Twitter Launches Brand Pages

Twitter has announced that it will be launching brand pages as part of its site re-design.

      On December 9^th, Twitter announced a major re-design to its site with one of the main new components being Brand Pages.  Brand pages on Twitter are very similar to those on Facebook and are intended to give brands a greater and more controlled voice. The main features of Twitter Brand Pages are the following:

• Larger customised headers that place more emphasis on the brand’s logo and tagline
• Brands have control over which Promoted Tweets show up at the top of the page.
• Promoted Tweets will appear auto-expanded. This will allow users to instantly see photo or video content linked from the tweet.
• Brands can separate @replies and mentions in order to better manage the relationship with the users.

         Brand Pages currently launched with 21 brands and Twitter announced that this would be rolled out to more brands in the upcoming months. Brand Pages currently do not work on mobile phones yet this will be launched in upcoming months as well.

Twitter’s Re-Design

        Twitter has re-designed its platform in order to simplify the user experience and allow users to discover new content. The new platform has five tabs:

• Home: This remains like the regular Twitter feed where you can follow people that you have chosen to follow.
• @Connect: Through this tab, users will be notified about who mentioned/followed them, re-tweeted them or “favorited” one of their tweets. This tab will also suggest accounts that the user may be interested in following.
•  #Discover: This tab allows users to discover new content. It will show results related to the users’ interest, their location, what they are following, and current events.
• Me: This tab acts as the user profile. It allows others to Tweet directly to the user and it allows the user to feature the user’s interest.
• Tweet: This allows users to Tweet regardless of where they are on the site.
• This re-design has also included an updated to Twitter’s mobile apps.

     Advertisers can now have an increased presence in Twitter and manage their brand image to a more extensive degree.  Brand pages will allow brands to extend their conversation with consumers. Being able to control which sponsored posts show up at the top of the timeline will enable brands to highlight specific content they want users to be aware of and interact with. Being able to split up @replies and mentions will be especially relevant for brands with high consumer engagement. By splitting them up, this impedes the conversation with users from getting diluted and customer’s inquiries to be answered effectively. Twitter’s redesign overall will have an impact for advertisers as new brands and promotions can be discovered through the #Discover tab. 

        Launching brand pages is part of Twitter’s attempt to increase engagement with advertisers. This follows the launch of Twitter’s self-serve advertising which allows advertisers to set up campaigns directly without having to contact a Twitter representative. Starcom recommends brands to set up brand pages as soon as they are rolled out in Australia. This will enable the brands to publish content geared towards its Twitter users and stir the conversation using Top Sponsored Posts. Starcom also recommends that brands take advantage of posting engaging multimedia content within their brand page in order to create a buzz.  Overall, the #Discover tab opens a new opportunity for brands to create more awareness. Brands should follow trending hash tags and create content related to these in order to increase consumer engagement.

Google’s December Algorithm Changes

Google has announced that it will announce its algorithm changes on a monthly basis.

On December 1st, Google announced that it will provide monthly updates on search changes. This is supposed to compliment its blog posts about major algorithm changes. The latest search changes include the following:

• New parked domain classifier: Google’s search algorithm can now identify and penalise parked domains. These are domains that are used as placeholders and are often filled with ads and add little value for users.

• Detecting original content: Google has added signals that can better identify original content. This is mainly used to penalise site scrapper sites and reward original content.

• Top results selection code re-write: Google has taken back a previous announcement that allowed many results from one site to appear on the first page. Google has re-written this code in order to prevent host crowding.

• Related query results refinements: Google announced that it will ease on its suggestions for search results for “rare” words. This is the case because related queries may be less relevant to the user.

• Result Freshness: Google has announced more changes to ensure the “freshness” of content. They announced a change in blog search and image indexing that will enable for fresh content to appear more often.

• More comprehensive indexing: Google announced that more long-tail documents are now available in its index which makes it more likely for them to rank for relevant queries.

