By Ritu Midha

Earlier this week, I had an interesting conversation with a friend who was stuck in traffic in Mumbai’s Western Express Highway. Jammed close to a hoarding of ‘New Woman’ magazine which read ‘She is just like you’, his reaction ‘Only if she (HemaMalini/new woman) knew who she is being compared to…’

Though I found the comparison amusing at that instant, the media journalist in me immediately said, ‘spill over and wastage’.  To be honest, Outdoor has been off my radar for quite a while, and I have no clue how its effectiveness is measured.

However, I’ve been interested in measurement currencies of other media – be it Print, Television, Radio or Internet. And often I find myself wondering if it was possible to measure all of people’s media consumption habits instead of measuring each media individually. The consumer, after all, is the focus of all marketing communication – and key is to reach him/her effectively and cost-effectively – the medium being just the vehicle.

Coming back to various media, the measurement data for each one of them is available digitally, and that is where similarity ends.  Frequency, sample size and delivery platform are completely different. Nonetheless, while currencies for all mediums are different, they are identical in a sense that they target consumers’ media consumption habits and patterns.

A disclaimer here: my blog this week is just an outcome of my curiosity and quest for knowledge, rather than a statement.

Moving on, is it not possible to merge all these currencies together and create a single media consumption currency? What if it could be done at the industry level?  Technology majors like IBM and Wipro are well-equipped to take care of such a system. During my stint with a telecom giant, I have witnessed how various systems on different platforms can be effectively merged together. Multiple data sources and systems are merged into one with customer-centricity as the driving force. Whatever marketing and service delivery could imagine, IT delivered.

An industry body delivering data that reflects the media and product consumption habits of people.  Awesome!!!

Can we find out what the media and product consumption habits of SEC A person in a small town in Uttar Pradesh are on a single platform?

It’s not an easy task, and could see many glitches to start with. But if it can be done, it would take consumer-centricity to a new level.

And most important of all, would it not save several manhours and monies for media agencies?

Ritu Midha is a senior journalist and web strategist based in Mumbai. She is also Consulting Editor and Editor – Special Projects, MxMIndia.