“No matter how brilliant the capturing of research data will become, we are still faced with interpretation,” says Chris Brewer, managing director of the South African office of Interactive Market Systems (IMS). “I’m not sure we’ll overcome the problem of stupidity or even intelligent misunderstanding of data.”
Brewer is a stalwart in the local media and marketing research community, so he gets to make statements like that. Established in 1989, his company Brewers Marketing Intelligence was bought by IMS – “the world leader in media analysis software” – in 2003. To back up his view he gives the following examples: “When ThisDay launched it was assured by research that there was definitely a market for a top-end newspaper and, of course, the paper failed. At about the same time Daily Sun launched into the bottom end of the market amid protests from the industry that it was doomed – it has, as you know, broken all newspaper records in this country and is an outstanding success.”
These instances of remarkable failures of insight are given in response to a key question: with technology about to radically alter the media research space, what are the implications? Like Brewer, Research Surveys CEO Henry Barenblatt conceals any excitement about pending technological breakthroughs behind a caveat. Barenblatt’s warning is less a matter of human error being brought to bear on data interpretation (irrespective of technological advances) than a matter of global inequities in data collection itself. “The change will happen faster in developed countries,” he says. “Data gathering is still determined by bandwidth. We can only hope that the expected amendments to South Africa’s telecommunications legislation will be a good thing.”
But leaving the Department of Communications out of it for the moment, what exactly are some of these new data collecting instruments? A big one, according to both Brewer and Barenblatt, is the “Media Watch”, unveiled in June last year by German developers GfK. Already the focus of international pilot studies in conjunction with Nielsen Media Research, this device is worn on the wrist and mimics the human ear by picking up radio and TV broadcast frequencies. It also picks up specially installed frequencies for the measurement of outdoor media. As for newspapers and magazines, a predefined set of titles can be downloaded onto individual watches, enabling research subjects to “log” what they read.
Dr. Anina Maree, head of African Response Media, says technologies like this “will certainly provide an added benefit in terms of the stronger integration of lifestyles and media”, although she too issues a caution. Maree recently attended an international media research conference where such innovations were a focal point, and the evidence showed that implementation of new techniques is often very costly and is still undergoing rigorous testing in certain markets. She also points to further pitfalls – more data brings more challenges in terms of management and interpretation.
This device is worn on the wrist and mimics the human ear by picking up radio and TV broadcast frequencies. It also picks up specially installed frequencies for the measurement of outdoor media.
Still, provisos aside, there is general agreement that devices like the Media Watch (or equivalent concepts using bleepers and cell phones) are a quantam leap over manual data collection methods and will eventually make it to local shores. According to Barenblatt, international alliances and the influx into South Africa of big-name multinational research companies – IMS, Millward Brown and TGI Global, to name a few – compel us “to fall in line with the way things are tracked internationally”.
It’s a comment that brings up another question. Could the presence of the multinationals threaten the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf), specifically the predominantly manually collected Amps, Rams and Tams data that is “common currency” amongst marketers, advertising agencies and media owners?
For his part, Barenblatt believes that Saarf is “behind the curve when it comes to being an international player” and that “TGI is showing Amps that there is a different way of doing things”. But Maree and another long-time media researcher, Jos Kuper of Kuper Research, are of the belief that the common currency model is here for some time to come. “The South African media currency structure is still the envy of many countries internationally,” says Maree, pointing out that international alliances actually encourage innovation in the local industry and that Saarf has been prompted to relook at its offerings. Kuper adds, “while the currency has had its detractors in the past, the media players ultimately always endorse the value of industry-driven research, though with necessary revisions to its structure and methodologies”. As examples of such revisions, Kuper cites innovations in data fusion, the increased frequency of radio diaries, improved product and brand diaries, and the splitting in half of the Amps contract between AC Nielsen (the incumbent of the last 30 years) and African Response.
Of course, from a client point of view, all these innovative offerings, revisions and alliances may seem a bit overwhelming. Is this market not hopelessly over-serviced?
Surprisingly, none of the researchers interviewed for this piece think it is. “While Amps is definitely the most often used data, there are many other surveys which provide their own unique findings, like Roots and Future Fact,” says Brewer. “TGI, as another example, brings significant data to the research table. As does a great deal of proprietary research.”
Kuper goes further, claiming that the market could do with even more expertise. She believes that while research surveys add great value to the existing information stream, the industry is under-serviced in terms of making use of the information – in understanding the interplay of the various media in the competitive environment.
Seems it all comes down to the same point. Like Kuper says: “The importance lies in the interrogation and use of the data, not just in the production of the data – turning the data into ‘wisdom’ is a critical ingredient.”