Senior Vice-President/National Media Director

Scali McCabe Sloves, Toronto

The biggest gap that exists is attempting to align advertiser product and useage to viewing audiences. That’s where the next move should be made. Relying on demographic data is a little bit archaic.

Marketers aren’t looking at demographic information only, when we define our media plans, we have fairly extensive research in terms of who the heavy consumers of butter are. To be able to identify which programs they watch would be a lot more effective than simply buying 18-49.

I guess the first step would be to find an economical way of measuring audiences more accurately. Then, based on perhaps a smaller sample, get into more qualitative questions, based on their viewing habits and purchasing habits. It’s basically a two-step process.

There’s always going to be the problem of sample size. But to me, it’s probably going to be a compromise of some sort. We have to recognize that we certainly won’t be able to offer this qualitative information to all categories, but in the longer term we will find a way of building up sample sizes for more and more product categories.

In terms of finding a co-operative sample as we attempt to get more and more information, it’s up to the research companies to make sure they make their survey extensive enough to provide us with enough information, but not so extensive that interview fatigue sets in.

Given the amount of money that advertisers put towards television in this country, it’s incredible the industry can’t find the 2% to 3% of expenditures to put towards an accurate measuring system.

Ultimately it’s the broadcasters’ responsibility to provide us with accurate audience research information.