3. also because the nature of these changes is never likely to slow down. In five or 10 years' time, we are likely to look back to
the present day as a time of relative calm and clarity. The better, therefore, that we understand the context in which
consumers choose and interact with content, the better equipped we will be to identify moments of potential receptivity and to
create communications that resonate and deliver greater impact and RoI for brands, and to build sustainable communication
platforms.
To date, when considering the issue of context, much of the attention has rightly been given to media context. What type of
programming is in proximity to my ad? What kind of audience is delivered and when? It has been hard to look systematically at
little else without recourse to many different data sets – often ill-suited to a task for which they were not originally designed.
While the media context is and always will be critical, when looking at the factors that influence how people use media and
how they respond to brand communications, other dimensions of context are equally important – especially in light of the
growing consumer control over media experiences.
The five dimensions of context
The UK's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) first developed a solution that addressed four of the five dimensions of
context with IPA TouchPoints – a project principally aimed at measuring cross-platform media use. They are:
1. Location
Now that media penetrate almost every location – and because we carry media with us 24/7 – the importance of knowing
where audiences are more likely to be at different times in the day or week will inform an understanding of the consumer
mindset, attentiveness and openness to brand messaging, time available to respond and interact etc. Location also
informs media selection, as not all media are equally well represented in each type of location, and it can inform creative
messaging.
2. Activity
People use media before, during and after almost all activities. Whether preparing or eating food, going shopping,
working, socialising, commuting or driving, each activity is of greater or lesser relevance to brands. Understanding which
media predominate while different activities are pursued is key to developing right time, right place communications
strategies. It is also the key to developing media sequencing strategies relating to specific target audiences.
3. Social setting
The presence of others affects people in many ways. Depending on who is present, emotions and sociability are
impacted, as is attentiveness. People also share media experiences to enhance their enjoyment of them. The presence of
other people impacts the roles people adopt and how they behave as a result – in different settings, one person will be a
parent, a co-worker or boss, a spouse or partner, a sibling, a friend etc. All of these roles and identities can result in
different responses to brand communications. Understanding when a mother routinely spends time with her children
during the week is as important to one brand as it is for another to know when the socialising prime times are for 18 to 34
year-old males.
4. Media
The circumstances in which different media are chosen and what they are used for is indicative of the desire for content
or communication and the sense of engagement with it. Each medium's breadth of functionality and interactivity also
impacts the relationship with it as well as its use by marketers. On some occasions, a medium is chosen because there
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4. are few available to suit the need, on others the medium is chosen from among many.
The Media Behavior Institute in New York began a collaboration with the IPA some years ago and – following extensive
testing and development for the US market – has since launched TouchPoints to similar success. This was when the
study started to be deployed via a smartphone app and when the fifth contextual dimension of mood and emotion was
added – developments that have now also been adopted in the UK.
5. Moods and emotions
A better understanding of moods and emotions – and how they relate to different situations – obviously has the potential
to be used to inform creative messaging, scheduling and more. A good communications brief will always define emotional
tonality and understanding when the target audience is more likely to be experiencing such moods and emotions. USA
TouchPoints includes a mood and alertness scale as well as 17 distinct emotional mindsets representing a range of
emotion "Each medium's breadth of functionality and interactivity also impacts the relationship with it" and degrees of
intensity. Identifying when these are more likely to occur in the lives of the target audience has been successfully used to
inform media selection and messaging strategies. As more brands come to rely more heavily on emotional connections
with consumers as points of differentiation – in a world where tangible product differentiation is difficult to achieve and all
but impossible to sustain – the need to link key emotions to other behaviours and activities (media use, category
consumption etc.) becomes increasingly important.
IPA TouchPoints and USA TouchPoints are now a major part of their respective media and marketing environments, with
planners, strategists, marketers, sales and new-business executives using the data to inform decision-making across a range
of disciplines.
Contextual variables influence receptivity. Receptivity is a function of a priming, emotional congruence, involvement, mood,
and timing – all the psychological effects that have been studied relative to advertising for a great many years. And each
dimension of context provides different constraints and opportunities to planners, strategists, creatives, and brand marketers.
With an understanding of these they can gain deeper insights and shape more effective and resonant communications. The
importance of being able to examine data on all of these dimensions of context through one sample designed for the purpose
is not to be under-estimated. Indeed many questions may remain unanswered and opportunities left begging without it.
