“Cross media measurement has been an issue for as long as I can remember”

In response to Claire Myerscough’s recent article, Brian Jacobs, director at BJ&A, says the way forward is to sell audiences online, but there needs to be a degree of commonality in the way in which those audiences are defined…

“Claire makes a very good point when she mentions multi-channel campaigns and innovative creative solutions. One area where newspapers can benefit is in closer links between the selling of off and online forms.

The measurement (in every sense) of cross media campaigns has been an issue for as long as I can remember, but new technologies and the ability to tie together online and offline research sources is increasingly allowing newspapers and other publishers to sell the same audience online as off.

I must express a vested interest here – my business, Enreach uses sophisticated data fusion techniques, linked to proprietary semantic analyses to allow for traditional offline data sources like TGI to be used together with the likes of behavioural targeting in online planning and buying.

The way forward is to sell audiences online – I doubt there’s anyone reading this who would doubt that – but that doesn’t get us as far as it might unless there’s a degree of commonality in the way in which those audiences are defined, on to offline.

Newspapers are a powerful and vibrant media form, be they represented in a printed format or on a screen. We are already exploring with some publishers how those well-established, tried and tested sources like TGI can be brought to bear in the definition of online audiences, and in the planning and buying process.”