Research Claims Media Owners Neglecting Marketers’ Needs
Marketers and media owners need to develop much closer working relationships in order to succeed in the future, according to Emap Advertising, which today unveiled the results of a study into the future of creative partnerships in marketing, claiming that media owners often under perform in meeting the needs of advertisers.
Conducted in collaboration with the London Business School, the study surveyed the UK’s top marketing directors, controlling cumulative advertising budgets of over £1,000 million, to identify a need for stronger strategic partnerships. The results of the study show nine out of ten marketing directors expect to work more closely with media owners in the next five years.
The research also revealed several pressing issues currently standing in the way of improved partnerships. According to the research, four in five marketing directors are currently dissatisfied with the level of creative support offered by media owners.
The London Business School recommended five key areas of concern in media owners’ current practices, claiming that many do not understand enough about their clients’ business, often attempt to push ‘one size fits all’ packages, rather than tailoring solutions to client needs, lack of consistency in the quality of creativity offered, fail to give enough focus on effectiveness or delivery and do not develop true strategic partnerships with clients.
The research claims that media owners could improve the service they provide with three simple steps: responding to client demand for tailored creative solutions, providing media effectiveness and measurement of creative campaigns and delivering increased media insight to clients.
Commenting on the findings, Jane Kesley, Emap Advertising’s cross media sales director said: “We commissioned this research to inform our creativity initiative, Emap Create, and to ensure Emap Advertising continues to lead the evolution of creative partnerships between clients and media owners.”
She added: “We felt the time had come to invest in really comprehensive research to identify the challenges facing marketing directors at present, to facilitate better working partnerships between clients, media agencies and media owners in the future.”
The research results underline the desire for increased accountability and insight on advertising effectiveness from media owners. Explaining the importance of campaign measurement, Kesley said: “We recognise that effectiveness is an absolute priority for marketing directors. At Emap Advertising we are committed to a programme of effectiveness research to showcase how effectiveness can be multiplied by the use of multiple media platforms combined to deliver a central creative concept.”
Earlier this month the IAB unveiled a standardised global definition for the measurement of online advertising, promising to provide advertisers with increased accountability for their online campaigns in the UK, USA and in Europe, with the measurement guidelines expected to be adopted world-wide by the end of 2005 (see IAB Sets Out Definition For Online Ad Measurement).
Elsewhere, TV audience measurement body BARB has begun investigating methods of measuring interactive TV usage, following increasingly vocal calls for action from the broadcasting and advertising community. The new methodologies should result in more advertiser confidence in the fledgling medium, boosting accountability and increasing adspend (see BARB Investigating Interactive Measurement Systems).
Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk
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