TouchPoints isn’t an interim solution…

In response to Neil Mortensen‘s media measurement article, Roger Gane, research director at RSMB, says single-source media measurement won’t emerge…

“Neil Mortensen makes some very important points on the challenges facing all media and those trying to measure them, and in particular that we should, still, be trying to measure consumer behaviour and response.

As Neil says, inputs such as the number of ‘clicks’ and return path data may well make a useful contribution to media currency development, but it is unlikely that they will offer the complete solution.

Where I differ from Neil is on the question of ‘single-source media measurement’.  He seems to imply that initiatives such as the IPA’s TouchPoints are interim solutions pending the development of measurement technology, which will encompass multi-platform, multi-media.

I very much doubt this will happen – I believe that the complexity of each medium, particularly in terms of delivery platforms, is growing at an exponentially greater rate than that of the potential measurement solutions.  In fact I think there are three (only three!) reasons why single-source media measurement won’t emerge:

1. It will be both technically (measurement device) and operationally (respondent acceptance/compliance) too difficult.

2.  It will far too expensive.

3. And even if these problems could be overcome, the output will be much too complex/time consuming for media owners and agencies to use.

In respect of the third point, I’m sure that it would be necessary to simplify/synthesize the granular data to such an extent as to undermine the rationale for such a complex data collection system.

My feeling is that each major medium is going to have to concentrate on ensuring that it reports its audience delivery across all its platforms as accurately as possible – they may be silos but they’re very big ones!  In some cases this may require modelling or data integration, and the next step – a single database for all media will surely continue to be provided through services such as TouchPoints.

Of course I would say that – RSMB is the IPA’s contractor for the ChannelPlanner – the integrated planning media database.  However, we do detect a growing acceptance of data fusion and other types of data integration, and it’s interesting to note that the USA media industry – historically ‘fusion sceptical’ in the extreme – is now actively pursuing a TouchPoints initiative, having belatedly realised that all three of my above points are true.  Heaven knows I told them often enough!”