The march to reliable metrics: a half-century of coming closer to the truth

Reach and frequency are key concepts advertisers face when selecting media for their campaigns. Around the world, the advertising industry relies on audience research for insights into how different media outlets perform on these key concepts. In this contribution, the authors discuss the developments in audience research in three themes: (syndicated) audience research into readership of print media, ratings of television, and Internet, studies on the reach of individual advertisements, studies on the quality of reach, in particular the influence of the media context. The authors conclude with some suggestions: the need for cross-media data, the need for hybrid data collection that includes electronic and passive measurement of media use and the need for new metrics, such as measures of implicit processing of sponsored media content and measures of consumer generated brand communications.