In an economic environment where every dollar counts, the call by
media agencies for a single pan-Asian research currency covering print
and television is finding an attentive audience among advertisers.
Media agencies insist that the move towards a single piece of research
to replace the three main studies - ACNielsen's ATMS, AMI's PAX and
Ipsos Far East's ABRS - isn't simply self-serving.
Indeed, apart from making their lives simpler, it's advertisers and
media owners who have as much to gain from having a single
commonly-traded research currency.
Advertisers who happily splashed out on more than one study in boom
times are loathed to do the same in today's lean climate.
But it's the benefit to media owners which makes the single research
argument particularly compelling.
Sponsorship money from media owners - currently split among the three
big studies - can be pooled to fund one major study, based on a brief
drawn up with media agencies' input. And in line with industry practice,
research houses are then invited to pitch for the work.
Thereotically, if all goes to plan, this should ensure that the research
has more scope, depth and accuracy.
As MindShare's regional research director Annette Nazaroff puts it:
"Media owners would become more accountable as we would all be debating
from the same platform."
However, the road to achieving a single source survey is likely to prove
to be a long and tortuous one as the different sides seek to protect
their own interests.
For obvious reasons, research houses, for one, are sceptical that one
big survey can replace the current large-scale studies, especially in a
region as diverse - culturally, linguistically and ethnically - as
Asia-Pacific.
Asia Market Intelligence (AMI) director, Miranda Cheung, says: "I don't
think it's possible to view Asia as home to a homogenous group of
people. Different markets have different priorities. In addition, media
owners and agencies have different needs that have to be addressed and
accounted for."
She pointed to entertainment channels as having a broader audience base
compared with their news counterparts, which target a more upmarket
viewer.
"You can't have one survey for everyone because compromising on
priorities among the different parties would be extremely difficult."
Cheung acknowledges, however, that single source research might be
possible in sub-regions of similar demographics such as Hong Kong,
Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines or Korea and Japan.
ACNielsen Media International China and Hong Kong executive director
Philip Rich said that ATMS, PAX and ABRS all started life serving
different purposes and those differences still exist.
For instance, ATMS targets the top 10 per cent of theAsian population in
major cities around the region, while PAX has a slightly broader focus
and ABRS examines the popularityand reach of regional print titles among
top business executives.
"Every television channel or publication has a slightly different
target. That's where ATMS, PAX and ABRS demographic targets are
different.
"But these differences will likely continue because the separate surveys
are funded by media owners within a strong consultation process."
But Adrian King, MediaCom director of media research and strategic
planning, says the degree of difficulty in moving to a single currency
isn't as high as believed.
King, who in the mid-1990s helped to set up the European Media and
Marketing Survey (EMS) as a single research currency, argues that ATMS,
ABRS and PAX are all generally trying to measure the media consumption
habits of an upmarket group of people within the Asian population.
"There is diversity but the point is that demographically they are
similar in that you can characterise them as young males who are
high-income earners. When you look at the top stratum of earners, the
demographics are reasonably tight," he says.
King adds that Asia's diversity cannot be used as an excuse because the
EMS research is conducted across Europe, which is also home to a diverse
group of people, culture and language.
He stresses, however, that there are other studies in Europe such as
EBRS and Europe 2000, but claims that EMS is "the most comprehensive in
terms of brand volumetric data and media consumption data in the top 20
per cent of income earners".
However, it's feared that an Asian version of EMS would put a dent in
the profitability of some of the big pan-regional studies.
But not all media agencies are in agreement with each other. Universal
McCann executive vice-president and regional director Allan Medforth
says: "It would be lovely to have a piece of single currency research
but it's fraught with dangers because everyone has different values and
purposes."
BBC World's London-based head of research Jeremy Nye believes that there
is more of a consensus among media owners in Asia-Pacific than in
Europe.
However, he stressed that disagreements were "often most intense between
companies with similar target audiences and interests".
There is also debate over the survey's methodology. Some say it should
be face-to-face because researchers need about two hours to complete the
survey. MindShare's Nazaroff adds: "Keeping it interesting is the key,
including letting the respondents understand that he is taking part in
something important. The type of questions and the time required dictate
the methodology."
But others say this would be too costly. MediaCom's King advocates
telephone interviews to get media consumption data, followed by a
printed questionnaire to collect brand consumption data.
"Face-to-face interviews are the best, because it gives the best
qualitative and quantitative data but we must look at the costs. It
might not be realistic."
Media owners, meanwhile, say that they would welcome a single research
currency.
Fiona Dance, Business Week regional research manager, says the different
studies conducted by the big research houses are a good source of
information about people and their media usage habits.
"We use our subscriber base to conduct proprietary research and we are
always looking for other sources of information. But it would be nice if
we could get it from a single source," Dance says.
However, given the downturn in the worldwide economy, costs are becoming
a more critical factor in determining which and how many surveys to
sponsor.
Most of the regional media owners said they would continue subscribing
to research as a demonstration of their accountability to their
advertisers.
But while the print media may be satisfied with yearly surveys, regional
satellite and cable operators have a trickier balancing act to perform
because they also have ACNielsen and Taylor Nelsen Sofres (TNS)
peoplemeters as a purchase option.
Star's vice-president of corporate affairs and publicity Jannie Poon
says: "We will always place great importance on research whether our own
or through independent third parties, but cost reduction of expenditure
items is the order of the day right now."
CNBC Asia's current strategy is to focus on data generated by
ACNielsen's peoplemeter panels. This was underlined two weeks ago when
ACNielsen announced it had signed CNBC to a three-year contract covering
eight Asian markets: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand,
the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.
CNBC Asia general manager of marketing and communications, Miguel
Bernas, says the peoplemeters provide current data, which "media
planners look for and it's the type of data cable operators need to beat
their terrestrial competitors".
BBC World has opted for a combination, but is only sticking with PAX
after asking for "improvements".
Nye says: "This has been done by stripping out unnecessary questions,
and beefing up the television section to include the length of viewing
by daypart for the previous day. The key data provided by PAX 2001 will
be similar to that collected in radio measurement - day-after
recall."
The BBC also uses peoplemeters, however, this option is reviewed
regularly because of cost.
