MRG Conference: The Future Role Of The Media Researcher
On Friday’s afternoon session at the MRG Conference, the Telegraph Group’s Tim Jones, head of research and strategy and Steve Millington, advertisement research manager, addressed what the future role of the media researcher in the one-to-one economy would be.
Jones began by tracking how media consumption is evolving from a one-to-many model into a one-to-few one through TV segmentation, newspaper sections, magazines, radio and the internet, and will become a one-to-one economy.
Jones anticipates that the one-to-one economy will be both market and technologically driven. On the one hand advertisers want to target individuals and on the other individuals want to be treated as such, and their individual needs recognised. Technology will provide the link between advertisers and consumers.
The internet has already given clients a taste of one-to-one marketing through registrations, log files and surveys, which collect information to be fed into databases. Clients can provide the advert and the target and the Adserver system into which data is fed can determine where the ad will be delivered.
Millington went on to look at the implications such huge information resources will have for the media researcher. The availability of a large variety of data is of no use unless it can be understood and interpreted. Research, he believes, will have a pivotal role in strategic decision making and generating revenue.
He predicted an increase in advertiser/media owner joint research. As owners accumulate more information about their customers through questionnaires, for example, they can adapt their product to accommodate the consumer and learn how to develop future projects and relationships to optimise advertising effectiveness.
Jones and Millington concluded by leaping into “Infinity and Beyond” with the help of “Buzz Lightyear”, the consumer, and “Woody”, the media researcher of the future. Buzz, for example, touches the TV screen, which will recognise his DNA. Woody has been collecting information this way, which Buzz provides if it means he gets the content he desires. Information collected leads to targeted sections of his newspaper and the product consumption from his “smart fridge” provides further insight.
The potential is for all media and product consumption to be tracked. It is the media researchers’ challenge to use this information effectively by developing mutually beneficial relationships with individuals.
Report by Julie MacManus in Munich
Subscribers can access more reports from the 2000 MRG Conference in Munich by selecting ‘MRG Conference 2000’ at the top of this page.