Part 2
Yesterday I warmed up the issue of audience size versus audience reach, a subject being promoted by CNN and Turner’s head of research, Jack Wakshlag. Their notion–that there’s more than one screen being used to consume CNN’s news–has been the subject of a couple full-page ads and some recent press: “We used to be a TV business,” said Wakshlag to Jeff Bercovici of DailyFinance. “We see our future in terms of being a multi-platform media company.”
Nielsen Fusion is a new metric that combines TV viewership and online usage and the April number shows CNN way ahead of MSNBC and FNC for 24/7 usage among all viewers. Hey, who really knows what black magic Nielsen is using to get these numbers (you thought TV ratings were squishy?) but according to Nielsen CNN reached 20 million more Americans than its two main competitors. Fox immediately ridiculed CNN’s approach as “an act of desperation” tied to recent fourth-place finishes in prime time ratings. Both Fox and MSNBC told DailyFinance that advertisers make their buys based on ratings, not cume numbers (reach.)
Well folks, they’re both right. Pure TV buys are almost always based on ratings since TV ads are linear and only reach those watching at that moment in time. However, increasingly marketers are interested in reaching large numbers and a more diverse audience. And with people (especially young people) spending more and more time on the web and mobile devices, fusion metrics become more attractive to mass marketers. Ultimately, success will be measured by ROI and ROI is getting easier to pinpoint with improved analytics–but brand marketing is still an inexact science, which is why size matters but reach could make a dent. Let us know if you agree–or not!
Part 1 ran in yesterday’s ShopTalk.
Erik Sorenson is chief executive officer of Vault.com, Inc. He oversees the strategic direction of the global, New York-based media company, including ShopTalk & TVSPY. If you would like to comment on Remote Control, or want to reach Erik, email remotecontrol@tvspy.