Out for Wemf net sales statistics
Market Research: WEMF’s planned successor to its existing AIS advertising statistics has failed. TV and movie marketers are abandoning the project. This isn’t the first time.
Market research Wemf's planned successor to the previous AIS advertising statistics has failed. TV and cinema marketers are dropping the project. In the next few days, Wemf will publish the December data for its advertising statistics AIS (Advertising Index Switzerland) and the AIS full-year review - after which the competition between AIS and Media Focus (MF) will be over. This is because Wemf is discontinuing the AIS, as it announced last summer following an agreement with MF. MF, on the other hand, will continue to publish its own monthly statistics, which evaluate advertising expenditure at gross rates (advertising pressure), although Wemf had planned to launch a new survey for the print, TV, radio, poster, cinema, online, ad screen and direct marketing categories from 2007, which, unlike MF, would be based on actual advertising expenditure (net value) - similar to that of the Advertising Statistics Foundation. However, as the latter is only published once a year, the new study, like MF, should "ideally be published monthly". At any rate, this was the original idea of Wemf Director René Schmutz.
But a few days ago, it became clear that the project had failed. "The TV and cinema marketers informed us last week that they do not want to take part in the study," says project manager Rolf Blum. This means that the project will be discontinued, as the study makes no sense without TV, a medium with a strong market share. "We offer what the market wants and what it is ready for," says Blum.
The marketers Publisuisse, IP Multimedia (IP) and Cinecom confirm Blum's statements. However, the reasons for the rejections vary. "In addition to the monthly advertising pressure data from Mediafocus, the annual net figures from the Advertising Statistics Foundation are completely sufficient for us," says Siri Fischer, Head of Research and Product Management at IP. The Goldbach Media subsidiary markets the advertising windows of ProSieben, M6, RTL, Super RTL and Swiss channels such as Viva Schweiz and TVM3, among others.
Paying for your own dataAt Cinecom, the monopolist in cinema marketing and advertising time seller for Sat1 Switzerland, Kabel 1 and 3+, COO Claude Bruhin is more offended by the study's financing system: "As the only cinema marketer, we would have to pay for our own data," he criticizes. As this would also be directly comparable with MF's gross revenue statistics, "our conditions could be recalculated." However, according to the contracts with its customers, Cinecom is not allowed to publish comparable gross and net sales, says Bruhin.
SRG marketer Publisuisse dropped the Wemf project for completely different reasons. Head of Marketing Markus Hollenstein mentions three points: Firstly, the study would not collect real net-net data, but "merely net before deduction of the consultancy commission". Secondly, he criticizes the fact that, unlike the annual net sales study, the study is not embedded in the advertising statistics foundation. And thirdly, he criticized the fact that the study did not provide sufficient transparency within the TV genre: it either only showed a total TV volume or group volumes according to the broadcaster categories SRG, foreigners and private TV Switzerland. The former is useless and the latter only discloses Publisuisse revenues, but not those of the other marketers, says Hollenstein. "But I'll only drop my pants if the others do too." In order to be of use to him, the statistics would therefore have to show the net figures either by marketer or by individual broadcaster - which the other two marketers would hardly be able to accept.
TV and movie theaters have already crossed the line several timesWemf was warned.
After all, when it launched the AIS three years ago, it had already hit a brick wall with the cinema and TV categories - even though the AIS was not about net figures, but "merely" about the "invoiced gross". Nevertheless, cinema and TV also balked at the time - with similar justifications as today - and only provided Wemf with the gross figures that they also deliver to Mediafocus. As a result, even within the AIS, TV and cinema revenues were not comparable with the revenues of the other genres - a shortcoming that contributed to the demise of the AIS. former TV3 managing director Jürg Wildberger also tried to compile net statistics in 2000, but at that time only for the medium of TV. He was also unsuccessful.
Markus Knöpfli
But a few days ago, it became clear that the project had failed. "The TV and cinema marketers informed us last week that they do not want to take part in the study," says project manager Rolf Blum. This means that the project will be discontinued, as the study makes no sense without TV, a medium with a strong market share. "We offer what the market wants and what it is ready for," says Blum.
The marketers Publisuisse, IP Multimedia (IP) and Cinecom confirm Blum's statements. However, the reasons for the rejections vary. "In addition to the monthly advertising pressure data from Mediafocus, the annual net figures from the Advertising Statistics Foundation are completely sufficient for us," says Siri Fischer, Head of Research and Product Management at IP. The Goldbach Media subsidiary markets the advertising windows of ProSieben, M6, RTL, Super RTL and Swiss channels such as Viva Schweiz and TVM3, among others.
Paying for your own dataAt Cinecom, the monopolist in cinema marketing and advertising time seller for Sat1 Switzerland, Kabel 1 and 3+, COO Claude Bruhin is more offended by the study's financing system: "As the only cinema marketer, we would have to pay for our own data," he criticizes. As this would also be directly comparable with MF's gross revenue statistics, "our conditions could be recalculated." However, according to the contracts with its customers, Cinecom is not allowed to publish comparable gross and net sales, says Bruhin.
SRG marketer Publisuisse dropped the Wemf project for completely different reasons. Head of Marketing Markus Hollenstein mentions three points: Firstly, the study would not collect real net-net data, but "merely net before deduction of the consultancy commission". Secondly, he criticizes the fact that, unlike the annual net sales study, the study is not embedded in the advertising statistics foundation. And thirdly, he criticized the fact that the study did not provide sufficient transparency within the TV genre: it either only showed a total TV volume or group volumes according to the broadcaster categories SRG, foreigners and private TV Switzerland. The former is useless and the latter only discloses Publisuisse revenues, but not those of the other marketers, says Hollenstein. "But I'll only drop my pants if the others do too." In order to be of use to him, the statistics would therefore have to show the net figures either by marketer or by individual broadcaster - which the other two marketers would hardly be able to accept.
TV and movie theaters have already crossed the line several timesWemf was warned.
After all, when it launched the AIS three years ago, it had already hit a brick wall with the cinema and TV categories - even though the AIS was not about net figures, but "merely" about the "invoiced gross". Nevertheless, cinema and TV also balked at the time - with similar justifications as today - and only provided Wemf with the gross figures that they also deliver to Mediafocus. As a result, even within the AIS, TV and cinema revenues were not comparable with the revenues of the other genres - a shortcoming that contributed to the demise of the AIS. former TV3 managing director Jürg Wildberger also tried to compile net statistics in 2000, but at that time only for the medium of TV. He was also unsuccessful.
Markus Knöpfli
