"Merge, please!"
Advertising statistics After January 1, 2004, it will mainly be a question of faith as to who will be more inclined towards the Advertising Index Switzerland or more towards Media Focus.
Advertising statistics After January 1, 2004, it will mainly be a question of faith as to who will be more inclined towards the Advertising Index Switzerland or more towards Media Focus.
When Wemf's youngest child, the Advertising Index Switzerland (AIS), is launched on January 1, the world of advertising investment statistics users will be heading for a split. This is the conclusion of an Igem event at which exponents from Media Focus and AIS crossed swords: We will have two statistics that serve two different target groups. This is because the two data sources satisfy different needs. The media themselves are primarily interested in the advertising clients' wallets. They can find the relevant information in the AIS, which measures the gross advertising investment invoiced. Clients who are interested in the advertising pressure with which a competitor is on the market are quite different. This information is available from Media Focus, which provides an account of the advertising actually placed.
More work for media agencies
Media agencies are unlikely to be happy about the system change. After all, the switch to a dual track system means more work for them - and financial losses. On the one hand, they will not be able to do without the more client-friendly Media Focus. On the other hand, the new AIS, for which they will incur additional acquisition costs, will be taken for granted.
But that's not all. In future, it could also become more difficult to charge clients for evaluations with Media Focus. This increases the risk that media agencies will be increasingly left with their Media Focus costs in the future. "Customers will point out that the same thing is also available with the much cheaper AIS," said Andy Lehmann (Aegis Group) on the sidelines of the presentation.
Does AIS herald the start of the discount hunt?
AIS creates another controversial possibility. The additional transparency also provides unwanted insights. For the first time, the two statistics together bring transparency to the jungle of discounts and freespace, which was previously shrouded in secrecy. This works very simply: Media Focus tells us how much advertising was placed by a client in a particular medium. And AIS provides us with the invoice that the client received for this. In other words, it will be child's play for anyone to work out to the nearest decimal point how much discount and freespace a competitor received - or granted. It is obvious that such calculations, which are possible thanks to AIS, will not be avoided. And it is just as certain that one or two advertising departments will receive nasty phone calls in response.
"Merged!" was the conclusion not only of Pierre C. Meier, chair of the Igem discussion panel. However, there is still a long way to go. The talks held so far between AIS and Media Focus have not produced any starting points for cooperation. But that was to be expected. After all, where should the two work together if the main work, the creation of the databases, follows different criteria? Nevertheless, both Jens Windel, Media Focus board delegate, and Wemf CEO René Schmutz assured that they were still open to talking to each other.
However, the dual track that will apply from January is not a new phenomenon. Back in the 1980s, the industry was already spoiled for choice between two statistics on advertising investments. Those of S+P (Schmidt & Pohlmann) and, from 1988, also those of the IHA. The result of the dual track was that the two merged two years later to form Media Focus.
Strengths and weaknessesAdvertising Index Switzerland - Measures gross billed advertising investments.
- Medium cinema is not shown. There are two figures for TV: gross billed by station group (SRG, CH advertising windows, private) and gross including freespace and free advertising by individual stations.
- Significantly cheaper than Media Focus.
- Comparability only up to 2003.
- Uncomplicated evaluation tool based on the layout of the other Wemf studies.
Media Focus
- Measures the advertising placed, i.e. the advertising pressure.
- All media are
shown.
- Significantly more expensive than AIS.
- Data and thus comparability go back to 1993.
- Flexible evaluation options with correspondingly complex
Evaluation tool.
Hans-Jürg Gränicher (AIS) and Lukas Zihlmann (Media Focus, right).
Daniel Schifferle
When Wemf's youngest child, the Advertising Index Switzerland (AIS), is launched on January 1, the world of advertising investment statistics users will be heading for a split. This is the conclusion of an Igem event at which exponents from Media Focus and AIS crossed swords: We will have two statistics that serve two different target groups. This is because the two data sources satisfy different needs. The media themselves are primarily interested in the advertising clients' wallets. They can find the relevant information in the AIS, which measures the gross advertising investment invoiced. Clients who are interested in the advertising pressure with which a competitor is on the market are quite different. This information is available from Media Focus, which provides an account of the advertising actually placed.
More work for media agencies
Media agencies are unlikely to be happy about the system change. After all, the switch to a dual track system means more work for them - and financial losses. On the one hand, they will not be able to do without the more client-friendly Media Focus. On the other hand, the new AIS, for which they will incur additional acquisition costs, will be taken for granted.
But that's not all. In future, it could also become more difficult to charge clients for evaluations with Media Focus. This increases the risk that media agencies will be increasingly left with their Media Focus costs in the future. "Customers will point out that the same thing is also available with the much cheaper AIS," said Andy Lehmann (Aegis Group) on the sidelines of the presentation.
Does AIS herald the start of the discount hunt?
AIS creates another controversial possibility. The additional transparency also provides unwanted insights. For the first time, the two statistics together bring transparency to the jungle of discounts and freespace, which was previously shrouded in secrecy. This works very simply: Media Focus tells us how much advertising was placed by a client in a particular medium. And AIS provides us with the invoice that the client received for this. In other words, it will be child's play for anyone to work out to the nearest decimal point how much discount and freespace a competitor received - or granted. It is obvious that such calculations, which are possible thanks to AIS, will not be avoided. And it is just as certain that one or two advertising departments will receive nasty phone calls in response.
"Merged!" was the conclusion not only of Pierre C. Meier, chair of the Igem discussion panel. However, there is still a long way to go. The talks held so far between AIS and Media Focus have not produced any starting points for cooperation. But that was to be expected. After all, where should the two work together if the main work, the creation of the databases, follows different criteria? Nevertheless, both Jens Windel, Media Focus board delegate, and Wemf CEO René Schmutz assured that they were still open to talking to each other.
However, the dual track that will apply from January is not a new phenomenon. Back in the 1980s, the industry was already spoiled for choice between two statistics on advertising investments. Those of S+P (Schmidt & Pohlmann) and, from 1988, also those of the IHA. The result of the dual track was that the two merged two years later to form Media Focus.
Strengths and weaknessesAdvertising Index Switzerland - Measures gross billed advertising investments.
- Medium cinema is not shown. There are two figures for TV: gross billed by station group (SRG, CH advertising windows, private) and gross including freespace and free advertising by individual stations.
- Significantly cheaper than Media Focus.
- Comparability only up to 2003.
- Uncomplicated evaluation tool based on the layout of the other Wemf studies.
Media Focus
- Measures the advertising placed, i.e. the advertising pressure.
- All media are
shown.
- Significantly more expensive than AIS.
- Data and thus comparability go back to 1993.
- Flexible evaluation options with correspondingly complex
Evaluation tool.
Hans-Jürg Gränicher (AIS) and Lukas Zihlmann (Media Focus, right).
Daniel Schifferle
