A third TouchPoints survey – the consumer-centric, multi-media study – has been announced by the IPA, the association for Britain’s advertising agencies. As before, the aim is to provide a deep understanding of how people use media in their daily lives. The previous surveys, TouchPoints 1 in 2006 and TouchPoints 2 in 2008, have been highly innovative, and have modified the way much of media planning is done in Britain. TouchPoints has also influenced thinking in many other countries.

The fieldwork for TouchPoints 3 will begin in September 2009 and the first data will be available to subscribers in July 2010.


What is TouchPoints?
The IPA TouchPoints remit is to provide a multi-channel planning system, to deliver new and fresh insights in their own right, to act as a gateway across data sources, to enable the industry to better integrate consumer reality into its planning approaches, and to provide a practical planning system for everyday use.

TouchPoints provides two distinct databases:

•    The first, the Hub Survey, gives an unprecedented view of ‘a week in the life’ of consumer behaviour. Respondents record their activities for every waking half hour over a seven day period, giving a unique view of peoples’ daily lives and how their media usage fits into these patterns.

•    The second database, the Integrated Planning Database, is a multimedia channel planner. It has been created by integrating the industry media currencies onto the Hub Survey.

In addition, users can integrate their own databases or proprietary tools to build a more complete picture of their company, clients and brands.   

TouchPoints is a planning source for the industry which provides refreshed information on the interplay between peoples' lifestyles and behaviour, and media exposure. Thus strategists can consider all media channels at the start of the planning process, and gain insights into how communication channels are used, singly, together and over a period of time.

As the IPA expresses it, “TouchPoints produces a holistic view and enables mixed media scheduling from the same source. It is a critical link in the planning chain and a stepping stone towards relevant, powerful and effective marketing and communications.”


TouchPoints 3
TouchPoints 3 will be conducted by Ipsos MediaCT. The basic methodology will remain the same, though the questionnaire and e-diary for the hub survey will be updated to reflect the media industry of 2009/2010. For the first time it will include questions on word-of-mouth communication.

IPA’s Research Director Lynne Robinson said “The demand for this survey data shows that TouchPoints is fast becoming an essential part of the communications evaluation tool kit. We currently have nearly 60 companies subscribing to TouchPoints 2 and we expect this will increase with TouchPoints 3. We will be able to directly show the changes - from the 2005 boom to this current recession - in consumers’ lives and how they use an ever expanding range of communication channels.”


Implications for magazines

The pan-media holistic view provided by TouchPoints means that heightened importance is placed on information about people’s engagement with the channels they come into contact with. Magazines score very well here, but will need to enhance the evidence to prove it, and it will be an advantage if such data were in future fused into the central database rather than merely used as separate information.

TouchPoints also places a strong emphasis on understanding how various media channels can work together. Again, magazines have some information on this – especially on how magazines work with television – but more will need to be collected. Magazines’ relationship with the digital media is a particularly important aspect to probe further. In the new broader world of multiple platforms, publishers must ensure that they have defined the unique role of magazines.

For more information visit the TouchPoints website


Guy Consterdine