Google is trying to improve the quality and relevance of search results by rewarding original new content. Google is pushing sites to create new fresh content in order to have sites rank well. Google is trying to level the playing field by not allowing one site to dominate the first page. This allows competitors and other sites to appear in search results. In order for brands to rank well, Starcom recommends brands to create original fresh content as Google has announced multiple changes in its algorithm that give preference to fresh content. In addition to this, hosting content on multiple sites can help brands dominate top results. This can be done through the use of Google + Pages and other social media outlets, especially blogs.

Google + Updates

Google has launched several updates since the release of Google Pages

Google launched Google Pages on November 7th and since then there have been several updates to Google Plus. Google has begun displaying select Google+ Pages in search results by publishing Google+ posts and giving users the option to add pages to their Google+ circles straight from search results. These options are only available for those brands that are part of Google’s Direct Connect. Google’s Direct Connect is Google’s feature that allows users to search for Google+ Pages by typing + followed by the brand name. This automatically directs users to the brand’s Google + page. Direct Connect is being rolled out slowly to those brands that have made themselves eligible for it by including a Google+ badge on their websites.

Google has also launched a Google+ Badge Tool that creates badges that show people’s faces and count the number of +1s the page has received. These badges are meant to go on brands’ sites and they include the +1 button and the option for users to add the brand’s page to their circles. Google has announced that the Google count that appears in the badge will be a compilation of all +1s across a brand including those from the homepage, Google+ Page and any ads being linked through Social Extensions.

Google has also announced its partnership with 6 companies to create management tools for Google+ pages. These companies are Buddy Media, Contact Optional, Hearsay Social, HootSuite, Involver, and Virtue.

These changes have the potential of having great impact on SEO. By displaying Google+ Pages in search results, these pages dominate more of the search real-estate. This allows brands more tools for reputation management as people are less likely to encounter negative results in search when most of the real-estate is dominated by the brand.

Starcom suggests that once brands have created their Google+ Pages, they should connect it to their websites in order to become eligible for Direct Connect. Direct Connect will be a great differentiator especially in the early stages where only select brands are part of this. Having a Google+ Page with Direct Connect will also increase the likelihood of appearing on Page 1 of search results as Google+ Pages are being published within results. Having your Google+ Page connected to your site will also be beneficial for SEO as social cues are being included into Google’s search algorithm.

Google + is Now Open for Business

Google+ is Now Open for Businesses, Brands and Places

On November 7th Google announced Google+ Pages for Businesses, Brands, Places, and any other non-living thing! Pages can be created within five categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organisation
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

Local business pages have special options such as including a phone number, address & hours of operation.

To create a Google+ Page, you first have to create a Google+ account and create a page within it. The admin of the Google+ Page is the person that creates the page and having multiple admin is not an option. Unlike Facebook, there are no vanity URLs on Google+ (at this stage)

Businesses can have multiple pages linked to the same Google+ account. With Google+ Pages a brand can do many of the same things that a personal account can do, including: share photos, share videos, share links & conduct Hangouts.

To actually follow a business you must place it in your Circles. However, you can +1 which will add to the number of +1 for the page. Businesses can create badges for people to put on their websites. These badges will link the user to the brand’s Google+1 page. Businesses can also have their pages be found through “Direct Connect” in Google Search. If “Direct Connect” is set up, brands will automatically be added to the user’s Circles. This will happen for any business that Google determines is particularly relevant for a search and if someone searches for the business with a + symbol in front of its name.

Businesses now have another social media outlet through which to interact with their consumers. Google+ provides different unique and new ways to communicate with consumers including the video chat, Hangouts. Circles allows for consumer segmentation which has not been possible through other social media platforms. Google+ has the potential to have a significant impact on SEO as Google’s is likely to place considerable weight on the adoption of Google + within it’s search algorithm.

Starcom recommends that in the short-term, businesses should secure and verify their Google+ Pages. Until Australian usage numbers are released, Starcom do not see the development of a Google+ page as business critical. A well thought out strategy should start to be planned for, including the role of Google+ as a social platform and it’s differentiation from that of Facebook etc. In the long run, as Google+ adoption & usage increases, this could be a key business platform. The unique features of Google+ including Circles and Hangouts should be used to the advantage of advertiser’s and can allow for different and more intimate ways of engaging with consumer’s.

