MediaTel

Claire Myerscough, commercial business intelligence director at News International, explains why IPA Touchpoints is the foundation for joined-up thinking ...

"I'm not a researcher by trade (as many of you reading this know too well!) but it doesn't take an industry guru to conclude that despite the fortune we all spend on research there is a major piece missing.

At present, media have different ways of measuring audiences - some it has to be said are more credible than others. These can range from the detailed quarterly reporting of press to the overnight top line reporting of television.  Perhaps this is relevant and appropriate for the individual media and the intra media decision making process but we should address the new challenges of today. It is time we were able to evaluate performance and go about our business across all media channels with a consistent audience definition. The world is changing and we are being left behind.

Take agencies. They are combining their traditionally siloed buying units into investment departments and in some cases these departments are responsible for the allocation of budgets across media channels. Meanwhile media owners, including News International, are stretching their brands and their offering across multi-platforms. What is the sense in offering one data source for The Sun newspaper, a separate one for Suntalk and another for Thesun.co.uk?  Must life be so complicated? We have to look at what our customers, the clients, want. They are crying out for simplicity where comparison can be made across different channels using the same language. We owe it to our customers to make it easy for them to understand and assess media choices.

IPA Touchpoints is the foundation for joined-up thinking, reflecting the changing needs of the industry and a real desire to move our understanding of media and consumers forward. Many areas of the industry have helped fund this research, which is now very much a part of a planners tool kit (and ours). We can all now assess coverage and frequency across a combined schedule, media consumption by daypart, which media are consumed concurrently and so on. A great step forward and it is now time to extend the principle to embrace the buyers and sellers.

You may have heard this all before and I agree it's a huge challenge - not least because we have to put aside vested interest and knock down some major barriers.  With some fresh thinking, energy and a passion to discuss and debate how this might evolve I'm sure it will pay off. It's not about reinventing the wheel, or devaluing existing research. It's about adapting ourselves and adding another dimension and one doesn't have to be a researcher to appreciate the potential benefits."

Do you agree with Claire? Send us your opinion - news@mediatel.co.uk