Legacy metrics diminish our business

It’s nearly a year since I wrote that traditional media metrics were stifling development and innovation in the media landscape.

In the last two weeks I’ve been on two industry panels to make the same case that patching up our analogue metrics isn’t the answer for a digital age.
And yet – despite the fact that everyone knows better measures exist or could exist – they still find defenders.

It is the elephant in the room that vested interests would rather not address:
If we had better data then we could deliver more effective and more efficient marketing.
If we had better data then we could reveal more valuable insights and build more creative messages.

If we had better data then agencies would not be beholden to procurement or auditors and their subjective benchmark scores.

Sadly, it seems too many people are doing too well from legacy metrics that restrict our ability to deliver great work.

For all the talk of big data and its power to help us make messages more targeted, more relevant and more cost effective, very little is actually being done to ensure that such data is actually collected, collated and utilised.

It’s all highly disingenuous and doesn’t serve our customers – ultimately we all work for advertisers whether we are media owners, agencies or data collectors – very well.

People are concerned that the application of such information might create anarchy, but optimizing our messages based on outputs and outcomes rather than reach and frequency will ultimately help our clients sell their products.
Yes, changing the data that we work with will be disruptive but that’s what digital has done for so many businesses from music to publishing and retail to travel.

Why should media be any different?

The ability to know just how effective each channel and each media placement has been in delivering business advantage will give us the power to unleash new thinking, new ideas and prove what a great job we are doing for advertisers.
Patching up our existing analogue-anchored measurement panels won’t.