Patterns of In-Media Usage: Implications for Media Planning, Branding and Advertising

Abstract

The worlds of advertising, marketing and media have been upended by readily available data and new technologies. Brand managers, advertisers, media planners and aggregators today have more data to assist in meeting target audience needs – but this is occurring in an environment where media options are proliferating, audiences are fragmenting, and managers are being held more accountable for business outcomes. Data analytics lies at the heart of these developments. The aim of this thesis is to use data analytics to understand patterns of usage through a set of systematic investigations in digital media and identify the implications for managers. Specifically: * Can a dashboard of interrelated marketing metrics be developed to enhance accountability? * What is known about audience size and the frequency of in-media usage and re-usage by audiences? * What are the characteristics of behavioural loyalty in this environment? * What are the usage drivers of attention to advertising? Four papers are presented, all developed in the context of online magazine usage. The first provides insights and an application of a dashboard of interrelated marketing metrics. The second analyses how much and how often a magazine is used to determine metrics of campaign reach and frequency. The third characterises readers’ behavioural loyalty and switching. The final paper investigates the effects of usage drivers on attention to advertising. The findings show how unstructured digital data can be analysed and understood with an integrated interrelated dashboard developed to enable managers to evaluate and communicate performance and assist in decision making. Secondly, the consistency of audience size and use and reuse is shown, which provides media buyers insights into campaign reach and frequency. Thirdly, an analysis of loyalty shows the variation in breadth of content usage across different audiences and that the level of switching of the audience is in line with the audience’s reach, which provides a tool for media managers to assess and manage their brands. Finally, the relationship to attention to advertising of usage frequency, duration and depth is demonstrated. Collectively, through data analytics, patterns of usage are analysed to provide insights into media, branding and advertising.