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Data Overload Hits Planners

Apr 2, 2007  •  Post A Comment

While the debate rages in the TV industry over commercial ratings and engagement scores, panelists at TelevisionWeek’s Annual Media Planner Conference last week said agencies and clients are having enough trouble handling the data that already exists.

“I think we’ve never had more data available to us,” said Andrew Capone, senior VP of marketing and business development at NCC, which sells commercials to national advertisers for cable operators. “Enormous reams of data are currently available that go unexamined because of the nature of our business and the velocity of our business.”

Tricia Cekoric, senior VP of communications planning at RJ Palmer, said that while clients want more data, “I’ve yet to find a client who actually wants to sit and read the data.”

Another question is whether ever-more-granular data is getting the industry closer to what it needs to know.

Joan Fitzgerald, VP of Personal People Meter New Product Development Group at Arbitron, said, “The bigger questions facing planners is how do you get a more holistic, more integrated picture of what consumers are doing?”