• by Charlene Weisler , Op-Ed Contributor, December 23, 2009

Richard Vogt is vice president at Ipsos Mendelsoh,  working on the company's well-known and respected Mendelsohn Affluent survey. His extensive background includes work in network TV (CBS, ABC), as a station rep (MMT, Seltel), in syndication (LBS, Carsey-Werner), ad agencies (McCann-Erickson, Bates Worldwide) and the early multiplatform innovator TV Guide, where he worked on the magazine, cable network, Web site, and "new media" interactive program guide. In this interview Richard discusses many aspects of the upscale marketplace as well as changes in the media landscape and some future predictions.

 

Direct links to the full interview videos can be found at http://weislermedia.blogspot.com/search?q=vogt  Here is an excerpt from the interview:

CW: Richard, where would you say the most dramatic change has been in the industry in the past five years?

RV: I guess I would say that research has gotten a bigger and better place at the table. In looking back at all the different places I've worked, it seems to show that research is getting more serious consideration from upper management.

CW: How is Ipsos Mendelsohn preparing for the future and perhaps incorporating some of the new data such as online or set top box data?

RV: Here at Ipsos Mendelsohn we have a lot of unique syndicated data that all of our subscribers use as they see fit. A lot of our internal mechanism has been generated through a portal for the first time. All of our data is available electronically, including something I think is very cool for a user. On the portal is an electronic questionnaire so you can search the entire questionnaire easily and electronically. If you want to know something about travel and it's in the "plan to" section as well as the expenditure section as well as the magazine section or the Travel Channel in the television section, you can collapse it all in one run.

So those are the kinds of innovationswe're working on. In the bigger picture, I am hoping that there will be a return to optimization. You know, when I was on the agency side several years ago optimizers were a brand new thing -- and I just don't read a lot about them today. And yet, with all of this new data coming in. I am hopeful that we will return to those models and update them by getting that new data into usable forms.

CW: Richard, can you give me three predictions for the next five years?

RV: I think consolidation is upon us and it is going to continue. I think there will be fewer and fewer, and larger and larger, entities out there -- which is not necessarily a bad thing. I also think that monetization of the Web will become more prominent. I think that is definitely a trend.

 I don't think there is any one "Web" but it seems like we've all been so well trained to accept online as a free pass. I think that obviously has to change.

A third prediction would be accountability. Again, with all this data, it requires a lot of processing and management. What about the concept of ROI, which I call "research on involvement." Let's find ways to inform the client how to use this data to map consumer behavior.