Time ripe for new product to gauge viewer numbers

The recent launch of a new product for measuring media consumption in Kenya is a welcome development for the industry.

The new tool, a child of collaboration between Geopoll and Kantar Media, promises to deliver real-time audience measurement data.

The Kantar-GeoPoll Media Measurement is a fusion of the latter’s existing media measurement service and mobile data collection methods service and Kantar’s research expertise.

On paper, the two players bring considerable heft to the table. GeoPoll is the owner of the world’s largest mobile survey platform, already with a sample size of more than 200 million, while Kantar Media has made its name as a provider of marketing and media intelligence. The two were recently joined by TNS Global, another research major, in a strategic partnership.

In a geographically diverse country such as Kenya, where perhaps the only infrastructure that works is mobile phone connectivity, using this medium as an avenue for collecting media audience data through such tools as SMS, voice and mobile web brings several advantages.

For starters, it takes out of the equation the need for a sedentary data connection, which tends to be relatively more costly in these parts.

Geopoll already has a database of about 10 million respondents, nearly a quarter of the country’s population and half its mobile phone users.

But more important to users of audience measurement data, whether they are advertising and reputation management agencies, media owners and strategists, media planners, advertisers, researchers, government and non-governmental organisations is the fact that this method offers greater flexibility, speed and efficiency.

Users can easily tweak the research methodology to answer to their specific needs. The use of mobile phone technology, principally SMS, means results can be received almost real-time. For instance, users can see audience shifts; assess the performance of their advertisements and stories; while monitoring viewership of one-off events like the IAAF World Athletics Championships, real-time.

Audience research in Kenya has been for the longest time, the unquestioned parvenu of the Kenya Audience Research Foundation (KARF).

Formed in 2007 to fill the need for a robust audience measurement system, KARF was a celebrated industry initiative midwifed primarily by the Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK) and the Association of Practitioners in Advertising (APA).

Leadership is provided at two levels — the trustees and the oversight committee, while the research partner or supplier has, since inception, been research firm IPSOS Synovate.

The trustees are traditionally representatives of APA, MSK and more recently, the Media Owners Association (MOA).

While the trustees have a more direct leadership role, the Oversight Committee is more of an advisory, intellectual body with a much wider representation: MSK, APA, Pan Africa Media Research Organisation, Kenya National Bureau of Standards, Communications Authority of Kenya, Advertising Standards Committee, African Media Initiative, Africa Centre for Approved Research and NGOs.

Even then, this well-laid out plan has not always worked optimally for the industry players who need to make informed, accurate and insight-led decisions, sometimes literally on-the-trot.

Talking to regular users of KARF data, one gets the distinct feeling that they would prefer shorter lead times than the three-month model, which has been the norm in the past. The media industry is dynamic and consumption patterns change rapidly. For instance, TV affinity is fast shifting following digital migration, with new players hankering for their piece of their pie.

A potentially game-changing prospect has been presented by the entry of vernacular TV outlets like Njata, Lolwe, Kass and Baite TV into the fray.

Another deficiency has been irregular supply of data. For instance, data for the fourth quarter of last year came through early this year.

There has been an attempt to ameliorate through day two (day-after recall) data, but the jury is out on how reliable this can be, especially considering the sample sizes involved.

Clearly, things, including the potentially shifty memories of respondents, could be better.

Beyond currency, the fact of the matter is that most of the available local audience measurement data and research still display poverty and gaps on several fronts: magazine consumption, out-of-home media, vernacular stations and Pay-TV viewership data.

It is these realities that make the entry of a new player an exciting development. It creates scope for greater competition among players. It could also nudge forays into areas hitherto considered no-go areas by incumbent players, of course based on client demand.

The overall strategic communications industry will be richer for it. Same goes for local media outlets and their audiences.
When all is said and done, it will be quite interesting to see how the new Kantar-GeoPoll Media Measurement audience measurement product will be received in Kenya.

The promoters announced that the service is already available in African markets like Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The author is a strategic communication consultant and a user of audience measurement data.