Although she only started Media InSite Ltd in July 2011, Allison Demas is ready to expand to Jamaica and Guyana with further prospects in the Eastern Caribbean. Her company, which employs 13 full-time employees, offers advertising and media monitoring services to advertisers, advertising agencies and broadcasters. In other words, it provides competitive advertising intelligence.
Demas–founder, chief executive and chairman–is also a lawyer who specialised in copyright and entertainment law and practised for 12 years in T&T. She then went to the United States to do a masters degree in intellectual property, commerce and technology.
She spoke to the Business Guardian at the 9A Stanmore Avenue, Port-of-Spain location, about the important role that advertising intelligence plays in operating a business.
The advertising spend in T&T, according to Demas, is $1 billion per annum based on open media rates. She said if so much money has to be spent, it is important for advertisers to know their market, competitors and the media habits of their competitors.
"Given the quantum of investment, it is critical for advertisers to be able to protect their investment. They must be able to ensure what they are paying for is what they are actually getting. For example, that the media houses are playing the advertisements according to the schedule as contracted."
"Media monitoring is a way of marrying all my interests. A lot of the systems we use, such as software which is patented, forms part of a copyright. Therefore it is using technology to advance business. We talk about us diversifying our economy, we have so much natural resources in terms of our creativity. We have a fairly well-educated population and this is a means of harnessing that knowledge economy."
The former chief executive of the Copyright Organisation of T&T said her vision for the company is to be the premier media monitoring company across the Caribbean. According to the company's Web site, its directors are: Avinash D Persaud director, George Gobin, director, and Sophia Vailloo, company secretary.
"Media monitoring is new to this part of the world. It is well established in North America and in Latin America. It has a lot of potential to generate income. As it is new, there's need for much more awareness and education about the benefits of media monitoring and why companies need to protect their media investment."
Asked what happens to her work when a general election or a by-election takes place, she said elections monitoring is a very important aspect of the company's operations. Advertising campaigns are tracked as well.
"What we do is track all the news items related to elections. Since proceedings of Parliament are broadcast, it means we also monitor and track the broadcast. We also have the political speeches which we track. Then, of course, social media monitoring. There is a lot of activity, a lot of conversations which we are able to track in real time with respect to social media; conversations about the T&T general election 2015.
"What was interesting was that in 2013, we had the Chaguanas West by-election and that certainly generated a lot of activity in terms of advertising. Then there was the St Joseph by-election. What we can see is definitely there is more and more activity with the elections."
Though the volume of advertisements increases during elections, it does not skew the data which her company collects.
"In terms of advertising, we capture the universe of advertising in T&T. We capture every single advertisement even though the advertisers or the agency may not be a direct client. It gives us a sense of what sectors generate the largest amount of activity. In 2014, the Government was the largest (advertiser). We have other sectors like telecom–which is very active and competitive–banking, Unicomer and Prestige Holdings which is one of the largest advertising brands in T&T."
Asked whether social media has overtaken traditional media, she said the both go hand in hand.
"Social media is a means of engaging audiences, engaging your customers or prospective clients, either getting them to become loyal to your brand. We see it being used as a strategic way of communications, public relations as opposed to direct marketing."
Depending on which age group the company wants to appeal to, they would use social media and overall online means of reaching its target market. An example are Carnival bands.
"By and large, traditional advertising still seems to be the main way of marketing."