relationship.
So next time you are tempted to delete that e-mailed survey, please recall that not only is it of statistical importance to the person sending it to you, but its result could be of real commercial benefit to you too.