Entries for month: December 2011

Survey highlights growing strength of newspapers in engaging Irish population

Since 2009, The Irish Times has subscribed to Kantar Media’s TGI (Target Group Index) survey. This population-representative survey explores consumer habits, attitudes and media consumption among adults (aged 15 and older) dwelling in the Republic of Ireland. The 2011 data release highlights newspapers’ strength as an advertising platform and shows significant growth in population engagement with aspects of newspaper editorial content.

TGI includes a substantial section on advertising engagement across six media platforms: television, magazines, newspapers, Internet, cinema and radio. In the last year, the number of Irish adults who say they pay most attention to ads in newspapers grew by 7.5%, to a population total of 1.1 million. Meanwhile, newspaper advertising emerges as “most useful” for more Irish adults (943,000) than any other advertising media in helping them make purchase decisions. The next highest scoring medium in this regard is television, the ads of which are rated “most useful” by 929,000 Irish adults. More Irish adults feel newspaper ads fit better with the rest of the medium’s content than any of the other media surveyed.

Is just one figure still enough for newspaper audiences?

I am inspired by a column of the director, Stef Peeters, of our JIC (Joint Industry Committe) CIM (Centre for Information about Media) in Belgium and I totally agree with his point of view.

Increasing numbers of media and advertising professionals believe that traditional audience figures are falling well short as tools for strategic and tactical communication planning. And why is this? To put it briefly: the world has changed.

Today, socio-demographic information is no longer sufficient for identifying a target group. In their search for the maximum return on investment, Consumer Centric Holistic Measurement could be the ultimate resource for advertisers. With an integral vision of all possible (above and below) contact points with the consumer, it would be much easier to fuel communication planning and put together the most efficient contact mix. Online analytics promised a complete analysis of click-through rates — online conversion to offline lead generation. Could this be at last a glimpse of what the consumer really does over time?

Unfortunately not. There is no ultimate integral study of all the communication channels in existence. The most ambitious attempt at single source research, from communication to purchase, has proven to be technically and financially unfeasible.