Simplifying Share of Voice

As someone who’s worked his entire career in the post-internet era, I’ve always been slightly confused by the idea of Share of Voice.

Who exactly is getting a report telling them that their $20MM annual media investment represents exactly 36.7% SOV? Is it coming from one of their three media agencies? Is “money spent” the right measure of voice? Are we just pretending that things like PR and social don’t exist?

Here’s a better way to figure out what your real share of voice is: ask people. An unprompted, broad ad recall question in a brand tracker will do the trick nicely.

So instead of looking at the input (i.e. investment) we look at the output (i.e. impact). What percentage of your target audience remembers seeing a message from you lately? Call it “Perceived Share of Voice”. 

Yes, it’s prone to mis-attribution and respondent error. But that’s perfectly okay. Such false positives might actually be insightful. And what’s the point of media if not to ultimately lead to some sense of brand recall. 

Unlike traditional SOV, it prevents you from chasing a bar being set too high by a market leader with deep pockets. It also reflects the multiplying effect of good creative x good media rather than assuming media spend is the only thing that lands a voice.

Have a look at your PSOV and compare it with the same competitive set you use for market share. What do you want your PSOV to be next year? What media budget might you need to achieve that? All sensible questions to answer at the very beginning of an annual planning process.