Mashable reports that for the first time in history, online ad buys are surpassing radio buys.
To quote Iago the Parrot in Aladdin, "Oh, there’s a big surprise. That’s an incredible… I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die, from NOT surprise. "
The AQH myth is yet another reason why traditional media will continue to lose media buys to the web
AQH stands for average quarter hour and is used exclusively in traditional electronic media. The AQH estimates the number of people to be listening or watching for at least a 15 minute time period. The number is assumed to represent the number of listeners who will hear/see your commercial in the course of the day’s programming. In theory, the AQH will not include those listeners who tune out as soon as the commercial break begins.
This said, my family was recently chosen to be a Nielsen family. We were sent paper logs for every television we own to fill in our viewing habits. Those logs arrived via priority mail along with 5 one dollar bills.
In theory, you list what you were watching during the pre-determined 15 minute segments of each hour. The logs expectantly allow only one line per 15 minute unit. However, we were instructed to list any show we watched for 5 minutes. In watching with my teen aged and young adult children, I realized we would be watching 3 shows "simultaneously" on one TV. There was no way to account for this in the log and when we were called by Nielsen and I asked, I was greeted with a "here’s what it says".
"Have you looked at the log? There’s only room to write one show per line per 15 minute segment. I understand they’re trying to computer an Average Quarter Hour, but my children’s attention spans don’t allow them to watch anything longer than a YouTube video!"
"Well, maam… you obviously know more about this than I do," was the woman’s response. (I guess using the term "Average Quarter Hour" outed me…) "Here’s what the instructions say to do: list every show you watch for at least 5 minutes…"
In the end, our Nielsen logs turned into a blend of fact and fiction…. like a "based on a true story" made for TV movie.
Arbitron (the ratings police for radio) has tried to address the frailties of the paper logs and moved to People meters… which they hope to more accurately measure listening habits. However, media giant Clear Channel has blasted the devices as inaccurate as have Cox media and Radio One.
Meanwhile, traditional media continues to lament their loss of revenue to online media. Let’s see… online media provides advertisers with hard facts regarding their advertising buys. There are no "paper logs" and "estimating" involved with an online buy. Online media provides real DATA to back up their claims of eyeballs captured.
However, if you as an advertiser take this a "permission" to slash traditional media expenditures and allocate all of your budget to online media buys…. be prepare to suffer the consequences.
According to Media Week: "Marketers that treat tradtional advertising and word of mouth management as two separate animals do so in error, since the two are closely connected. Nielsen’s research – which analyzed factors such as buzz volume in blogs, spending, purchase intent among consumers and actual sales – has found that a big advertising budget is the best predictor of significant blog buzz, rather than tactics that attempt to specifically influence such online world of mouth.
Radio has ALWAYS been the ugly stepsister of media buys… yet it continues to be a powerful influence upon consumer behavior. Clever creative combined with the power of radio and television to "fly under the filter" and infiltrate consumer’s minds and influence their purchasing or even blogging decisions.
Aribtron and Nielsen are necessary evils… ways for radio and television stations to estimate their audience so they can charge for their influence. However, advertising purchasers shouldn’t hold the numbers to be holy and just. In the end, if you’re not buying media on a national scale… trust your gut and ignore the "figures".
One client of mine had a media rep pushing a channel that was an apparent "natural" fit. My client is a health professional and the media rep was pushing Discovery Health as THE channel for his message. The problem?
The channel’s line up for the week in question was focused EXCLUSIVELY upon "birthing of babies" type shows. The young women who would be interested in such programming were DEFINITELY not my client’s target audience. I asked him to conduct a survey of his current patients… what were THEY watching. 8 times out of 10, his patients were watching programming found on the Food Network and The Travel Channel.
Looking at the "figures" was one thing… listening to his current PATIENTS provided an entirely different answer.
As long as advertisers "charge per eyeball/ear"…. and rely upon paper logs submitted by volunteers… their ratings will always be suspect. However, when media reps stop selling by the numbers and instead focus upon getting results for their clients… well, then there will be new day dawning for traditional media.
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