In this latest column from the IAB and its members, Natalie Stanbury, the body’s research director, gives practical tips for how to navigate the complexities of understanding consumer behaviour during these current economically tough times.
Lead image: Natalie Stanbury – Research Director – IAB Australia
Tightening the purse strings, saving rather than splurging, bargain hunting, delaying big purchases, more dinners at home and less out at that new trendy restaurant, are behaviours we are all currently familiar with.
These times also mean it can be a bit ‘champagne on a beer budget’, for media and marketing folk looking for high-quality consumer insights from reliable sources with the reality of more restrained research budgets. However, it’s never been more important to avoid dodgy data that can potentially mislead decision-making.
As IAB research director I clearly have an interest in suggesting you turn to our IAB-endorsed industry standard digital ratings service, Ipsos iris. It’s a constantly reliable and up-to-date consumer data source.
Yes, Ipsos iris has been primarily built to provide robust and comparable digital audience data for media planning, but the breadth of website and app usage data from this inclusive measurement system is also providing insights and value in understanding digital consumer shifts.
For example, the inclusive digital consumer data in Ipsos iris shows that this year consumers are increasingly looking to a range of digital content and services to help them ease cost of living pressures and seek value. This includes uplifts in the usage and activity on websites and apps for energy suppliers, insurance and loan companies, supermarkets, retail loyalty programs, property search and product comparisons.
For agencies and marketers, the knowledge that the methodology and data from Ipsos iris have been scrutinised to a high level by the IAB Measurement Council should be of great comfort.
However, one of the missing pieces of the measurement puzzle to date is video audience data. Until now.
In one of the great examples of industry collaboration (which is an IAB mantra for our industry), Ipsos has partnered with OzTAM to integrate BVOD metrics into Ipsos iris, providing cross-channel video audience across multiple devices including Connected TV. This a world-first industry collaboration between media industry measurement bodies – all should be very proud of this achievement.
And following another data collaboration with Google, enriched YouTube video audience reach and watch time data across mobile, desktop and tablets is also now reported in Ipsos iris. YouTube Connected TV audience data is set to launch in Ipsos iris in the second half of 2024.
These are both important steps in our quest to define the full Australian digital video viewing landscape across all screens.
But our IAB Measurement Council won’t be finishing its work anytime soon. Measurement must continually evolve to match the changing landscape and support the industry address ever-challenging needs including furthering cross-media capabilities and keeping up with consumers adoption of digital technologies.
Over the coming year(s) you can expect to see further data partnerships and collaboration to integrate supplementary datasets into our industry standard system as we seek to plug data gaps and further enrich consumer information. Because ultimately, having industry standard systems at the core of understanding consumer media behaviour will assist with smarter cross-media investment decisions.
In the meantime, I’d encourage you to carefully consider the quality of methodologies and data you are relying on for decision making and embrace the industry standard digital measurement platform. And if you’d like to roll up your sleeves and get stuck into this work with IAB Australia please do get in touch. I’m always open to coffee and conversation on the topic of measurement.
