MRG Conference: Bad Research Thwarts Cross Media Activity
The growth of cross media advertising is being hampered by research companies’ failure to demonstrate its effectiveness, according to head of Emap Insight, Jason Brownlee.
Delivering Friday’s soap box session at the MRG Conference in Budapest, Brownlee attacked media researchers for being too “rigid” both in their thinking and their internal organisation to create the “innovative” new research methodologies that cross media campaigns require.
He criticised the industry for lacking a “basic commercial” awareness and for failing to respond adequately to new business opportunities. He said: “In reality you know nothing more about how cross media advertising works, or indeed how to measure its effects, than we [media owners] do ourselves.”
Brownlee acknowledged that multi-platform advertising was a relatively new concept for media owners, but argued that the field of cross media research was so “under developed” that the growth of the market is being held back. He said: “Unless the research industry changes its approach to measuring cross media as effectiveness and doing business with companies like ours it is in danger of missing the opportunity we represent.”
He called on research companies to develop a more creative and holistic approach to designing ad effectiveness programmes and spoke of the need for partners who can appreciate the commercial reality faced by media owners, without compromising on “rigour, objectivity or truth.”
Brownlee emphasised that the increasing pressure to achieve cut through and standout was fuelling advertisers’ interest in cross media. He said that the same pressure was also driving brands to demand greater efficiency in pricing from media agencies and media owners, who in turn must communicate this pressure to research companies.
He concluded by telling delegates: “A failure to heed demands for greater creativity, flexibility and efficiency in both research project design and pricing means you risk being dropped from the equation altogether.”
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