Jeff Eales of Granada Media reported briefly to the Nice MRG Conference on the work of the ITV Technology Group – formed to look at brand attribution and electronic trading.Most progress had been made with the former, the result of which, Jeff hoped, would be a standard industry list of naming conventions for advertisers, brands… Continue reading Brand Attribution Project Makes Steady Progress
Having taken something of a hammering yesterday from client, research company and media consultant, the more traditional media practitioner fought back a little today at the Nice MRG conference – but with the accepted caveat that the researcher’s role must change to encompass communication in its broadest sense.Charlie Makin, managing partner at BLM, believed that… Continue reading The Media Practitioner Fights Back
So says James Walker, founding partner of media consultancy Edge, winning few friends amongst delegates at the Nice MRG Conference. “The traditional media researcher is as useful as a blacksmith on the M25”.There is the opportunity for media agencies to offer quantitative business-focused advice, but – despite the recent birth of Carat Insight, Universal Truths,… Continue reading “The Traditional Media Researcher Is Dead”
This week saw a bit of a tour de force for BBC1’s main soap opera Eastenders, when instead of the usual drudge round the various different residents of Albert Square, the script writers decided to focus on just four main characters. Monday’s episode, watched by 14.32 million people, set things in motion when Roy Evans… Continue reading TV Viewing Summary W/E 01/11/98
Bob Hulks bounded on to the MRG conference platform on Friday afternoon as independent chairman of the NPA Review Group, charged by all national newspaper publishers with “putting newspapers at the forefront of media research”.Newspaper investment in research is minimal, said Hulks – approximately 0.08p per £1 of advertising revenue (TV is about 0.32p, radio… Continue reading Newspapers “will take research initiative”
The Radio Authority published its third quarterly bulletin for 1998 today. The RA dealt with 364 written complaints about programming and related matters during this period.280 of those complaints were about Xfm, which was fined by the RA after its move to Capital when it failed to fulfill its promise of performance (see Newsline).Another 90… Continue reading Radio Authority Recieves 280 Complaints Against Xfm
Neil Shepherd-Smith, a consultant already to two JICs, appeared to have his eyes on a third when he queried elements of the new RAJAR Gold Standard methodology at this year’s MRG. He believed the model took no account of the number of spots in a schedule, and that the new standard was flawed enough that… Continue reading “All that Glistens is not Gold”
Christina Hartley of IPC Weeklies used a “soap-box” session at the conference to query the validity of NRS and TGI readership data – and in particular the differences between the two surveys. Using examples from Now magazine and TV & Satellite Week which showed significant discrepancies in total audience and audience composition respectively, she asked… Continue reading NRS and TGI – “More Questions Than Answers”
Speaking at the MRG Conference in Nice this morning, Richard Eyre, chief executive of ITV, explained his thinking behind setting ITV’s 40% peak-time target for the year 2000. “I was not forced into it. ITV had under-performed, and the alternative was to manage decline. Everyone – John Birt apart – wants a strong ITV.”Eyre admitted… Continue reading Eyre Explains “Fantastically Ambitious” ITV Targets
The Sun has performed a U-turn in its attitudes towards homosexuals, it announced yesterday. After incidents involving the ‘outing’ of Peter Mandelson , and agricultural minister Nick Brown, the title’s editor David Yelland stated that the paper was “no longer in the business of destroying closet gays’ lives by exposing them as homosexuals”.On Monday this… Continue reading The Sun Does A U-Turn
