Extended free media research, now being provided for the first time by the South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF), is set to widen horizons for advertisers, media owners and marketers willing to buy the software that will give them regular and reliable brand information.
Yet, though the initiative has been hailed as a “great idea”, a question mark hangs over the new service. Can it last?
Branded AMPS (All Media and Products Survey) information is known as “common currency” in the industry. It is the vital component advertisers and their agencies need to select and buy media space and time, while it also gives media owners the information they want to market their publications.
SAARF, a non-profit company formed by a group of marketers, advertising agencies and media owners in 1975, started supplying the new branded AMPS for free at the end of November.
In the past SAARF only offered a limited survey of a few products. Advertisers and media owners who wanted branded data had to commission their own research or, more recently, were able to subscribe to TGI, a single source database covering over 6,000 brands and all demographics, attitudes and activities amongst urban dwellers.
Before launch TGI had offered SAARF a monetary incentive for its readership data so that there would not be confusion in the marketplace about media currency. In return, SAARF would not measure brands. SAARF turned down the offer and TGI were forced to measure print media.
Then in 2005 TGI approached SAARF with a request to provide their subscribers with fused information from its Television Audience Measurement Survey (TAMS) and offered print media owner subscribers the option of combining the TGI sample of 15,000 respondents with the AMPS urban sample of 10,000 respondents, to give them a larger sample base. The TGI offer came at no cost to SAARF’s subscribers.
After appointing independent research consultants to review the matter, SAARF decided not to enter into the agreement.
The differences between the services offered by TGI and SAARF are relatively simple. TGI interviews 15,000 respondents a year, all from urban areas, with interviews done continuously throughout the year (2,500 interviews every seven weeks). SAARF’s data, from 12,500 samples, comes from research companies AC Nielsen and African Response and covers both rural and urban areas, but all the interviewing is done between February and June in the year.
In both TGI as well as in AMPS, questions are about the use of the mass media including all available radio and television stations, all the major sold newspapers and most major consumer magazines. Special interest consumer magazines, outdoor advertising and internet usage are also included.
The questions cover topics that include ownership of motor vehicles, travelling patterns, the use of dozens of personal products, financial services and other activities such as holidays, sport and shopping patterns.
The measurement of product and branded data is done through self-completion questionnaires which are left behind so that respondents can fill them in, in their own time.
For AMPS, results are available in August. TGI’s results are published every six months on an annual rolling moving average basis.
SAARF’s chief technical officer, Piet Smit, says the organisation started providing its research for free after media owners in television complained that AMPS worked for print and radio but did not meet their requirements.
“Television station owners wanted to fuse their TAMS with branded AMPS so that they could get brand information,” he says.
The SAARF TAMS meters register everything that occurs on TV sets and other equipment, such as VCRs or digital satellite transmissions. Smit says TV media owners initially agreed to pay for the AMPS surveys, which cost about R3,5-million. But the levy collection agency, a body that is funded by advertisers and which in turn handles SAARF’s funding, eventually agreed to meet the cost.
The request by the television executives spurred the researchers to find solutions. Dr Anina Maree, media director at African Response, says the researchers decided to put a few television questions on the AMPS questionnaires. “This made it possible to fuse the AMPS with the TAMS information,” she says.
Maree said SAARF started with a very scaled down version, with just a few product categories, but that marketers and advertisers had always wanted a single source survey.
The beauty of the new model is that it allows its users to track changes in brand usage.
“Say I am a coffee company that applies for the information in the coffee category. For me to understand the information I need to know about tea and other beverages. The previous method never gave that full picture. Now it does.”
Maree said in the past a couple of users decided to support SAARF, but a lot of others found it far easier to invest in TGI. The picture has now changed, with people able to access the extended data for free. Users, however, have to buy the matching software in order to mine the data.
Meanwhile, TGI’s Barbara Cooke says that SAARF’s new offering is not TGI’s concern. “We do not see it as a problem,” she says. “We have subscribers whom we service well, beyond branded data. AMPS is in the public domain and is available to everyone, financed by a general levy on advertising. We service only our clients.”
But Cooke does not believe that the SAARF model is sustainable. “To be perfectly frank somebody is paying for this. The money has to come from somewhere. I do not see it as a sustainable model. All advertisers, large and small, have to pay the SAARF levy, but only selected advertisers benefit from the branded data offering – why should the smaller brands subsidise the bigger brands and assist in paying for them to get free data? Unless the branded data is inclusive, this will always be a problem.”
Nevertheless, SAARF is planning another free branded AMPS survey for 2006 and with television and radio station owners reporting good financial results the free survey is likely to be around for at least the short term.
Jos Kuper of Kuper Research says one of the delights of the new branded AMPS is the ability to interrelate all the product and brand findings to the vast range of demographic and media information, on an almost limitless basis according to the user’s needs.
“Buddhist philosophy talks about the ‘interconnectedness of all things’ and AMPS appears to be getting there too,” she says. “The other delight, of course, is that it is free to all AMPS users.”
Kuper says the personalities of the users of the various brands can be defined by their comprehensive range of preferences and behaviour – from media choices to lifestyle activities and demographic characteristics.
“This is an exciting facility that allows a fairly holistic view of the marketplace, which should prove enormously useful to advertisers and marketers in 2006.”
But Cooke reiterates that this is exactly what the TGI philosophy is about: “Anything can be analysed by anything else in the data base, and this includes the comprehensive brand list.”
Mike Broom, a media analyst at Infosense, says SAARF had not been delivering to its mandate in the past. Free branded AMPS have enabled it to make something of a comeback.
“They are now responding – belatedly – with branded AMPS,” he says. “It’s a brilliant model that is admired and respected across the world.”
Broom says the free branded AMPS will allow advertisers to plan according to what they are trying to achieve. They could, for example, target rural people through looking at brands that compete or complement theirs.
“This will impact media planning, as the media planner can plan at a brand versus brand level,” he says. “This means media planners will have to be more effective. They can actually show how smart they are.”