"The audit of the media's broadcasting and audience is required by advertisers and quality content has to be paid for," he acknowledged. Manuel Sala, Director General of Información y Control de Publicaciones S.A. (OJD), at the PROA Communication ObservatoryThe event was held at Degussa's headquarters. "This is something that already works in other countries", he added, while he was convinced that "the means that make an attractive product will be profitable".
This was one of the premises he defended during his speech, in which he began by explaining what the OJD is and its areas of action, who its main shareholders are, what its objectives are, how it works, the reason for the need for reliable circulation and audience data, as well as explaining the situation in other countries. And, given that advertisers are the most interested in having correct and audited data on the media in which they are going to place their brands, he went into great detail on how advertising works. At this point, he alluded to a quote from the marketing pioneer John Wanamaker, "Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is I don't know which half"..
In this regard, he noted that "Any advertiser can rely on data with an OJD stamp".The company is a private and independent company, founded in 1964, member of the IFABC (International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations), which controls more than 450 titles and 370 websites, and whose shareholders include advertisers as well as advertising and media agencies. Its main objective is "that any company or institution can trust the dissemination data offered to the market on the reliability and effectiveness of the media in Spain", something it achieves by adapting to the market and its digital evolution and guaranteeing transparency in the sector.
He emphasised the importance of the media planning By way of example, he showed a simple marketing plan from the 20th century, in which the only decisions to be made were how much of the investment was to be devoted to the press, how much to radio and how much to television. He compared this with the situation in the 21st century, in which, in the form of interconnected circles, in addition to the three classic media, the digital media (with advertising both in the press and on television) have a strong presence. display as search), social media and digital outdoor advertising. Today, he said, advertising "requires media planning that is made more complex by the fragmentation of audiences and doubts about data from new digital media".
Monthly reports
The OJD publishes its print and digital media reports monthly and certifications twice a year, and its director general takes its motto to extremes, OJD data you can trust'.. "On occasion we have had to expel a client because they were buying traffic," he admitted. However, he also pointed out that this is not the norm and was optimistic that advertisers will increasingly give more importance to the codes of good practice of the media in which they insert their campaigns, "because they have realised that it is safer for their brands and no advertiser wants to encourage the market to become muddied". In this sense, he summarised that "the advertiser holds the key to increasing the level of demand".
However, Manuel Sala pointed out that it is not possible to eradicate fraud one hundred percent, "because it keeps reinventing itself". But he considered that, with weapons such as artificial intelligence, which, just as it can be used to defraud, can also be used to combat crime, compliance with regulations ("few, but that they are complied with") and consensus about good practiceThe situation will improve.
He focused on institutional advertising, which, in his opinion, should take special care to go "to approved, serious media", since the use of public resources should be based on objective criteria (audited data) and not in a discretionary manner, since "the media are a basic pillar of democracy"..
The lunch concluded with an interesting debate, in which the participants were interested in the control of audiences in all types of media, but especially in digital media and television, and in the forms of consumption of information and entertainment by the new generations.
PROA Communication Observatories
The Proa Observatories are stable discussion forums with the participation of prominent executives, politicians and professionals. They are born with the vocation of being a laboratory of ideas where a genuine dialogue is fostered to debate current business issues, as well as corporate reputation, brand and public affairs as important elements for the improvement of companies.
Among the personalities who have participated in these meetings are the economist Manuel Conthe; the former Minister of Public Administration Jordi Sevilla; the former Minister of Education, Culture and Sport José Ignacio Wert; the writer and priest Pablo D'Ors; the Director of External Communication of Deloitte, Antonio Belmonte; the Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of El Corte Inglés, José Luis González-Besada, the High Commissioner for Marca España, Caros Espinosa de los Monteros, and the writer and journalist Pilar Urbano, among others.