Re-shaping the media industry in 2016 [INSIGHT]

By Andy Brown – CEO / Kantar Media

In recent years we have witnessed seismic shifts in the way people consume content and the technology that’s available for buying, selling and measuring its impact. Kantar Media’s CEO, Andy Brown, gives his predictions as we look to the year ahead.

In some cases, the industry has been slow to adapt, but in 2016 we’re likely to see things evolve in four key areas.

1. The mobile take over

Everyone in the industry is aware that mobile is growing – over the last year it has overtaken desktop as the primary form of internet access and there’s a whole generation whose sole connection to the internet is via the smartphone in their pocket.

However, at the moment the market is lagging, and brand spend does not correlate to the number of hours people devote to their mobile devices. I believe the balance will be readdressed this year, and that we’ll see an expansion of the ways we measure content consumption on mobile. For example, we have the capability to measure on mobile and are already implementing measurement on PCs/laptops and tablets in a number of markets around the world.

2. Avoiding media misconceptions

The travails of certain sections of print media over recent years has led some in the industry to make sweeping assumptions that all traditional media is falling irrevocably out of favour. Contrary to many expectations, we are actually seeing an increase in ad spend on both TV and radio.

Next year I anticipate a move away from the blunt reaction of the “traditional media is dead – let’s use online exclusively” attitude, as marketers look at campaigns more holistically and increasingly incorporate and measure the impact of traditional platforms alongside online.

3. The social and earned media factor

We launched the Kantar Media Twitter TV Ratings service just over a year ago to track how TV viewers Tweet about broadcasts. We’ve now taken this a step further by introducing a Brand Affinity tool, which allows brands to see the correlation between the programmes viewers Tweet about and the brands they engage with and capitalise on companion screen opportunities.

Social is playing an ever-growing role in how brands and broadcasters plan and deliver content, and next year more brands and agencies will recognise the need to accurately measure it. The recent John Lewis Christmas campaign is a good example of this; it was launched on social media, and Twitter was a rich forum for discussion about it, but it nonetheless drove significant earned media coverage across TV, radio etc. The impact of earned media impact via traditional media is often left out of the communication evaluation process. We have undertaken numerous studies to show how a social campaign can extend its impact via traditional media.

4. The changing face of TV measurement

One significant shift in TV measurement is being driven by the growth of out of home viewing and internet-delivered TV. Integrating the data from TV panels, with set top boxes and online TV players is a complex process that will evolve over the next few years, but in 2016 we will feel the push for total audience measurement across platforms will get stronger.

During the past year we’ve seen increasing appetite from advertisers, agencies and broadcasters for faster data. This may even go as far as real-time TV measurement. In Brazil and across Latin America we are already seeing this in action, with instant TV feedback being used to make real-time changes during live broadcasts, and it’s likely that other regions will follow suit.