What can the industry learn from TouchPoints3?

The IPA unveiled its much-anticipated TouchPoints3 Hub survey today, which promises to be a real game-changer compared to the previous two waves.

TouchPoints3 offers an impressive collection of new features, with Word of Mouth, video on demand, social networking, gaming and mobile internet data, looking at media consumption across both traditional and digital platforms.

In the autumn, the survey’s ‘Channel Planner’ will also include new UKOM and POSTAR databases and well as the GSMA mobile database and WoM.

Speaking at this morning’s launch, Steve Williams, chairman of the IPA Media Futures Group (and CEO of OMD), confirmed more frequent data via a continuous survey from next year onwards, and said that TouchPoints has “come of age”.

MEC’s David Fletcher’s added:  “There has been a complete shift in the way we consume media with the latest technology developments, and attitudes are changing… we not longer do things in isolation.”

David Brennan, research and strategy director at Thinkbox, went on to talk about “media multi-tasking” – admittedly a “grey area” when it comes to metrics.  Brennan was understandably quick to point out that TV is “still dominating our media day”, regardless of whether people are watching while updating their status or flicking through a magazine.

For Danone’s Stuart Garvie, the final presenter at this morning’s launch in London, TouchPoints is invaluable for providing a 360 degree view of its consumer.

Garvie admitted that his own spend remains largely TV-centric because it is a “very measurable” medium, but he added: “Consumers are changing so we need to change our models.  The challenge is measuring the ROI of a media campaign… but TouchPoints is perfect for teaching us about consumers and creating a more efficient media mix.”

In today’s Newsline column, Stuart McDonald, head of insight and trade marketing at News International, gives an candid overview of why TouchPoints started out as struggle but has since gone from strength to strength:

“If we were starting with a blank piece of paper today, and were asked to come up with something to measure media channels – would we come up with the silo approach that we currently have?  I think that written on that piece of paper may be something very similar to IPA TouchPoints.”