To set up a business page, go to:

http://www.google.com/+/business/

Google’s Algorithmic Changes Focus on Delivering Fresh Content

On November 3rd, Google announced more changes to its search algorithm. These changes give more weight to content that has been recently created. Google estimates that these changes will affect 35% of all listings. This will be especially relevant in three areas: relevant events or hot topics, regularly occurring events (annual conferences, concerts, sports), and frequently changing content (ie news and reviews).

Google has recognised that different searches have different needs. For example, if you are searching for recipes, you will still get the most relevant result and not the latest recipe that has been posted. This algorithmic improvement is supposed to provide users with the level of freshness they need and make sure they get the most up-to-date information.

Once again, businesses are being urged to create up-to-date online content such as blogs and YouTube videos to take advantage of the changes in Google’s algorithm. Starcom recommends that companies generate fresh on-line content, especially blogs. Blogs provide an opportunity to interact with consumers, and create new fresh content regularly. They are a great link building opportunity and further boost brand awareness. Businesses should regularly comment on events and issues in their industry and make sure that they are seen as the market leaders in their space. Companies that update their content regularly are more likely to be seen as authority figures in the industry as well as the SEO benefits.

Data Driven Display buying - part 2

Data based knowledge explained

The lowest hanging fruit for using data to accurately target audiences is in the remarketing area.   Tagging the clients site (and any other client owned digital content) with a DSP cookie, enables use of the data to re-message at an individual impression level.  This client data is also referred to as ‘first party data’.

A second step to tagging is to use the tags to understand a single customer journey, and then re-segment audiences to further improve targeted messaging.   Using client site data we can for instance establish segments such as existing customers (tags on ecommerce thank you pages), in market but not converted (site visitor no sale), engaged customers (converted customer who is also a facebook fan) etc.  Tags marry back to a unique IP address.

In the area of behavioural targeting, it is also possible to build audience segments through aggregated content based behaviour.    For example, targeting a car insurance message to those who have visited auto sites/content across long tail sites. 

The final area of targeting opportunity exists through buying 3^rd party data.  This is yet to take off in the Australian market place and globally has been a slow mover.   It requires buying aggregated cookie pools through companies such as blukai, quantcast or exelate.  This is a lot for Publishers to get their heads around as it enables us to use their onsite audience interactions to target these same eyeballs elsewhere online for a fraction of the cost (of course they are paid for the privilege). Initial forecasts were that 3^rd party data would be an important component for buying via DSPs, however, 1^st party data has turned out to be of much greater focus thus far.

Other advantages of data driven display:

1. The traditional performance market place (buying based on cost per acquisition / CPA), accesses purely blind inventory.   This creates a couple of issues for us as buyers.  The first being that we have no granularity regarding what is actually working site wise.  The second is concerns regarding safety of sites within the blind Network.  Both are overcome through the DSP model, as sites and performance are transparent.
   
2. Buying remarketing through Publishers and AdNetworks carries a premium.  Because they control the data, Publishers are able to use client’s tags to gain increased effectiveness and currently charge for the privilege.   With agency powered DSPs, the client ultimately owns and controls their own data, so there is no premium for remarketing.

Audience on Demand

From a Global perspective, Starcoms parent business Vivaki launched Audience on Demand as a branded approach, rather than simply promoting a technology. This provides us the flexibility and fluidity to evolve and align with market leading technology, whilst maintaining a consistent market voice. 

In the expanding DSP landscape, there will be multiple technologies competing for agency business (similar to in the search space).   Right now, Brandscreen is the only active local DSP and powers AOD.   We can expect to see Googles competitor technology – Invite, launch in 2012.

Through the scale of Vivakis publisher relationships, AOD also provides access to market advantage in the form of additional inventory, not available to the broader market.   Right now ebay and Sensis media (locally) are available and we expect the list of publisher inclusions to grow as Vivaki negotiations progress.

