they set up and run the system and
are responsible for managing the
panel, installing the tview boxes
known as PeopleMeters in the
homes, collecting data and
verifying it, and distributing the
data results. Kantar run systems in
dozens of countries around the
world, and they have said to me
that they have never quite come
across a market like the UAE. For
instance, you have such a diversity
of population here. 40% of the
population comes from India, and
within that 40% half speaks
Malayalam and half speaks Hindi.
Then there is the expat Arab
population and the local
population. There is no overlap
between. Whereas Asians in the UK
will watch BBC or ITV, in our
market they donʹt watch Abu Dhabi
TV because itʹs all in Arabic, and
similarly the Arabs donʹt watch
Asianet. So we have quite a
challenge in terms of getting that
mix right. And then throw into the
mix that there has been no census
here for more than seven years, and
with a fast‐moving population itʹs
very difficult to establish a picture
of that population.
There is no culture of surveys
and opinion polls here. So people
are immediately suspicious when
you come and ask to put a bit of
machinery into their home thatʹs
going to monitor their viewing.
There are cultural issues too ‐ if a
woman answers the door when a
male technician is calling that is a
problem. And there is a big panel
management issue as well ‐ some
members of the panel are more
cooperative in terms of pressing the
button on their device than others.
Is your panel representative?
It was important to go with
somebody like Kantar who had
experience. We did a large
establishment survey of nearly
9,000 people to build a picture of
the population and then we set
targets, for example saying we need
this many Emirati, they need to be
in different social classes, and in
different cities throughout the
country. You need to make sure
that your pool represents the
population as far as possible. And
thatʹs something that is constantly
reviewed.
In terms of recruiting people for
the panel, we give some rewards
but they are not large, and the
evidence from other countries is
that rewards help people decide to
join the panel but they donʹt
change their behaviour once they
are on the panel. If they really donʹt
want to do it and just canʹt be
bothered, then rewards donʹt help.
If you are a low‐paid worker then
getting an extra £20 a month might
motivate you, if you are a well‐off
Emirati then you might be
motivated by the fact that this is
something that the government
wants to happen and you are
helping the country. And if you see
the results in the newspaper and
you are part of the panel then that
also motives you.
How can broadcasters join?
Twofour54 are coming in as a
shareholder because their mission
is to grow the industry here and
that very much ties in with our
objective. There is a lot of evidence
that the lack of reliable audience
measurement systems has held back
spending throughout the whole
region. The shareholders underwrite
and fund a large part of the system,
but broadcasters can also come in
as subscribers where they pay an
annual fee to access the data.
What's the feedback?
Everybody agrees that it is needed.
The UAE is not a market that is
large enough in its own right to
sustain the system but if it is going
to work for advertisers and
broadcasters it has to spread across
the whole region, at least in Saudi
Arabia and some of the other key
territories.
At the moment we are in a
slightly difficult transition phase –
itʹs a bit of a chicken and egg
situation. If you donʹt support the
system then it will never exist
everywhere, and if you want it to
exist everywhere then you have to
support it now. And people are still
coming to grips with how they can
use the data. We constantly get
fairly basic questions from people
who have it installed because they
are not used to dealing with data at
this level of granularity and
frequency. Now they have daily
minute‐by‐minute data coming in
and they are not quite sure what to
do with it. So it needs an education
process to make people use the
data effectively.
Itʹs really part of the maturing
process for the industry, and it is a
necessary part if the region is going
to grow. A lot of the support has
come from people who are
relatively new to the region, or the
multinational side of advertisers
because they are used to getting
this type of data in every other part
of the world. Similarly we have had
a lot of interest from international
players who want to enter this
THE CHANNEL
|
MIDDLE EAST
This is an
under-
valued
market; it
is a third
of the size
that it
should be
“
”
▼
Chris O’Hearn