Inevitably, structuring an approach to communications that resonate with the audience by placing equal emphasis on each of
the Five Dimensions is a complex process and perhaps unnecessarily so. Equal emphasis on all five may not be necessary,
but having insights relating to each of these dimensions along with others derived from further primary research or client-
specific data can make a triangulation of these factors a rich source of inspiration for identifying the heart of right time, right
place communications strategies that run across all media.
As an example of how this approach can be used in practice, Figure 1 illustrates how Ingenuity Media at the Martin Agency
used USA TouchPoints, sales data and store traffic data to orient media choice and, therefore, to develop creative around the
social contexts of young male diners for a Quick Service Restaurant pitch during the key consideration windows for both lunch
and dinner.
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5. Figure 1: Target media and messaging by solo and social meals
Source: USA TouchPoints
The analysis revealed that many more of the target ate alone at lunch (personal buying decision) than later in the day and that
the media used leading up to lunch and dinner (a group buying decision) were each different. Although digital played a part in
both, the form digital media took were very different, reflecting the time of day and, to some extent, the different social settings
(Figure 1).
The value here is not only being able to identify the extent to which the target eats alone or with others throughout the day
(and at which types of establishments), but which kind of media they are most heavily exposed to before, during and after
those moments at which the business critical decision of ‘What shall I/we eat?' is made.
With a level of contextual understanding, based on the social ebbs and flows of people's days and weeks, communications
planning takes on another dimension, which no amount of passive monitoring or Big Data are ever likely to deliver.
In another example, an analysis was done to better understand the behaviours of consumers who are shopping during the
post-lunch peak shopping time of 1.30pm-2.00pm in the hour before that time so that targeting and messaging can be better
informed (Figure 2). This analysis took into account all those who were shopping but it could just as easily have focused on a
more narrowly defined target (perhaps shopping at a different time).
Figure 2: The early afternoon paths to purchase
Source: USA TouchPoints
The analysis reveals an array of key behavioural factors ranging from the fact that many of the shoppers had already begun
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6. their shopping during the hour in question (which would account for the high showing of Digital Out Of Home media). Radio is
indicative of the number of people driving to and between stores (ubiquitous in the US outside of the main metropolitan areas)
and this is why, in this particular analysis, it is the strongest path-to-purchase medium for that hour and consumer. But clearly
it is not the only medium, and alongside the rest of the analysis, it is possible to paint a more comprehensive picture of the
sequence of locations, media used, emotional states, etc. which can be leveraged to good effect.
Planners in the US and the UK are finding interesting and creative ways to maximise the use of the five context dimensions.
They are targeting media to the times when social setting matters most – when mums and kids are together, for instance, or
when spouses are out and about. Planners are finding new opportunities to speak to more than one audience at a time about
things that concern them both – a new healthy snack, for instance, or a home improvement project.
By taking the contextual dimensions into account, planners can also reallocate their TV-centric plans into the media that are
most relevant and used in closest proximity to important brand moments. Those marketing a luxury car might select media in
which husbands and wives are out together on a Saturday night, where the condition of their car might not be quite up to the
‘date night' they are experiencing. Planners thinking about when to talk to people about money and finances can identify
moments where consumers are worried and alone – moments where fears can predominate, and place ads that address the
problem in those moments. Or they may find, through a combination of qualitative research or secondary research, that people
think about money issues when they bank online or head to an ATM or bank branch. The five contextual dimensions can be
used to make more creative use of the extensive array of media choices consumers have at their disposal.
And account planners are using the contextual dimensions to endow their brands with an emotional profile and match that
profile with the right content opportunities. Indeed, pitches are currently being won, in part, on the basis of this kind of use of
the five dimensions of context.
Emotional dimensions are most certainly not new. We've known about them and their importance to advertising receptivity for
some time. However, the ability to quantify them and see them arrayed throughout the day and week and understand with
certainty how to characterise the environment in which they occur, is new, noteworthy and a powerful tool in the ever-
expanding arsenal of the communications industry.
About the author
Mike Bloxham is executive director, marketing at the Media Behavior Institute. His chief area of expertise is consumer
response to emerging media and how they impact media use.
mike@mediabehavior.com
Alice Sylvester is co-founder and COO of the Media Behavior Institute. She has also worked at agencies including DraftFCB,
Y&R and JWT.
alice@mediabehavior.com
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