Media Research Day 2025: Audience First and the search for the lost nectar
Exclusive insights and powerful perspectives from the 2025 Swiss Media Research Day: m&k was there, conducted interviews with experts, and shows how valid data forms the basis for future media strategies.
Under the motto "Audience First - From Data to Knowledge" WEMF AG für Werbemedienforschung hosted the Swiss Media Research Day 2025 at the Westhive Zurich Hardturm. The event, which was well attended by over 200 people, brought together experts from the media, advertising and research sectors to discuss the future of data-based targeting. The focus was on the question of how valid data can be transformed into valuable knowledge and efficient recommendations for action.
The discussions showed that the industry finds itself in a dynamic field of tension: On the one hand, it is about the maintenance and further development of complex data structures and, on the other, about the pragmatic relevance and applicability of the results for the advertising market.
The double challenge of research
As a media research organization for the advertising market, WEMF operates in a field of tension. For Finn Stein, Director of Research & Development at WEMF, there are two central areas of focus: In the background, the theoretical sample quality must be kept high so that the figures remain consistently good and reliable. He describes maintaining the sample as a huge "juggernaut" that is expensive and time-consuming.
On the other hand, research must practically relevant remain. The data must be applicable and provide relevant information. This requires the further development of tool functionalities (such as Next Level), the updating and expansion of content (e.g. in the area of sport and culture with events) as well as the modularization of the range of courses in order to be able to respond more flexibly to the needs of the market. The biggest challenge in product development is to remain relevant in the long term.
Targeting reloaded: from funnel to flower meadow
In his keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Marcus Schögel presented "Targeting Reloaded" presented segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) as the "supreme discipline" of marketing strategy. He emphasized that STP is just as necessary today as it was 40 years ago and will remain important in the coming decades, as "not all customers are the same".
Schögel called for a rethink that leaves outdated opposites such as "branding vs. performance" behind. Instead, new approaches are needed that Reach with relevance connect, use media channels in an integrated way and combine brand strength with efficiency.
He took a critical look at simplified segmentation approaches:
- Generations and age: He considers it "strange" when companies focus on generations such as Generation Z and thus only use one segmentation criterion (age).
- Creative personas: He sees it as difficult when the complexity of segmentation is overwhelmed by creative descriptions of customers instead of relying on data.
- The Panini effect: This effect describes the mistake of wanting to optimize marketing down to the last "picture" - in other words, planning every detail and analyzing all the data. Schögel believes this is wrong, as you should consider whether you can really achieve a goal at all.
As an alternative to the classic funnel model, which divides customers into phases, Schögel presented the Bumblebee principle before. Accordingly, customers tend to move like insects between different flowers (touchpoints), as they look for and pick up on different stimuli. The marketing strategy should therefore be based on a "flower meadow" in which various touchpoints offer the customer incentives.
Tools for precise targeting and more credibility
The WEMF presented new and existing data solutions to bring together theoretical requirements and practical application. Dr. Marc Sele and Nicole Ammann demonstrated practical targeting options based on the MACH studies. Common forms of targeting are socio-demographics, behavioral characteristics (e.g. consumer behavior), psychographics and geography (place of residence or work).
Central WEMF tools to support this process:
- Next Level: This data analysis tool offers options for carrying out comprehensive analyses before technical control is applied.
- RAPID API: This is a relatively new real-time interface to the WEMF dataset. It makes it possible to deliver data directly to marketers' bidding tools so that they can work with high-quality information.
- AI Assistant: An AI assistant is being developed to simplify access to the WEMF's extremely comprehensive data set. It is intended to help users to get the right variables suggested for their questions.
The industry is also working on initiatives to ensure data quality in the targeting process:
- Better Prediction Initiative (BPI): The BPI is an industry-wide attempt by marketers, publishers, advertising clients and media agencies to optimize and enrich their own predictions. This is done through technical solutions and certification solutions that are intended to provide proof of higher quality.
- Prediction Accuracy Check (PAC): The PAC is primarily used by online marketers to have their first-party user data and the predictions based on it certified by the WEMF.
Audio marketing and transparency in the podcast sector
Marie-Ange Pittet, Director of Product Management at WEMF, explained how WEMF data is used in audio marketing.
This year, the WEMF has Podcast audit was launched. This provides monthly certified download figures and thus creates credibility and reliable figures for this advertising channel. The audit is a response to the need for greater transparency in the podcast market.
Figures from the MACH Strategy (the largest intermedia study in Switzerland) also show how users' affinities for podcast topics can be determined. A new feature of the MACH Strategy is the publication of interest in 19 different podcast topics.
The road to online currency: ODS and the demand for comparability
A central and challenging topic was the panel on online research in Switzerland. Roland Ehrler, Director of the SWA, stated that online research is currently at the level it was in 2007, when the first traffic data emerged. There have been failed projects since then.
The hope now lies in Online Data Switzerland (ODS)According to Florian Wanner (Head of Regional Electronic Media CH Media), ODS is a traffic measurement system that was adopted in collaboration with existing partners. ODS is an initiative that was supported by the three major media companies.
The primary requirement for the advertising market is that all brands commercially active in the advertising market participate in this measurement.
The relevance of ODS data according to Florian Wanner, lies in the credibility and the Comparability. The data is all measured in the same way and a set of rules is adhered to, which prevents media companies from communicating individual, non-comparable results with their own Google Analytics figures.
The future steps in online research are clearly defined, but not yet fully realized:
- Traffic Data (available since January 1).
- Audience Data: The question, which audience uses the websites.
- Campaign measurement: An overlap and competition-free measurement of how many contacts the individual campaigns had.
In her conclusion, Dr. Jella Hoffmann, host and CEO of WEMF, underlined the relevance of valid and reliable data, which remains very high. Her wish for the market partners is to Reliability and transparency The Swiss market's importance must be valued and not given up, but work must continue on important and challenging issues such as online research in order to make market data and comparable information available to everyone.
