Digital People - John Grono

Name: John Grono

Works: GAP Research

Job Title: Director

1.  How, where and when did the media and publishing industry find you?

Back in 1989 I was part of a small group of people under Bill Pulver at Nielsen who thought that People Meters were a better way of measuring TV audiences than diaries.   After a protracted trial process we were awarded the contract early in 1990 for a 1991 launch.   After a few champagnes (cases, not bottles) we sobered up and launched after eight months of hard work. 

2.  What is your current role and what do you actually do?

I run my own research consultancy called GAP Research.   The major part of my consultancy time is with the MFA representing the media agencies on syndicated audience measurement in Australia.   This means sitting on the technical committees that review each ‘currency' ensuring that the research data is as robust as possible within the confines of the available funding.   Currently I work closely with OzTAM (MTV), RegTAM (RTV), ASTRA (STV), CRA (radio), IAB (online), The Newspaper Works (print/press), OMA (out-of-home).   If cinema needs a technical committee, I'm sure I will be there too!   I also consult to both ASTRA and MCN in the Subscription TV industry.  

3.  What are the major issues and challenges the industry faces in adopting more robust and evolving measurement metrics?

The speed of change.   But first, I must say that Australia is blessed with some of the best and most advanced audience measurement in the world, so we are in a much better position than most countries.   As one example, 2010 has seen the introduction of ‘time-shifted viewing' incorporated into the TV ratings.   This has been a two-year project as it is technically difficult to do.   When we started the project the DVR penetration was in the low single-digits.   It is currently between one-in-three and in-in four homes.   The rate of change in the online world is even more mind-boggling!   By the time you work out a technical solution, something else has come along and replaced it.

4.  What innovations can we expect to see in media measurement and analysis in 2010?

I think we will see a lot of progress in ‘hybrid' systems of measurement - aggregating various disparate measurement systems to model markets.   For example, Out-of-home's MOVE audience measurement system will launch early in 2010, and it uses hybrid techniques.   This involves leveraging known ‘quanta' - things such as the annual number of passenger vehicle trips, bus and train journeys, airline passenger movements etc. - and then breaking this down into smaller audience chunks by using other data sources such as government household travel surveys and bespoke surveys as needed.   With this approach you end up with a robust estimate of the average daily usage that reconciles with the known quanta.   For media which are not strictly time-dependent this shows great promise.   However, it also shows great promise in online and television.   For example, the ‘quanta' in online would be server-side traffic which when used with audience-side panel-based data would generate robust audience estimates at a site level.   In television you would use ‘return-path data' for the channel tuning, and the panel would give the composition of the viewing audience.

5.  What is your idea of measurement nirvana - will we ever see it?

First, I think it is impossible to build "the Nirvana sample".   There are not enough respondents out there willing to have every nook and cranny of their media day probed and scrutinised day after day.

What I believe is possible is to have each of the individual media with the most robust audience measurement systems possible, and to ‘harmonise' these systems.   We must accept that the best way to measure television (people meters at the moment) does not work for other media (such as print/press or out-of-home).   So by harmonise, I mean a common set of core standards and metrics to ensure comparability between each medium, with each medium using the best system most applicable to them.

My research Nirvana would then be to have a "brand measurement hub" interacting with each of these media currencies.   The "brand measurement hub" would be an ongoing large-scale bespoke survey of brand usage and awareness; consumer attitudes, activities, attributes, ownership, consumption, and intentions; and top-level media consumption data.   Onto this "brand measurement hub" we would fuse each of the individual media's audience measurement data in detail.   This would then allow cross-media planning (and post-analysis) at a brand level with a high degree of confidence.   Sounds pretty cool!   I believe that this "brand measurement hub" should not reside with any of the media, but with the brand owners themselves, who should commission, fund and manage it.

6.  Who is doing measurement well overseas - what are the models we should be looking at?

Well, apart from Australia, I tend to look towards the Brits who have traditionally excelled in audience measurement (People Meters, Postar, NRS, Touchpoints etc).   The Dutch are also trying some cool things and moving towards using modelling based on measurement, rather than trying to measure anything and everything.   In the US ComScore are well along the hybrid track for online measurement - though as they use opt-in panels this is only based on People 14+ which I think is a big problem for online.

7.  How do you see the digital, mobile and other media evolving in the next 5 years?

Rapidly.   The speed of change is only going to accelerate.   Mobile will become ubiquitous but still suffers from a lack of standards making application development and measurement problematic - you can reach some people really well and others not at all.

8.  What does the digital industry need to do better, right now, to position itself in the broader media landscape and build a sustainable future?

Not call itself digital!   Digital is a tool and not an industry.

This morning I sat and watched my digital TV.   I'm investigating getting a digital radio in my car.   When I am at the supermarket or the airport I see digital signage.   I went to the cinema on New Year's Eve and watched a movie in digital.   While I don't have a Kindle or an e-reader I'm sure they will reach our shores soon.   And of course while I am writing this I am online at the same time with my Blackberry beeping away in the background.

Calling yourself ‘digital' was cool back in the mid 90s.   Everything will become digital in the not too distant future.   This industry is ‘online' (or ‘interactive').

I am also constantly amazed at how important that dumb piece of technology ‘the cookie' remains.   Surely there are better ways of tracking!   Speaking of cookies, I also think that the industry needs to take the privacy threat extremely seriously.   My gut-feeling is that there is a wave of consumer-led "well I didn't know that when I went online that everything I was doing was being tracked" on the way as people begin to better understand what is behind their online experience.   While some/many will accept the benefits of BT many others won't.   This will be ammunition for the politicians to expediently intervene (hello France and Germany).   In such a scenario "less could well be more".

9.  Where do you get your industry information from?

From voracious reading for 2-3 hours a day of around a dozen local and international newsletters and sources.   I also have a network of contacts around the world built up over the years, and as they would attest ... I ask LOTS of questions.

10. What industry groups or networks are you a part of?

See Question 2.

Articles, blogs and comments on the ‘auto-refresh’ issue – or the ‘Great Auto-Refresh War of 2009/2010' – as John says!

Sound Alliance Blog Neil Ackland – Sept 09 – http://blog.thesoundalliance.net/2009/09/15/cheap-traffic-grabs-2-auto-refresh/

Digital Ministry – Oct 09 - http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/900/MEDIA+RELEASE+ABA+Web+Audit+members+approve+digital+audit+standards/1

Copy of letter sent by the Media Federation of Australia to all media buying agencies - http://www.auditbureau.org.au/abacus/MFA%20Web%20Audit%20Endorsement%20Letter.pdf

Sound Alliance Blog – Neil Ackland – Dec 09 - http://blog.thesoundalliance.net/2009/12/17/auto-refresh-debate-goes-up-a-gear/

Talking Digital – Ben Shepherd – Dec 14 - http://talkingdigital.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/demand-aba-audited-traffic-data/

Digital Ministry – Jan 14 - http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/993/The+Real+Impact+of+Auto-Refresh+Page+Inflation/1

Mumbrella – Jan 22 - http://mumbrella.com.au/peace-talks-held-over-autorefresh-rates-for-websites-16289#comments

Talking Digital – Ben Shepherd - http://talkingdigital.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/looks-like-some-progress-is-being-made-on-the-abas-web-audit-maybe/

Thanks again to everyone for their ongoing support and interest in Digital People.  Any queries, comments or recommendations of people you would like to see? – get in touch – denise@mediascope.com.au  or Phone:  0424 100325. 

Please also have a look at my new start-up – MediaScope – connecting advertising buyers and sellers with a focus beyond mainstream to off and online niche, below the line, emerging and independent media.