When the dust settles down…!

Last week the IRS data, (world's largest media syndicated study), for the 2nd round of 2008 finding was released, and within hours of the release, there were frantic calls across media organizations, to the MRUC and Hansa office! Everyone wanted to talk/ask/debate was on “How can Average Issue Readership (AIR), which has been a industry currency for so long, be replaced by Total readership (TR), all of a sudden? How can the Press readership metrics change in an abrupt fashion?”…so on, in almost similar veins.

After the clarifications issued by the concerned parties, the three key takeouts, from those clarifications, seemed to be:

AIR and TR are both reported in the R2 findings.

Only difference was that in the previous rounds data, analysing at a Media Reach levels, other media always used to rely on Reach reported from all the possible vehicles but Press used to report Reach for the medium only from the titles covered in the study.

TR is slightly different from Claimed readership (CR), to the extent that while CR is a measurement metric to judge the loyal and irregular readers at a title level, TR measures the sum (Gross) total of everyone who has claimed to have read any Print title/vehicle. This brings the Reach of Press in parity with other media.

At individual planning/title specific readership metric will still continue to report and analyse on the AIR. Only difference now, is that the software in the initial front end will show the TR, and then subsequently when the planner starts building the plans, AIR will be the metric it will be measured on. This would encourage the Planner to go beyond the initial run of the system.

The above really doesn’t change the planners’ life to a great extent. While previously we hardly ever looked at the CR metric, now it forces the Media professionals, to consider the TR as an important measurement to judge the efficacy of Print in general. While retaining the base of AIR as the most key attribute to measure individual titles on.

Therefore the Media professionals need to still operate on the regular metrics of AIR, to plan, buy and perform the analysis on, but TR allows the medium to be measured in the same base as other media.

Other key attributes of the R2 findings, which have been snowed under by the above issue, which we might like to point out is the higher time spent reading the print vehicle.

While this is definitely good news for the publishers, but we must remember the time spent on individual page/s would have most definitely reduced.

Common sense tells us that with the given volume of an average daily or a magazine going up in the last 4-5 years, through increased paginations, sectional/supplement pullouts etc, there is definitely a “pick- and- choose- the- favourite- sections” factor operating here.

Which brings us to the question on the data on Sectional readership, this ideally should be used with the AIR of the overall title, and decide on the relevant placement of the communication, basis the brand’s target audience. This would at least kick start the thinking on how to sharp-focus on our audience, even on a large & mass based Daily.

We, in our organization , do believe that the time has come for us to move away from Media plans and schedules, to Contact plans and creating engagements.

We need to follow the consumer wherever he goes, whether it’s ATL vs. BTL, classical vs. new media etc… are not even debating points anymore.

We are into the business of building connections with consumers, and engaging them, it doesn’t matter on the format of the communication.





Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...

The Power of Words

Today, while driving to work, I happened to listen to one of the FM stations in Mumbai, AIR FM Rainbow, which still believes in playing back to back pure music (without Jock speak), and sometimes interspersed with knowledgeable, mature and informative RJ sound bytes. The station is devoid of advertising, contests and calls. This makes it a complete listening pleasure, esp. during Mumbai morning traffic jams..!

What I want to talk about though, is completely different.

This morning there was a 3 hour tribute to the great musicals from the Hollywood studio factory...Songs from classics like Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I were played, and I happened to listen some honey dripping voices of Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and even the King himself, Elvis. But what was quite noticeable was the quality of the lyrics, and the words in each and every song. The words and the lyrics were evocative, conjured up images of a not-so distant past and most importantly were simple. Suddenly it seemed to me that the difference in arts (especially in Popular Songs, Films and even popular literature) between todays, and the ones that were created, even, 30-40years ago, was the magic of spoken and written words. Today's popular music seems to dwell on the inane and pedantic meaning of words. Films today lack the powerful dialogues and the long monologue speeches (made famous by Al Pacino...!). Don't get me wrong, iam the biggest fan of modern day music. I would love to hear Black Eyed Peas, James Blunt, Robbie Williams, at any time of the day. But today what I am forced to listen is,the music and not the words.
The techno beats, and not the subtle meaning of the lyrics.
The high clapping digital drums and not the introspective sound of the words, (like powerfully used by Pink Floyd in The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon).
We are slowly losing the power to conjure up the power of the spoken words, the magic of great lyrics. I am not blaming any kind of musical styles, but Rap to a large extent started the trend of laying great emphasis on cluttered sound and menace, quite forgetting that the words can tell a story much better. Steven Spielberg, while accepting a lifetime contribution to the World of Cinema in 2001(or was it 2000?)said that "...while we have achieved mastery of the visual format of story telling, we need to stand up and re-discover the magic of written and spoken words"...This coming from the most famous peddler of pure visual magic, is possibly one of the greatest nod to the power of words.

As for me, today's traffic jam was the most enjoyable that I experienced, after a long time.

Have Faith; Rewards will follow...