PIN data: Perplexity and new delay
The transition of TV planning to so-called individual viewer usage data (PIN data) has already been postponed three times, most recently to 2012. Now it’s official: With Mediapulse’s decision to sell the necessary tool only in a stripped-down version, the market transition will face a further delay until at least 2013.
I'm at a loss", "I don't want to comment on this", "I don't understand this decision" - these were the reactions of media agencies when asked about the PIN data issue in recent days and weeks. In fact, there was widespread surprise when Publica Data AG (PDAG), the data marketing subsidiary of Media-pulse, announced on February 25 that although it would offer PIN data together with the EvoAd tool from April 2011 as planned, it would only provide the tool in a slimmed-down form. Although EvoAd will include a reporting module, the forecasting and planning modules announced in November will not be completed for the time being. In April, PDAG will inform the market how much it will cost to obtain the data and the license for EvoAd.
However, many agencies are already wondering what this means. A reporting module that can only be used to evaluate the historical values of TV programmes in greater depth is of little use if you cannot also carry out your own forecasts, planning, optimizations and checks based on these analyses. "I assume that we will therefore continue to work with the same tools as before," speculates one agency owner, who does not wish to be named. Another believes that the large network agencies now have an advantage: they could evaluate the PIN data with EvoAd and then carry out forecasts and planning with their own tools, which they already use abroad. The small agencies would be at a disadvantage. "We will then have exactly the two-tier solution that EvoAd was actually intended to prevent," he fears.
However, Stephan Küng, President of the Interessengemeinschaft Elektronische Medien (IGEM), now disagrees. At a meeting of the IGEM board on March 14, the new situation was discussed and it was unanimously concluded "that we are sticking to a market solution for forecasting and planning". It is not yet known what this will look like, "but IGEM now wants to take a more active role in this vexed issue," says Küng. It remains to be seen whether a future tool will include and map all TV planning processes. It is conceivable that EvoAd will be used for evaluations in the future and that one or two tools for forecasting and planning will also be evaluated. "But one thing can be said with a fair degree of certainty," the IGEM President stated: "The conversion of the TV market to PIN data will therefore probably be postponed until fall 2012 at the earliest (opening of bookings in 2013)." Although the transitional solution is still open, maintaining the status quo with Telecontrol-Advertiser and Media-Optimizer would certainly be desirable, especially from the agencies' point of view.
However, this will only work if the two TV marketers Publisuisse (SRG) and Goldbach Media (private and advertising windows) also participate and continue to submit their offers to Media Optimizer until at least 2013. "The agencies have strongly recommended this to the two marketers, but their response is still pending," says Küng. The two marketers also did not (yet) want to commit themselves to Werbewoche. However, Publisuisse Head of Marketing Markus Hollenstein signaled a willingness to cooperate: "We are also currently evaluating how to proceed. As a TV planning tool accepted by the market, the Media Optimizer is of course the most obvious replacement option." The Goldbach Group, on the other hand, was unable to provide any information at various levels.
The fact that PDAG is only launching EvoAd on the market in a reduced version has to do with tests conducted last December. Agencies that were involved reported that the reporting tool was the only one that worked as desired, while the other modules were classified as "unusable to "not very user-friendly". Küng himself also fluctuates "between enthusiasm and frustration" depending on the application. Nevertheless, he pays tribute to Mediapulse and PDAG. "It takes a lot of courage to stop something that was about to be completed and in which enormous time and resources had been invested." However, PDAG itself had passed the ball to the industry: "The experience of recent months has clearly shown that the expectations and requirements of potential customers of this software are not only very complex, but also inconsistent," it said in the press release. Markus Knöpfli