Our Audience on Demand (AOD) commitment to our clients is to leverage the best technology available in market to provide:

• A trust worthy demand side buying platform with full client data protection
• Access to best in class expertise and support for activation
• Proprietary analytics and transparency on all media and data relationships
• Highly customisable targeting capabilities
• Expansive reach and scale
• Cost effectiveness

Latest AOD News

AOD is now fully operational and generating significant savings for those clients involved.  As access to client data increases, we can only expect this to continue.

There are now two AOD products in market, to allow for the different trading models available via open AdExchanges and private exchanges (eg ebay and Sensis).   These are AOD Reach (open market) and AOD premium (private market).

Within AOD premium, typically whilst we have inventory access, Publishers continue to set ‘floor’ prices (CPMs).  In this way they are somewhat protected yield wise, yet still appear in the open auction environment.  This means when these impressions arise in AOD, they will only be bid on where there’s forecasted ROI in the relevance/price equation, considering the floor CPM.

Last week, 9MSN/Microsoft announced the launch of their AdExchange on the open market.  This inventory has started appearing in AOD Reach, however, it must be noted that there is limited transparency at present.  Inventory has been grouped into two buckets, with no site level data available.  MSN are expecting up to 15% of all display trading to move through their AdExchange in the first 12 months in market (based on global learning’s).

Getting Started

We recommend all client websites are fully AOD tagged so that data collection is turned on well prior to launch.

Please talk your Starcom client business team or digital planner for more information on briefing and implementation.

Data driven display buying - part 1

DSPs, AdExchanges and Audience on Demand
If you read the trade press, you will have picked up on news that there is a new way of buying digital inventory in market. Enter more words and acronyms in the ever evolving digital space such as DSP, AdExchange, real time buying and Audience on Demand.

If you’re thinking ‘what is this all about’? Read on. Actually, even if you’re not thinking that yet, read on – because the topic represents an important industry shift.

The shift
From a big picture perspective, the key shift, is toward leveraging data and technology to buy enormously targeted audiences (and think micro targeting) at large scale, as an alternative to buying contextual environments. This can also be referred to as ‘data driven display’ buying.

How?
This is possible through demand side platforms – or DSPs, new technology now in market, giving agencies piped access to multiple adExchanges. Ad exchanges are technology platforms that facilitate the bidded buying and selling of online media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks – offering huge volumes of impressions.

Currently, only Google operates an Australian based AdExchange, however, we are able to buy through US AdExchanges targeting Australian eyeballs across a number of other AdExchanges. Later this year will see Microsoft also launch a local Exchange.

Through the DSP/AdExchange combo, agencies/marketers are able to trade/bid in real time at an impression level - based on the relevance (using data to ascertain) of the actual impression being served. This is often referred to as ‘real time bidding’.

Whilst similar to a technologically driven AdNetwork or buy (such as Adconion or Microsoft Media Network), there is a key difference. That is, in the open ‘real time buying’ environment, there is no AdNetwork managing yield. You bid and pay only what the impression is worth to the advertiser – using data based knowledge of the user behind the impression. Savings are typically considerable with 30% ROI improvements a realistic outcome on re-marketing (re-messaging a user who has visited your website).

In part 2 we will cover:

• Accessing data based knowledge
• Other advantages of data driven display
• Audience on Demand explained
  
• How to get started
  

Google+ set to be important for SEO ranking

On June 28th 2011, Google released Google +, Google’s social platform- turning the search giant into an all-encompassing social network. Google +, which is 12 months in the making, is still in beta mode with only a selection of invites being issued so far.

Overview

There are currently 6 elements to Google + which include:

Google+ Circles: This is essentially a friends list which allows users to drag and drop into ‘categories’ ie Friends, Family, Work Friends Users cannot see which circle they’ve been added to, or what another users circles are.

Google+ Spark: Content sharing platform & ‘discovery’ engine- this relies on information from Google Search and Google +1 & allows users to easily search and share content.

Google+ Hangout: Video chat with ‘buddies’ or entire circles. Allows you to join circles and also view Youtube videos together

Google+ Instant Upload: Automatically uploads images and videos from your mobile to a private album with the option of sharing.

