Pamro: Updating media measurement

Dutch media research currently only measures traditional viewing, listening and reading and does not include online, on-demand and new media players. Given that the media landscape has changed so significantly, four research organisations responsible for media measurement collaborated to design a new system of measurement.

Presenting on the second day of the 2021 Pamro virtual conference, Sjoerd Pennekamp, director of TV audience measurement at SKO, and Karin Schut, director for digital audience measurement at Vinex, explained the design of the new research measurement and how it will fuel the full media planning life cycle with different data sets.

The Nationaal Media Onderzoek (National Media Research) was launched in March 2021. Over the course of the next year and a half, the measurements will be completely renewed and new currencies will be launched. The new measurement plans to incorporate all the new platforms across content and campaigns, providing better insight in cross-media research; comply with industry standards and best practice; be General Data Protection Regulation and e-privacy compliant; be future proofed for new ways of media planning and buying; and reduce costs by co-operating and combining panels, samples and measurement technology.

Two vendors, Ipsos and Kantar, were chosen to deliver the new measurement. The research keeps the end user in mind and acknowledges the need for true cross-media measurement and the evolution of the media landscape. Cross-media data sets are built on the pillars of the best data sets for a single media type. A clear research design provides an overview of the data sets that needed to be delivered to the market.

Implementing a new measurement system or updating an old one can be challenging. Christopher O’Hearn, project director at 3M3A in the UK, discussed the essential elements of planning for a total addressable market (TAM) system. 3M3A has been involved in many tenders and evaluations around the world. O’Hearn discussed the complexities of a new measurement system, including how it will be funded, the need for a clear scope, timeline, how decision-making works and what to steer clear of.

Prof Carel van Ardt, research director at the Bureau of Market Research (BMR), presented a paper detailing the background behind the BMR’s consumer market segmentation model.

Gary Whitaker, CEO of the Broadcast Research Council of SA, and Hendrik van Blerk, audience measurement lead at Ipsos SA, discussed the new radio audience measurement programme, RAMS Amplify, that is both future-ready and addresses concerns around data frequency, stability, flexibility of design and granularity, amongst others.

Brenda Wortley of 3M3A SA discussed what TV viewing tells us about power outages, explaining that the impact of load-shedding is disproportionately high on TV viewing as prime-time viewing is the most affected, which helps to explain the underdelivery of campaigns.

Monique Claassen, head of media insights at Kantar, and Anusha Harri, account director at Kantar, explored the media trends that marketers should be focusing on with an analysis that provided guidance for campaign planning.

Jennifer Daniel, executive director of Pamro and the vice-president of strategic partnerships at Telmar, says the high level of paper submissions this year has been commendable. “I would like to thank all the speakers for their excellent paper submissions.”

The 2021 Pamro virtual conference was made possible by Borderless Access, DStv Media Sales, Nielsen, Telmar, Ornico, Plus94 Research and Ipsos.

To view day two of the conference, click here.