CAREERS MEDIA: 'Wild horse' lured out of academia by love for research industry

When change is in the air in China's media industry there is one person who won't be far away. "Friends always called me the 'wild horse' because I never went down the path that was expected," said Ms Zoe Tan, who recently made the move from director of client and media services China for market research specialist ACNielsen to director of strategic resources with Zenith Media Beijing. "If I had taken the expected path I would still be in academia, but I want to be part of change. I get bored quickly when I repeat myself. "I see myself as part of history being made in one industry." Ms Tan, who lived in the US for 16 years, received her PhD in mass communication from Michigan University in 1987 and taught as a professor for several years. She moved from the classroom into media research, and now, for the first time, is working for an agency and said she is very excited about the change that is imminent within the sector. While for a long time it was generally understood that creative was paramount in advertising, with research being given the back seat, the understanding is that this has changed and will change even more. While media independents were established to specialise in media planning and buying, integration of creative and media research is a top priority too. "While I was working at ACNielsen where the audience is a given factor I trumpeted syndicated research. But even then I asked myself what is there beyond the numbers. "Now I say syndicated research is only the foundation for proprietary research, which we need to do to truly understand the audience," said Ms Tan. "Now the audience needs to be found." Ms Tan is well prepared for the challenge: she left academia in the US in 1994 in order to be part of the developing cable TV industry in Taiwan. She then started working for ACNielsen looking at media in Taiwan and her responsibilities were soon transferred to the mainland Chinese TV market first from Hong Kong and then moving to Beijing in 1997. While working for ACNielsen Ms Tan worked closely together with TV stations on the mainland introducing ratings and people meters to clients largely unfamiliar with media research. "I was part of introducing one revolutionising TV research tool in China - the Peoplemeter - where before there were only diary systems," recalled Ms Tan. "TV station presidents are now eager to install ratings software on their laptops, which they would use in their talks to clients. "The sophistication of TV stations and the acceptance of research have grown tremendously with TV content changing due to ratings findings." However, she still sees that knowledge and understanding lag behind the passion to adopt modern research tools. Ratings are not everything, said Ms Tan, if we only follow ratings programming will become too similar while only offering drama and variety shows. "Agencies need to shape and have a stake in the maturing of the market," says Ms Tan. With too much pressure to appeal to mass markets and achieve high ratings, niche channels and quality programming will not have a chance to develop even though they often cater to highly educated target markets. Ms Tan sees a rosy future for cable if allowed to develop, but on the mainland this is difficult, as terrestrial TV will inevitably lose some of its influential clout. Ms Tan, who sees herself not so much as a TV specialist but rather a media generalist, believes that IMC will again revolutionise the industry as Peoplemeters have done for TV and hence is excited about the challenge ahead. "The importance of media placement has been recognised and we now need to concentrate on the consumer," she said. "Research becomes the backbone of everything, which makes the industry more complicated and also costly. "The question is not is the Chinese consumer ready for it, but how ready are the clients and agency? "But those who will make it happen first will be the leaders for a while to come." Source: CMM Intelligence.

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