MRG Conference 2008:Postcard from America
Jim Kite, from Mediavest USA provided the keynote speech on day two of the MRG Conference in Lisbon, providing some insight into the US research market.
Having spent the past five years in the States, he first tried to dispel some myths about the US market, such as US research lacking sophistication, that they are only interested in US solutions and that the research is about ten years behind the UK and Europe.
He stated that in fact the US has a sophisticated research market and is interested in international developments as well as home-grown solutions, such as TouchPoints.
Kite continued that Americans love change, “they invented the attention deficit disorder”, they can’t keep still and are always looking to evolve, especially at agency level.
He then took the audience through three recent American research projects: Project Apollo, PRISM and Canoe.
Project Apollo was a very ambitious and overly technical project which involved a 55,000 strong HomeScan panel using personal people meters which recorded all TV, video, radio and online activity, and which in its short life-span produced very interesting results.
PRISM looked at instore measurement, where Proctor & Gamble worked with the Instore Measurement Institute (now Nielsen InStore) and looked at measuring instore activity such as who is in the store, where did they shop and what marketing material did they see. The results demonstrated a real connection between opportunity to see and purchasing behaviour.
Finally Kite spoke about Canoe, which examined addressable advertising. This research project looked at how different types of advertising could be served to households at different times depending on who is in that household.
However, he said that in five years in the US, he has only witnessed one thing really change, which is Nielsen’s move from programme ratings to commercial minutage ratings, or “C3”.
Sadly Project Apollo lasted less than two years as it was too complicated, too expensive and too technical. The in-store PRISM project is still alive but is drifting, as the buzz has disappeared, while Canoe is moving at a snail’s pace.
He suggested a series of considerations which need to be thought through before research is begun, including understanding the problem before the solution, which he claimed all three of the big US projects has failed to do.
He added that it is important to start small and let the research grow rather than starting too big at the start, while also having a realistic timetable with milestones in order to keep interest levels high. He also suggested using existing data sources and praised the TGI/M:Metrics research which was presented yesterday.
Kite summed up by advising the audience to love and protect our JICS, but also to realise that not all media research needs can be met by them, as research is increasingly moving towards overall effectiveness and he claimed that “behavioural data analytics is set to explode”.
Finally he told the audience to not stop during this recession, stating that research and proof points are more important now than ever before.
Further reports from the MRG conference will appear on MediaTel.co.uk’s NewsLine service over the next couple days.
MRG: www.mrg.org.uk