Google+ Huddle: Allows you to text individuals or groups.

Stream: Similar to Facebook news feed, user’s share and see what friends are sharing.

Other News

Google + launched, and immediately Google Realtime ended.

The Google/Twitter agreement expired after 2 years, meaning Google are not currently including Twitter feeds into their listings.

Google Realtime search (displaying twitter and facebook listings) came down altogether as Google are ‘exploring how to incorporate our recently launched Google+’.

Starcom POV & Recommendations

Google’s first true venture into social is in no doubt direct competition to Facebook as the two online giants compete for audience and page views.

The question is, are consumer’s interested in another social platform and will this hit critical mass? There is no doubt that Google+ is very slick, like most of Google’s products it is intuitive and has some great features which make it both easy to use and share. However, privacy may be a concern with automatic upload and ‘add’ features which are unlikely to sit well with all.

Users so far rate the most appealing feature as circles allowing them to easily segment their contacts, and ‘share’ only with those relevant to the content. We can see this encouraging greater interaction with business colleagues, extending usage beyond friends.

Does it provide enough enticement to warrant using both a Google+ and Facebook account? Not yet from what we can tell, although it’s too early to call while Google continue to innovate.

The biggest impact for advertiser’s at this stage will occur within organic rankings. Google will continue to use social signals in their ranking algorithm so expect to see Google+ having an impact. For advertiser’s who have been optimising Twitter feeds & finding success in tweets ranking organically, the impact of a change in Realtime search could be substantial and lead to a new direction in social search.

Starcom recommend advertiser’s add the +1 code to their websites. If Google+ takes off, then advertiser’s will need to encourage user’s to +1 their content, as they do ‘like’. So, without a Google & Facebook partnership in sight, this small button could indeed be important.

Written by Sally Phelps, Search Director – Starcom MediaVest Group.

How many Australians use Twitter search?

Zuji have been active on Twitter since October 2008 here, so they are a bit of a pioneer - their Australian twitter feed currently has 2,073 followers, which is pretty significant for a branded feed. Their product offering works well in the space, as they have regular e-tail 'events' that are newsworthy to travel minded followers. Who doesn't want to go on a holiday at any given moment?!

I can understand why, leveraging promoted tweets appealed (mumbrella). Their primary motivation would most likely have been to grow their follower base through the ability to appear to a broader base (using twitter promoted tweets/search). Direct actions through to a purchase would be a huge bonus I expect. Actually their primary motivation could have been PR?!

In reality, category based search volumes within the twitter platform are likely to be minuscule when overlaid with Australian filters (eg 8%* regular usage, filtered by the no. who use the twitter search function and then by those who search relevant keywords). With twitter charging on a CPE (cost per engagement - re-tweet, reply, click, favorite etc), sounds like a couple of bucks a day to me for most categories. Having said that, if you try setting up a campaign, the minimum option is $5k to $10k per month (advertising). How much are those CPEs?!

Like Zuji, my over-riding thought is, worth trialing if you already have a considerable social twitter base and are looking for growth. As a keyword strategy competing with more traditional search $, I'm in the not at this stage camp.


*Source: Sensis Social Media Report

Australias first officially endorsed online audience measurement announced

IAB Australia today announced The Nielsen Company as the sole preferred provider of online audience measurement in Australia. This follows an 8 month tender period, amongst five competitors (Colmar Brunton with Gemius, ComScore, The Nielsen Company, Roy Morgan Research with Effective Measure and Vizisense).

Whilst the sceptics may wonder what’s changed (Nielsen were already the unofficial providers used by most agencies in market), we see this as a timely and important step forward.

Digital audience measurement has long been flawed in Australia, with different planning tools offering either inflated or deflated numbers, due to methodology challenges. The overriding outcome of the official appointment will be improved accuracy of planning data, meaning our planners will be better equipped to assess site performance against our clients target audiences.
It is understood, Nielsen will use a hybrid methodology, favoring people based metrics as opposed to browser based. This is an important differentiator, as cookie deletion is a significant problem, when browser based methodologies are utilised. This has historically resulted in huge inflation of stats (great win for publishers but not accurate).

