Man & his Media!



Photo Credit: Ravi Kiran



A picture is worth a thousand words.. but here I want to add a few words to this photo. I am sure this picture by Ravi Kiran caused many more to ponder than only those who left their comments on his post. Different people may have seen the picture with a totally different perspective and I was just thinking of all the different perspectives that could have been possible. Here I would want to comment on possibly what thoughts this photo would have germinated in the minds of professional related to media.

What does a professional (media) think when he/she sees a person of this profile reading the TOI?

Now, when I say "this profile" I am not being judgemental nor do I want to hurt any sentiments. By the looks of it (note, the words) the person is a of lower SEC, probably has no shelter, is low on means of subsistence and hence not really a desired target for most branded products and services. For anyone who has a different pov on the above profile, it may be futile reading further as the difference in our perspectives will only get wider.

Of course! maybe the person in the photograph may have just got the newspaper from a passerby and it was just a coincidence that Ravi captured him on camera with the newspaper. Maybe, the person is not a regular reader at all.

But, then as I said, for arguments sake let us just look 'at' the picture and not try to look 'behind' the picture and continue the discussion further. 

The newspaper is a product and like most products is designed to cater to a certain profile of audience. If the newspaper defines, its desired audience in terms of demographic characteristics (Gender, Age, SEC, MHI) then the man in the photo may probably not qualify as the desired audience. But, if the newspaper defines its desired profile in terms of a mindset, in terms of an attitude - though the picture does not tell us much about that but, the person may well qualify.

However, if I may take a guess, the demographic profile of the person in the picture does not match the desired profile for over 90% of the advertisers in the newspaper. The advertiser may wonder if the perception (possibly supported by research data) that he has about the profile of the readers of this newspaper is correct?  And, he would only hope that there are not many others of a similar profile who read this newspaper.

The advertiser is bound to give his media agency a tough time when next he sees his media plan.

The media planner will quickly rationalize that yes - 6% (say) of the readership of the  newspaper basis the IRS does come from the lower SEC and hence this person reading the newspaper is not surprising at all. Going a step further, the planner may start qualifying that while the man is seen reading he may still not be an 'average issue reader' and hence may not be part of the CPT calculations in the plan.

If the query reaches the media researcher, I am sure the researcher will be able to explain how the said profile is an exception and even if counted in the research it would not have enough weightage to skew the overall profile of the reading audience. Besides, since the research is a masthead recall research if the person is not a regular reader - he may just not recall the masthead even if he is part of the research sample.

Each, in their own world thinking of just what concerns them - but they all miss the big picture.

The 'Man' and the 'Media' are not just 'eyeballs' or 'mastheads' - these are two in a relationship. There is a bond between them. Imagine the hardships and challenges that the man must be facing in life - but, he makes time for his media. He is as immersed in it just as much as you and I would be - in the luxury of our rooms. The newspaper gives him something he cherishes, it does something to him which he finds very valuable. As a media, as an advertiser, as a planner or as a media researcher - unless we understand this relationship we cannot make a judgement on what is depicted in the picture. Whatever, would be the demographic profile of the man; whether the man is on a pavement or if he were reclining on a luxury yacht - it is the relationship between him and his media - that is of interest.

Yes, reaching an audience of a desired profile is important; but, engaging with the audience is critical. Just knowing that a certain person identified a masthead is not enough to know how to build an engagement with the person by using some space below the masthead.

And, all of us - involved in the business of media have nothing with us to understand this relationship. Unless we understand the relationship we cannot partner with the newspaper to deliver to the consumer a 'facet' of the advertising brand and hope that the consumer will engage further.

The research we currently have is just like this 'long-shot'; we know that the person most probably is a reader and that is about all that we know from the photo/research - rest all is left for us to hypothesize.

Media Research - Connecting v/s Counting

The IRS counts how many people read a newspaper or a magazine or whatever other media is covered; TAM counts the number of people who watched a program; RAM counts the number of people listening etc. We debate how while dailies should be counted; but for magazines we should do less of the counting and do something else because they can never beat the dailies in the counting. All the media research that we use is mostly about counting - whereas they all should actually be about connecting.

I keep saying that the era of 'limited media' is over and it was in that era of limited media that counting media was of import. But, now in days of 'over-supply of media' its naive to be still only counting. What really matters is for us to understand how the media-vehicle and the consumer connect with each other. So if we can understand what makes them connect - we can enhance the experience further also by creating opportunities for brands to participate in the 'connecting'.

'Connecting' is about understanding what the media does to the consumer. A media vehicle is not just the masthead or the content - in consuming a media vehicle the consumer experience is a net result of the feelings associated with the medium from the past, the content and also the manner of presentation. This is the same as it is for any other product or service for the consumer.

