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Online Measurement of the Future: Time Spent
In reading the October 23rd issue of Advertising Age, it was a letter to the editor that really made an impact on me. Greg Wilson, CEO for San Francisco company Red Ball Tiger was responding to a Rance Crain article about consumer control. My key takeaway from this piece is what Greg believes is the future measurement of online advertising, time spent.
Today, we measure clicks, opens, links, conversions and more. None of these are bad measures, and they can, either in groups or individually, be incredibly valuable. But Mr. Wilson contends that the key to time spent with a particular advertisement, or in our case, time spent with a custom magazine, newsletter or branded content site, is more than anything else, time NOT SPENT with the competition. Now, that's value.
We have talked about the value of this for years with our readership studies. In most readership studies, there is a portion of the survey that asks the question, "How much time do you spend reading this publication?" From the results, that number is a measure of readership, loyalty and value...but ALSO a measure of time NOT SPENT with something else (competitor or not).
Mr. Wilson contends that advertisers will find great value in that measurement. I tend to agree with him. And since this can be measured, only time will tell how long it will take for marketers to get on this bandwagon.
Today, we measure clicks, opens, links, conversions and more. None of these are bad measures, and they can, either in groups or individually, be incredibly valuable. But Mr. Wilson contends that the key to time spent with a particular advertisement, or in our case, time spent with a custom magazine, newsletter or branded content site, is more than anything else, time NOT SPENT with the competition. Now, that's value.
We have talked about the value of this for years with our readership studies. In most readership studies, there is a portion of the survey that asks the question, "How much time do you spend reading this publication?" From the results, that number is a measure of readership, loyalty and value...but ALSO a measure of time NOT SPENT with something else (competitor or not).
Mr. Wilson contends that advertisers will find great value in that measurement. I tend to agree with him. And since this can be measured, only time will tell how long it will take for marketers to get on this bandwagon.
Labels: ROI
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2 Comments:
AT 11/03/2006 4:08 PM Anonymous said...
Hey Joe,
Interesting idea but how do we know the value of that time spent? We need to be able to measure what the person did during that time. We will need to show our executive management the actual value of someone spending 30 minutes on our newsletter or web site. And, ultimately, as with everything else we do, we will need to show how time spent led to a purchase. As I said, interesting concept, but I still need to report something tangible, like open rates and click throughs.
AT 11/03/2006 4:34 PM Joe Pulizzi said...
Great question...couple ways. If you produce a digital magazine, you can measure exactly how long someone reads your magazine for. If you are diligent with you publication readership study, you can survey your readers often to find out how they are interacting with your publication. This has been a standard measure of magazines for years. Many stand-alone magazines use the "time spent" measure as a loyalty indicator.
As for your comment about "actual value," that is subjective. What is the value to your CEO of a customer spending 1 hour reading about your #1 competitor? How would your executive measure that?
As for clicks and open-rates being more tangible, why is that? Hey, I think you should use every measurement you have to determine the worth of a marketing activity, but does a click to your web page carry the same value to your executive team as that same person reading an article about your company? Not sure...unless that click was a purchase decision.
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