Challenges with people based metrics have previously existed around panel recruitment (consider that this requires your computer/s and other digital devices to be monitored 24/7). Recruiting work based panels has been particularly challenging. With the Nielsen announcement today centering on people-based metrics, we can only assume that this challenge has been over-come.

Other benefits associated with the new appointment include the ability to measure audiences across all digital platforms (extending to mobile, tablets etc). This likely will have been cost of entry, in an environment that is rapidly fragmenting device wise.

Finally, it’s been announced there will be improvements in our ability to compare digital numbers to other media, along with new capabilities in multi -media reach and frequency. Nielsen will have had significant advantage in this space off the back of their heritage in media research.

Changes to expect as a result of the Nielsen tender win:

• website statistics will improve in accuracy and numbers are likely to be higher than we currently estimate (as they extend to cover more devices and through work panel improvements)
• better targeting options (target audiences available via NetView are broad and lack flexibility)
• very importantly, we will move on from UBs (unique browsers) as an industry metric to people based numbers

In the coming weeks we will gain more granular information in relation to the panel make up. We will also be introduced to Nielsens new data release, which is to be know as 'Nielsen Online Ratings (hybrid)'. As this evolves, you can expect to see our team presenting you with more detailed implication's.

AdTech Melbourne, 2011 the low down

From David Trovell, Starcom Melbourne Strategy Director:

ICANN is about to change the internet forever, there are no digital gurus, Microsoft Kinect is the fastest selling consumer device in history and other things I learnt at Ad:Tech Melbourne. #atmelb

The day1 keynotes at AdTech Melbourne had thrown up some great content, could the rest of the conference match up? I hoped so seeing as I was one of the speakers!

Before I get to Day2 keynotes here are a few nuggets that caught my eye from other presentations.

• There are now over 208m domain names; the .com or .org world as we know it is nearly full. So from Dec 2011 get ready for shoes.nike, barina.car and fifa.football. That’s right, TLDs (Top Level Domain names) are opening up. If you are not preparing for this change get on it quick. More info at http://mashable.com/2011/03/28/new-era-top-level-domains/
• “Think Mobile First” was a key message from many speakers. When designing online experiences make them great on mobile first. ¼ of all internet traffic, 1/3 of Facebook use and ½ of all tweets are mobile; and by 2013, 93% of phones sold will be smartphones (up from 54% in 2010).
• Better access to video content looks set to massively increase the amount we view. In the 70’s the average US TV viewer watched 17 hours of video (TV) a week, for the last decade viewing has been stable at 35 hrs, in 3yrs this figure is expected to hit 50hrs per week!
• Australians are the fastest adopters of iPads in the world. 8% of homes have one already.
• Communities like GoMiso and GetGlue are making TV viewing more social; will this save ‘appointment to view’ TV? Certainly it’s a growing trend and will only get bigger with GoogleTV.

Day2 keynote presentations summed up the good and bad of Ad:Tech.

First up was the kind of presentation that I had most feared from AdTech; a social media expert who judged success by the number of likes on facebook. In fairness, Jesse Ringham, digital manager from Tate Gallery in London, did have some good examples of social media. I like the way Tate use guest editors of their FB page, and their rule of, “reward, don’t broadcast” is a wise one. But his myopic view of digital was at odds with most speakers who stressed the importance of judging digital based on real business goals. He can be summed up by the quote, “well everyone is on Twitter now so…”.

However, the day was saved by Haresh Khoobchandani, CMO of Microsoft Asia Pacific. Luckily I did not have to introduce him (!). Haresh was full of good quotes,
“In the future no one will believe your brand”. Already, 90% of people trust peer recommendation but only 14% trust advertising.
“the future is here, it’s just not widely distributed yet” – nice quote!
“there are no digital gurus, we are all just students learning everyday”
“social media should be a feature not a destination of marketing strategy”
“marketing has moved from communications to conversations”
“Kinect is the fastest selling consumer device in history, with 8m units sold in 2-months”
Haresh was an excellent speaker and to hear the CMO of Microsoft say that there are no digital gurus was quite refreshing. He also admitted to being nervous about speaking these days because of the rise instant feedback via Twitter.

