‘The Need For A Different Kind Of Research’ – MRG

The theme of this morning’s session was “The Emperor’s New Mind – There’s more to media than numbers”, with Andy Tilley kicking off the keynote speech, enigmatically titled “Desperately Seeking Susan”.

Andy Tilley, managing partner of Unity, noted how media and media research has evolved since he started in the business 18 years ago. Evolution of the industry includes access to more titles, channels and stations but the changes have been gradual and perhaps almost imperceptible to most, with the media landscape growing ever more complex.

The numbers of adverts on TV has rocketed over the last decade with the advent of new channels, and the average consumer is faced with a possible 2000 brand messages a day. So the question is, How do you make your clients advertisements stand out?

The key factors to make ads work for your clients is to make sure the consumer is interested and involved. Content and creativity has shaped the industry but Tilley says that perhaps it is now anachronistic, out of touch and ineffective. We need to understand the potency of our media better, in order to drive communications strategy. Context rather than content is now the key factor. We also need to understand our audiences more clearly and this will require significant co-operation between media owners and agencies.

Tilley does not think that more research is necessarily the answer, rather that we need a different kind of research, a holistic communications research.

To conclude, Tilley said that he is looking for backing from the industry to change the fundamental way of communication. We should learn from classified advertising, where the active reception of messaging is key.