September 2020 we gathered together nine experts in media, advertising, research and data for the fourth of our annual GfK Roundtables.
In September 2020 we gathered together nine experts in media, advertising, research and data for the fourth of our annual GfK Roundtables.
Appropriately enough, with the global COVID-19 pandemic still restricting travel, working practices and many other aspects of our lives, this year’s roundtable was held online.
Our first GfK white paper three years ago examined the future organization of currency media measurement, the second investigated the opportunities for Total Media Measurement, and the third discussed online video advertising.
The objective of this year’s Roundtable was to evaluate the impact of the ongoing pandemic on media and advertising, both in the short- and long-term.
When we scheduled the roundtable, we had hoped that we would be mostly talking about the crisis in the past tense. While its impact varies from country to country, the pandemic persists. Concerns about a second wave mean that it is hard to talk about what a ‘new normal’ might look like, given that - at the time of writing this paper – we are in a new ‘abnormal’, with no idea of how long this will persist. We are in a permanent state of flux. Depending on the development and distribution of an effective vaccine, this period of adaptation and limitations on behavior could last for years as opposed to months.
So our panel faced something of a challenge, but this white paper shows how well they rose to the challenge of attempting to make sense of these unprecedented times for the media and advertising industries.
Contributors to the debate and this white paper are: Roland Abold – VP Sales & Commercial Excellence, GfK Daniel Bischoff – Chief Marketing & Operations Officer, RTL AdConnect Jenny Bullis – Regional Director Marketing Science, EMEA, Facebook Alfred Heidekum – CTO | Practice Lead Data Sciences EMEA, Publicis Media Daniel Meyer – Director Market Insights, Central Europe & Eastern Emerging Markets, Google Katty Roberfroid – Director General, egta Saskia Schatteman – CEO, VAR, Belgium Phil Smith – Director General, ISBA Timo Thomsen – Vice President Strategy, Product & Innovation GfK
The roundtable was moderated by Richard Marks, founder of Research The Media and Research Director of asi.