Advertisers' Right to Post- Buy Analysis

I was in a seminar room a couple of months ago when one of the resource persons asked his audience for the basis on which they bought media for their clients. Unfortunately, no one could provide a scientific answer like, target audience consideration, day-part mix, weight goals, pricing goals, budgets, etc. As a matter of fact one of the participants, CEO of a young agency, said he had no particular yardstick for spending his clients’ money in media. At that stage I had no choice but to whisper to a fellow coordinator that Nigeria’s advertising was in trouble!

Has anyone ever bothered to ask why almost every Nigerian newspaper claims to be the “most- read”? What has become of our Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), which is supposed to collect and monitor circulation for newspapers and magazines? Since circulation figures are usually used in setting advertisement rates, a well- organized society like that of the United States, would not take kindly to misleading statistics. I was not surprised therefore when sometime last year the parent companies of Newsday, Hoy, The Dallas Morning News and The Chicago Sun- Times had to set aside more than $130 million as compensation to advertisers whom they had deceived into believing their overstated circulation figures (Jacques Steinberg 2004).

Media planning and buying undoubtedly represents a chunk of the overall marketing communication plan, while it is generally believed that 90% of advertising money is spent in media. Based on this fact I strongly believe that the media element is critical when measuring the overall success of the campaign. Does the medium possess the ability to reach the desired target? What is the overall efficiency of the medium compared to others? Is the medium flexible in the event of frequent copy changes or lead time to purchase? What is the medium’s overall ability in motivating potential consumers to act?

Advertisers should naturally demand to see evidence of the physical performance of media (e.g. independently- audited circulation data, subscriber statistics, broadcast footprints, etc.) as well as appropriate information on the audience(s) they reach. Though reach and frequency are not altogether useless, but they are beginning to be too simplistic for modern media planning. Advertisers should therefore challenge their media agencies/ advertising agencies to come up with ways of using reach patterns to make the reach decisions, in addition to developing the method of integrating effective frequency when making the frequency decision (you may see my articles in the July and August 2003 editions of this journal).

Advertisers must be given solution- neutral advice with no bias in media- planning, buying and evaluation process. They should also be allowed a role in media selection based on relevance to their communication objectives. After the buy has run, it is important to know what audience levels an advertiser actually reached compared to what it paid. This is known as post- buy analysis. For TV for example, a certain range above and below an index (actual vs. projections) of 100 is considered to be acceptable.

Do our advertisers as a matter of policy demand for a post- buy report after the schedule has run? The accuracy of the estimates by the media organization and advertising agency or media independent needs to be measured. The advertiser has every right to know how well the buy has delivered the ratings against the target audience as well as how the medium is performing against the rest of the market.

For the advertiser’s benefit, GRPs, i.e. gross rating points, describes the number of audience impressions in a target audience that are generated by a particular schedule or advertising campaign, expressed as a percentage of that target audience (Ross Currie et al 2004). A single advertising impression is the exposure of an advertising message to one person, and it has been observed that most media buyers convert audience impressions as a percentage of the target audience.

Unbelievably, there is hardly an industry- ratings delivery system in our country, like the Nielsen (TV) and Arbitron (Radio) in the United States. I thought there was an ACNielsen here (Nigeria). It is interesting that lately, Arbitron came up with the Portable People Metre (PPM), a passive, high- tech system for measuring consumers’ radio listening habits (Abbey Klaasen 2005). Arbitron, in fact, does have a joint venture with Nielsen’s parent company VNU to measure not just the ratings, but the impact of the advertising. The collaboration is known as “Project Apollo” (Al Ries 2005).

Our media agencies and media outlets should be able to hold themselves accountable so as to meet the client’s expectations. Media independents/advertising agencies should review with their clients’ staff the kind of results they are getting in a specific market so as to determine if their objectives are being achieved. Every schedule placed should be carefully documented for clients to show the exact spot time, dates, and negotiated rates. Advertisers must confirm that their schedules are accurate, e.g. TV and radio commercials should run within agreed time frames, print ads should run on the dates and in the sections or positions indicated, outdoor boards need to be posted properly in the favoured locations on the specified dates, etc.

Advertisers also must not ignore reproduction quality, e.g. printing of the ad materials should not compromise high colour and picture quality, commercials should run their course, no clippings, while outdoor boards must be posted properly and neatly, etc. Competitive positioning is also important while analyzing a post- buy, e.g. commercial or ad should not run next to those of a competitor, the ad or commercial should not run next to ads, commercials or programming or editorial content that may negatively affect how the message is received, etc.

Because location is key for outdoor, advertisers together with their media agencies should “ride boards” periodically to monitor wear and visibility as well as confirm if actual locations conform exactly to those specified on the contract. If the buys are pre- empted or moved it is the duty of the advertiser’s agent to ensure that it receives “make- goods” that are equal to, if not, better than the original order (Steve Westrom 2005).
I cannot agree less with Ross Currie, Senior Vice President and Director of Media Operations at MediaMixNet Inc., Chicago, that the primary concern of stewardship of outdoor buys is execution. Can somebody therefore please explain to me why some Nigerian advertisers indulge in refusing to “bring down” their billboards several months after the time- specific campaigns would have ended? The assaulting bit has to do with the deplorable state of such boards as a result of lack of maintenance (do you maintain a “campaign” that has expired?). The paper posters become worn or vandalized, while even the highly durable vinyl posters sag and fall off under harsh weather conditions.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) and the Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) should jointly help check this professional embarrassment. And for affected brand custodians, why the apathy?

Frankly- speaking, our advertisers should get maximum returns on their marketing communication investments, while their media independents/ advertising agencies must hold each medium accountable for its individual delivery even if the overall campaign posted high parameters.

I sincerely hope that many of our media independents have computer systems that give full accounting of post- buy information toward ensuring that their clients’ money and the GRPs targeted were actually achieved. The bottom line is media agencies need to commit themselves to building long-term relationships with their advertiser- clients. The latter deserve media strategies and excellent negotiation skills that will meet their marketing/media goals and objectives and these can only truly be delivered through research, specialized consulting, strategic thinking, a creative approach, and strong relationships (S. Westrom).

How does our industry fare?