In 1987, TV viewing research in the US led to the introduction of people meters, which consisted of electronic boxes installed in homes capturing data on timings and programs viewed and sending it to a central computer. The box was complemented by a remote-control device that viewers used to identify who was watching what and when. Participating households were rewarded for accepting and managing the people meters at their homes[1].
While continuing to update Middle East media surveys, PARC tried hard to respond to the Joint Industry Committee for Middle East Research’s (JICME) recommendation to introduce people meters and to improve the tracking of TV viewership, because agencies, the media and advertisers never stopped arguing about the results of ongoing media surveys. A single percentage point at that time meant a gain or loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in media revenue. Arguments across the committee’s table would reach high pitched doubting or confirmation of the results, depending in whose favor they swayed.
The TV scene in the GCC was undergoing noticeable change, with an increased number – 291 stations – beginning to rid themselves of the strict rules imposed by their ministries of information. By doing so, they caused a change in the classical game plan, since they needed to compete to attract more viewers, which led to a surge in their advertising revenues.
RAI, the leading Italian state-owned TV group, had made a big investment in people meters, but soon after it began its people meters project its service was rejected by the communication industry, since it was itself an advertising medium, and producing research conflicted with its core business, which was TV broadcasting. PARC jumped on the opportunity and bought the entire project’s equipment, which was to be shipped to and installed in Kuwait. It wasn’t the best timing. Saddam Hussein invaded on 2 August 1990.
The shipment of machines to Kuwait was halted and re-directed to Dubai, where the local telecom operator, Etisalat, tested the meters for compliance and agreed to allow their connection to its network. The first data from Dubai’s people meters was published in September 1991. The first users were Dubai TV, the Choueiri Group, Ajman Channel 4 TV, Radius Leo Burnett, as well as Saatchi & Saatchi for use on P&G media planning. Lintas and Ogilvy too, bought the data which they put into use on behalf of Unilever.
JICME expressed interest in checking the outcome, so an audit was conducted across 450 TV households in collaboration with leading advertising agencies under the guidance of JICME’s head, Brenda Allen of Lintas. The actual field visits were conducted by teams of agency staff who were coordinated and supervised by Rafic Kamaleddine of Publi Graphics, who was named JICME’s technical committee head. The audit report had no criticism, but a few suggestions. The entire telemeter project was then presented to Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Minister of Information, who gave a green light for the use of data produced by the project, under the condition that UAE nationals represent at least a third of the telemeter homes.
Operation Desert Storm brought satellite TV stations to the Middle East, beginning with CNN, which linked with all the GCC national stations and showed the people the battlefield while the war was being fought. This was followed by Egyptian satellite TV, which was introduced as the vehicle to entertain the Egyptian Army in Hafr Al Bateen. MBC, ART, Star TV and all the state-owned GCC stations quickly upgraded, one by one.
The evolution of satellite technology brought about digital broadcast, which gradually replaced the analogue receivers, so PARC’s telemeters were technically no longer compatible with the fast-changing satellite transmission system. PARC decided on its own free will to unplug the meter service in 2003 after 12 years of continuous pioneering service.
Sometime later, two Saudi-owned TV stations transmitting out of Italy – namely ART and Orbit – were introduced to AGB Italia, the owners of the telemeters system that had been sold to RAI before AGB Italia became the operator of the national telemeters service in Italy. The Saudi billionaire businessman Sheikh Saleh Kamel, founder and chairman of ART negotiated an agreement to import and install a whole new system of telemeters to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Soon thereafter ART was confronted with the same problem that was faced by RAI in Italy before. A media owner/broadcaster trying to produce and sell viewing numbers to its competitors. This led to the placing of the project under the auspices of a newly established company called MERGE, for which they hired Harout Krikorian, the past media chief of Impact BBDO, to manage. However, this Saudi project faced big challenges. Firstly, because the data was not accurate enough due to discrepancies between actual viewing and the pressing of the button. People either forgot to click the remote device to establish what they were viewing or kept it on, even when they were finished or outside of the room. Other challenges included the reluctance to press any button if the programs being watched revealed that a conservative Saudi household was watching entertainment programs with music and dancing, instead of Saudi TV or any of the other prayer channels.
Although the MERGE project was fully supported by the Saudi members of the GCC Advertisers Association (GCCAA) board – namely Mohammad Fal and Talal Dhulaymi – it failed to continue. The main advertisers, such as Unilever and P&G, as well as the major media contractor, the Choueiri Group, never stopped challenging the results, complaining that the data was not accurate enough.
In 2004, Antoine Choueiri, founder of the Choueiri Group, sat with the members of the GCCAA and offered to manage a fresh Saudi people meters project on his own. The advertisers did not accept[2]. Looking back, we see that the region had been wanting a people meters project to work independently across the main markets, but all past attempts had failed because individual entities thought they could do it on their own.
The GCCAA, which included 26 major advertisers led by P&G and Unilever, finally decided to launch a joint effort with the region’s leading media, including MBC, LBC, Saudi TV, Dubai TV and the Rotana Group, the main media agencies as well as OMD, Media Edge CIA, Starcom, Mindshare and UM7, which they named “Project Illumination”. They hired a Dutch company called Point Logic to manage the project in June 2006, but six months were wasted as the Dutch experts who came to do the work were labelled “parachute artists”, because they had no real notion of the GCC markets. Finally, in 2007, three research agencies were chosen in a competitive bid to carry out the project, beginning in Saudi Arabia, the region’s biggest advertising market. AGB Nielsen Media Research and IPSOS were chosen to work together to carry out the actual people metering, while PARC was to carry out the survey to establish the proper sampling groups. PARC delivered its part of the deal, while Ipsos toiled to receive the Saudi government license necessary to install the devices in family homes, which is a culturally sensitive matter[3].
The IAA UAE Chapter, which was leading the IAA’s activities all over the GCC, supported the people meters initiative, while in parallel it continued working on a separate initiative to establish a “single currency” between the region’s two dominant research firms, IPSOS and PARC. Their concern was the issue of cleaning the data and eventually the viewing ratings for programs and channels. In turn, this created the same problems among the agencies/media/advertisers and the fight over who had the larger share of viewing and why they should trust the outcome. The result meant that Project Illumination was left to die.
[1] The National 9 – October 2008 – Page 8 – “Watching TV that watches you“
[2] Communicate – October 2006 – Page 44
[3] The National 9 – October 2008 – Page 8 – “Watching TV that watches you“