The research done so far has served us well. But, now the markets have evolved and the same research is in-adequate. The existing research besides being revised needs to be supplemented with research that aids understanding and connecting. Each brand has a different relationship with the consumer and hence for each brand the manner of engagement via media  would be different. From an advertisers perspective therefore, the research needs to advise the brand on the best manner to engage with the consumer. The media brand itself needs to understand what affect the brand has on the consumer so that it can further orient itself to enhance the experience of the consumer.

So far, with the syndicated research available - we know how many people read a newspaper/ magazine or how may people watch/ listen to a broadcast, etc but we have no idea how their interaction with the media makes them feel. Without this kind of information about the relationship between the media and the consumer; the manner in which the brands utilize media to communicate with the consumer often ends up being very trivial, superficial and irrelevant to the consumer.

To enable brands to build a meaningful connection with the consumer - the media research must be recrafted to focus on Connecting rather than on Counting. 

IRS - Covering all Quarters?

The IRS has come a long way since its first report in 1995 when it challenged the existing sporadic research studies with an every year continuous research with a reporting every 6 months. The superior sample structure, comprehensive information design and collaborative ownership enabled the IRS to become the industry standard soon.

In 2010, the IRS started releasing the data on a quarterly basis. Let us try to understand the significance of this change and the impact that it has on the media research users. But, before we explore this specific improvement we need to get a perspective on the status of IRS as a research input in the media industry today.

The strategic challenge a decade ago was of reaching audiences relevant for the brand. The availability of robust data on key demographics and product - media linked data in the IRS was a boon to the media planners and so IRS became integral to every media strategy for most media agencies.

During the last decade there have been significant changes in the media consumption behaviour of consumers in India and hence also in the pattern of advertising spends by advertisers. While, the overall advertising spends have been growing at a healthy rate the media choice is shifted from Print to TV and is now tending towards OOH & Digital. This changing media landscape does have implications on the information coverage in the IRS for it to be still relevant and useful as a research database for media strategy planning as it was envisaged when launched.

Not only the number of media that make part of every plan have increased but the number of ways in which each media is used for advertising has increased significantly. Each media option delivers something different for the brand. Hence, the media choice decision now is far more complex than it was a few years ago and it needs a lot more dimensions of understanding of the media vehicles than just the "estimated readership numbers". There is a need to understand the nature and intensity of the interaction that a consumer has with each type of media exposure. There is a need to capture such interactions into objective variables that can then be used by planners to compare media options in an objective way to decide the best combination for delivering the campaign objectives for brands.

In the absence of such evolved measures, like most other syndicated databases, the IRS too has got relegated to a database of measuring only readership which can be best used only as a buying currency. A quick analysis will further reveal that the market price of a media option and its readership do not have a strong relationship and that there are many more variables beyond readership that ultimately decide the market price.

In such a context, I want us to now look at the issue of "quarterly reports" of the IRS and I must say that it does not address any of the strategic issues discussed above. If at all, it is able to bring the changes happening in the market to the media research users at a higher frequency than before.

The competition between publications also causes variations in the readership numbers and a quarterly report has the chance to bring these numbers to the market much faster than a six-monthly report. New publications are launching so often as new brand come in or existing brands expand to new geographies or target new segments. There is a need for the "readership numbers" for business transactions to progress smoothly and a quarterly report brings these numbers early for these new publications. This is also useful when new products and service brands are launched in the market. Advertisers now need to wait lesser for their new brands to feature in the IRS data. Of course! the IRS maintains its quality control of not reporting brands and publications that are too recent or have low sample size or are depict unstable numbers.

So, recency of numbers that we are seeing is certainly an advantage that the IRS quarterly reports provide. However, we must not forget that the IRS data is still a moving annual total (MAT) so even though we are getting the numbers every quarter these are still an average of the past 12 months. This is consciously done by the IRS to even out any "seasonal" or "tactical" fluctuations in the market. However, now when we are providing the data quarterly responding to the need of the dynamic market - we need to question if by suppressing these fluctuations are we doing justice to those who want to read the fluctuations in the markets.

IRS has a real opportunity to become an indicator of the success of promotion campaigns for publications, if it is able to report the data without averaging it over the year. I am sure prudent planners can always compute the annual average if they so require. Not only media, even product and services brands can use the IRS similarly. The opportunity is huge though I agree not easy to be implemented given the complexity involved in the sampling process and the stringent sample adequacy norms adhered to by the IRS.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the IRS has been one of the most successful products in the country. But, like all products and brands there is a point when one requires a re-thinking for the future and for the IRS that point has come. Incremental improvements such as the quarterly report will not aid this re-construction of the brand unless these are part of a larger strategic change that has been set into motion for the future. 

[Published in exchange4media in April 2011]