Dominant in the island state, Singapore Press Holdings and its flagship Straits Times has used a survey to help “redefinine its daily proposition” to clients.

SPH chief operating officer Ignatius Low told INMA’s Asia-Pacific News Media Summit last week it currently reached almost three-quarters of Singaporeans, with its digital platforms outweighing print.

Multiple products and platforms come from what Low calls “our unique perspective”, with digital reach “more than making up for the decline in print”, with outdoor news screens in public spaces also surpassing print.

He said the way to redefine the daily proposition to clients was “simply by gathering data”.

A study commissioned from GFK has looked at audience interaction across all platforms in a bid to understand media consumption. It found 45 per cent of its audience visited at least one of SPH’s five top news properties, with Low adding that studies showed that an increase in audience followed when a message is shown on multiple platforms.

Cross-comparing the other digital properties the audience was using showed competitors, and which of titles “had complementaries with us”, and if co-marketing might be possible.

A brand impact study by Kantar Connect showed which platforms most influenced customers’ buying decisions, with the data broken down into which brands were the most influential. “The team can then understand which media platform can be used for that audience,” he said, with the audit tool used to gauge effectiveness of SPH media platforms.

“In an age of data, it’s very easy to come to the conclusion that the purchase is determined by the last click, but in reality, the purchasing decision comes from all of the impressions the user has seen,” he said, citing the example of the decision to purchase a new BMW, which would take longer that that on purchasing “something cheap such as cereal”.

The publisher has also looked at ways to launch new products without expecting users to bear the additional costs involved in driving engagement, with multi-platforms such as print, radio, digital and publicly “working as an advantage”.

“We’ve got to look at how we can make our platforms work in a seamless way to our clients,” said Low, adding that user engagement rose when platforms were easy to navigate.