We were up next (Shannon Curtis from Target, Jamie Silver from ClearLight Digital and I) and the topic we had been given was, “what should a digital strategy look like?” Our three different view points worked well, Shannon’s inside view of getting different functions to work together, Jamie’s practical guide to digital strategy and my broader view of how digital fits into communications strategy.

Opening with the line, “I don’t believe in digital” did open a few eyes, but closing with “digital is the oxygen of marketing” (stolen from John Sintras) meant I did not get lynched on the way out. Also, it was interesting to see which parts of my presentation attracted tweets.

Overall Ad:Tech’s first appearance in Melbourne was a good one, a broad range of topics and lots of good speakers (IE Media’s Justin Wilden was excellent) but Bonin Bough from Pepsi stole the day. One final quote from Bonin, “multi-tasking is as addictive as heroin”!

High time for real time print measurement

The world continues to develop at a breakneck speed and nowhere is this more true than marketing and advertising. Every day marketers and their agencies make communications decisions. The old days of long term planning and buying are well behind us. Ongoing planning and optimisation in real time is increasingly the order of the day, and many clients now employ marketing dashboards to analyse marketing initiatives in real time.

The print medium, particularly newspapers, should be well placed in such an environment. Never have people interacted more with the content generated by our major mastheads, and yet the only story marketers get to hear is that newspaper and magazine circulations continue to decline. Yes that may be true of the print only version, but is it true of total circulation and readership across both print and digital content? Unlikely.

Unfortunately, the global development of print metrics to meet the requirements of a real time world has been positively glacial. In Australia, I started the discussions as then head of the MFA some seven years ago. Fortunately we have had some significant movement since then, but there is still a way to go.

It must be said that many people are now keen to make our print measurement as relevant as possible, and I feel more confident that real change is possible now more than ever before. The ABC executive and committee are enthusiastic and willing. The AANA and MFA both have dedicated teams prepared to help. The Newspaper Works has already moved forward with The Readership Works which will provide competition in Australia for the first time in a generation through the successful tenderer Ipsos. And at a meeting last week with The Newspaper Works’ new Chairman Greg Hywood and the board seemed keen to take on the challenge of more frequent circulation data for major newspapers.

We have already seen the introduction of quarterly circulation audit data for major newspapers and weekly magazines. Last week, The Newspaper Works also announced that newspaper publishers will start to report Monday to Friday day of week sales as part of their quarterly audits from July; another step in the right direction. A framework for the reporting of all digital sales has also been developed and will hopefully be voted on favourably by the ABC members for adoption later this year.

What is required now is the final move to circulation data for each publication, whether daily, monthly or quarterly. There may well be technical and cost difficulties with such a move, but a road map must be created now. No one is keen to impose unreasonable costs on publishers, so perhaps a combination of audits and voluntary reporting, co-ordinated through the ABC, might provide an answer.

The magazine publishers though are hesitant. In addition to cost and technical concerns, they argue that cover information is sensitive and publishing sales data for each issue dilutes competitive advantage. But is this really an argument? Surely they must already have a reasonable idea of competitors’ sales through their own tracking mechanisms. And don’t advertisers deserve to know how much each issue is circulating? Further, publishers could leverage more frequent data and move to a more dynamic pricing model based around higher selling issues.

More frequent readership reporting is also warranted. It is a nonsense to be using six monthly data for publications that are sold daily and weekly. New digital methodologies should allow us to start moving towards a more useable interval such as monthly reporting, hopefully something that The Readership Works and Ipsos is thinking through in addition to the incumbent Morgan.

Arguably newspaper and magazine content is as dynamic now as it ever was. You only need to witness the huge appetite for news around the extraordinary number of recent world disasters. What a shame that the print industry has not been able to capitalise on this upswing in news interest with real time measurement data. Yes, it’s high time that print measurement got real time.

Written by John Sintras for afr.com and published 17.03.11