The European Championships in France, currently in full swing, and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, starting in August, mean the desire to understand audiences and their behaviour has never been greater and, for advertisers, this is now the key to success.

With a wealth of traditional and newer advertising platforms transforming the media landscape, it is becoming more important for advertisers to target their ads to the right people, with the right message, at the right time. Yet many of the ads being served are still missing their intended target.

There is a need to align digital content with users’ interests, needs, consumption habits, and propensity to purchase. The more known and understood about users’ demographic profiles  –their needs, their actual behaviour, their purchase intent – the more advertisers can help build common ground between their brands and the audience.

So, advertisers must use high quality consumer data to unlock the full potential of digital advertising, especially in a world where everyone expects everything to be personalised.

But, how do you know:

• If your ad campaigns have reached the right audience in the right place at the right time?
• That your ads resonated and drove ROI?
• That your ads buy and targeting was based on solid profiling and audience segmentation?  

Modern advertising campaigns hit so many touch points on so many channels that it is incredibly complex to understand the full impact of an advert across all channels. When you’re pouring a huge amount of money into campaigns, it pays to not skimp on the research and to make sure that you integrate your measurement into your media planning. Only that way can you begin to get the big picture.

This requires the integration of high quality demographic data at the beginning of the campaign to ensure accurate measurement during, not just after, the campaign. Then advertisers can find the right audience before it’s too late and before it becomes apparent that they’ve wasted budget on the incorrect audience.

As ad types like video and native grow and display becomes more blurred, the industry has adjusted its requirements for not just better data but newer, innovative methods of measurement.

We’ve been working with media clients for a number of years to help them develop customised measuring techniques and seamlessly integrate it with panel data. The environment has changed in the four years since the last Euros and Summer Olympics, and we can be sure that it will be different again in another four years.

But, as expert researchers, we can ensure that we move forward with the technological and advertising advancements and support the media industry with accurate high quality data and campaign measurement.

Chris Dubreuil is managing director, Northern Europe, Research Now