Multi-Platform Accountability
Phil Cutts, director of marketing at PPA Marketing, discusses the challenges that lie ahead in multi-platform measurement in the rapidly evolving media industry…
The media landscape is constantly evolving and has changed beyond recognition over the past decade. A mere ten years ago 65% of us watched a staple of four channels on television, podcasting was something you did when shelling peas and your local supermarket was where you went to buy food.
This is obviously no longer the case. Since the early 90s there has been a 560% increase in the number of TV channels, 120% in commercial radio stations, 80% more cinema screens and 40% more consumer magazines. Yet significant media growth isn’t the only change we have experienced.
What is truly revolutionising media is the increasingly blurry line between media channels. Once upon a decade ago, when I was a subscriber, Kerrang! was renowned as the must-read magazine for rockers. A generation on and Kerrang! is as well known for its web presence, TV and radio stations as it is for its weekly magazine. Kerrang! has successfully stretched its offering across different channels, without compromising its brand positioning or cannibalising its AUDIENCE. Indeed, its different channels attract different and recognisably distinct audiences. The same is true for many business and consumer magazines such as FHM, NME, Construction News and ComputerWeekly.
So what does this evolution mean in terms of measurement? How can brand owners measure their magazine beyond the print product? ABC and NRS are both widely respected currencies for consumer magazine publishers and I can’t emphasise enough the significance of them to the industry and the credibility they offer to media buyers and advertisers.
Yet, with the blurring of lines do we need revised tools to calculate brand reach? It was recently reported that ABC in America has launched its new Consolidated Media Report, which measures the growth audience of publications distributed in print and online, taking into account circulation, pass-along readership, website traffic and sundry auditable versions of the core magazine/paper.
“The Consolidated Media Report offered our advertisers a comprehensive way to look at our brand and its vitality,” said Jill Manee, vice president and publisher of Advertising Age. “It’s a convenient way to summarise the entire reach of our brand, through multiple products, and for a total audience reach. It demonstrates our value in ABC-audited circulation while recognising our full range of products and reach beyond print circulation.”
As yet however, demand in the UK for measuring a brand’s vitality isn’t as high. But murmurings from the publishing community suggest that an aggregated currency will need to include more than magazine and online measurement. It would need to summarise the entire reach of the brand, recognising the full range of products beyond print circulation. Another issue for UK publishers is deduplication. The B2B focused Consolidated Media report in the US currently counts a web hit and a purchased copy as two hits, but if the same person is going online and buying the magazine, should this be audited only once? There seems to be two ways of getting a better understanding of the footprint of our multi-platform brands – we either try to calculate the reach through developing the auditing techniques or, for the consumer print media, we ask consumers through the NRS.
ABC is governed by a council of permanent and elected representatives from the media industry, including media buyers, advertisers, media owners and representatives from trade bodies such as the PPA. Therefore achieving industry buy-in for a new currency can be somewhat problematic, as each group have their own objectives and agendas. Some will want a new auditing measurement and some don’t – or don’t think it is possible. Moreover, not only is it challenging to agree upon a way of calculating brand reach across multiple media platforms, it is also difficult to set the industry standards against which the auditing must be reported. Change is always difficult and a new media currency would inevitably attract wariness from many in the industry.
Media is changing rapidly and clearly the way we measure its success must also change. It is a very exciting time and ABC works closely with the industry to ensure it keeps track of key issues and gauges changing opinions. PPA Marketing and the PPA liaise on a regular basis with ABC to ensure the systems for measurement and auditing continue to suit its members and evolve as media evolves, providing an enhanced cross-platform report that suits the majority.