While it was agreed that both broadcast and pay-TV viewership remained strong, with pay-TV in particular offering the added appeal of niche audience reach, optimism was tempered with the admission that reliable metrics are still largely absent.
Paul Haddad, senior vice-president of media data and advertising solutions at Concurrent, a China-based consultancy, criticised the lack of progress in monitoring media consumption in the region. “I can’t believe we still accept not to have detailed and accurate data across all levels of consumption,” He said in the session. “How can you run a media business when you don’t understand what is being consumed, how, where and when?”
Haddad stated that while much of the required data already existed, it was not being used in the correct manner. However, he was optimistic that the increasing fragmentation of pay-TV, and the need for greater value - rather than volume - of advertising would force change.
A related complaint was the lack of collaboration between media owners and the agencies creating the advertising. To illustrate the point, Neil Stewart, regional chief executive of Maxus, noted the low presence of creative agency delegates at the conference. “The partner that needs help in this equation is the creative advertising industry,” he said. “Their main answer is still the 30-second TV commercial. They need to understand how people are consuming information. Innovation needs to happen [in the creative field] as well as in accountability and measurement.”
The assertion was echoed by Peter Bullard, founder of consultancy P1. Bullard added that under the current circumstances, existing data was predominantly used to drive the price of inventory down, rather than promote its value. Though optimistic for change, Stewart said the situation was likely to improve in “incremental steps”. One issue holding things back was the labour-intensive back-end media booking system, he said.
Nonetheless, the consensus was that TV budgets would remain, partly due to the reluctance of advertisers to change from a familiar model. As the discussion drew to a close, it was agreed that the priority in improving advertisers’ return on investment was in formulating a standardized data management and analysis plan before the industry became even more fragmented. “This will open up doors,” Haddad said. “We can’t wait for content to fragment and then work out how to measure it.”
