PPM commercial audience estimates offer insight about consumers' avoidance of tv commercials. Total commercial avoidance, an average 7%, is composed of nearly six- tenths channel switching and four-tenths due to other 'interruptions'. Program content appears to be the strongest predictor of avoidance. Gender and age exacerbate commercial avoidance with men, teens, and younger adults showing above-average churn. There is also variation in the relationship of exact, commercial-minute audience levels to average-minute audience. High-churn formats produce lower indices with even lower levels for men. In other words, there is potential for bias against particular media formats and particular targets in today's currency-based 'proxy' measures of commercial audience -- average minute and AQH. PPM and Apollo estimates would help identify sources of bias and alternatives going forward. These results represent progress toward quantifying the mechanics of commercial avoidance for buyers and sellers. They also demonstrate the value of PPM's near-passive, direct, and precise capture of persons'-level media exposure.
Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) results provide 'real' cross-media duplication between radio and television. PPM differs from present currency-based estimation of random duplication between independent sources for local-market radio and television. This investigation, employing a variety of schedule variations for a variety of demographics, finds that random estimation generally overstates PPM's unified radio and television capture. Results show variations by target demo as well as by the scope of the plan itself. As PPM measurement is deployed beyond Philadelphia, its passive capture of cross-media flow promises a better basis for estimating the value of media-mix schedules.
Arbitron's Portable People Meters (PPM) capture considerably more granularity of consumer listening behavior than the diary method, according to recent PPM results from Philadelphia. Though both methods yield similar overall quarter-hours, PPM picks up twice the station mentions and three times the discrete episodes of listening as the diary. The bottom line result for stations is a new PPM balance among station mentions, discrete listening episodes, and per-station time-spent-listening. This investigation demonstrates PPM's contributions to understanding the fragmented behavior of 21st century listeners as well as added insights to help 'value' station audience for sellers and buyers.
Portable People Meter measurement captures 'real' radio cume build, rather than current estimates based on weeklong diary surveys, modeled over multiple weeks. Early PPM results in the Philadelphia (US) market confirm previous benchmark industry studies. Decades-old research indicated that 'real' multi-week reach was roughly twice that of single-week modeled data. PPM cumes for 34 stations averaged over 200% higher than modeled diary curves. The vast majority of the PPM "gain" occurred over the first week of measurement rather than spread equally over successive weeks. Enormous station-to-station variation in the PPM cume build contribution, both overall and within format groupings, existed. First results indicate that broad-target music formats (e.g. Classic Rock) gain more cume build than narrower targeted formats such as Talk Radio and Urban Contemporary Music. Although too early for actionable recommendations, results imply that current reach and frequency models are overly general and conservative. If the industry accepts PPM measurement and PPM expands to larger samples and more markets, this method will provide a solid basis for correcting current industry models.
This paper presents early cross-media results from Arbitron's 2002 portable people meter (PPM) panel in the Philadelphia (United States) market. Previous results from the small-scale PPM panel in Wilmington (Delaware) in 2001 suggested important variations in cross-media duplication between radio and television. The present results build upon the earlier findings, extending the learning from PPM's capture of both television and radio via a single, unified measurement platform. This unified cross-media panel method provides insight into the consumer target's media behavior and to various effective strategies to maximize target reach and efficiency.
The authors recently analyzed the local delivery of national television schedules in concert with proposed purchases of spot radio weight on a Designated Market Area basis. The purpose of the analysis was to determine the optimal combination of network TV and spot radio required to meet the local sales goals for selected marketers in given media planning situations. This macro approach to optimization provides a disciplined framework for focusing on both local market opportunity and optimal reach and frequency. The following paper briefly outlines the impact that advertising clutter and ad cost escalation are having on commercial effectiveness in the United States. It then outlines the sales allocation optimization findings and highlights how the combined radio-TV media mixes performed on a reach and efficiency basis relative to total schedule delivery in the United States.
This article overviews consumers interests in new video technologies, which will deliver both high quality video entertainment and Internet/information services, in other words video technologies which bring convergence. Two independent sets of qualitative information enhance the understanding of current consumer interest. The first, a system based on the theory of diffusion, assigns people to groups based on their interest in adoption of new technologies. The second, a consumer segmentation system, assigns persons to groups based on their current involvement with media technologies as well as their media and personal values. Results show that consumers interest in and inclination to purchase new video technologies depend on the characteristics of the offering, content as well as platform. Video platforms and entertainment contents appeal to nearly all groups regardless of their innovation tendencies, whereas the PC platform has narrower appeal with most interest among the earliest adopter groups. Results have important implications for the positioning and marketing of new video technologies.
Most readily available industry data bases fail to answer the business questions which this paper addresses: How much might consumers spend on future media technologies and services? What qualitative information can differentiate one broadcast source from another - with sufficient utility to influence the buying and selling process? Combining results from Arbitron NewMedia's Pathfinder study with U.S. consumer expenditure data shows the key variables which influence consumers' future media technology investments. Data from the combination of Arbitron radio surveys and the U.S. Census point the way to more effective, powerful media buys for radio.
As communication technologies hurtle down the information highway, audience researchers increasingly adopt technology-based measurement. The lure of technology solutions seduces us from traditional paper diaries, from household tuning meters, from yesterday's state-of-art people meters. Does audience research require new measurement tools, appropriate to the evolving media, or should we just fine tune the current repertoire? This paper maintains that current measurement methods are not adequate to the challenges of the information revolution. We start with an analysis of new technology trends in the context of demographic and marketplace forces. From this analysis, we go back to the basics. We derive measurement goals to guide the selection of new methods and consider alternative approaches in light of these objectives. We conclude with an overview of one research program which addresses these goals, Arbitron's personal portable meter. Encouraging early results suggest that personal metering may surmount the impending information highway challenges.
With active meter panels such as Arbitrons ScanAmerica® service, what contact with panelists is appropriate? Phenomenological psychology, which emphasizes understanding experience as well as behavior, suggests principles of panelist contact. Several Arbitron studies demonstrated the benefits of ongoing, personalized contact and helped elaborate a program of panel relations. A 1984 pilot study showed that contact with a panel relations representative helped the panelists remain motivated, even when there were problems with the early prototype equipment. These results were confirmed by a larger study, a full-panel debriefing of Denver panelists in 1986. In-home debriefing interviews confirmed that panelists experienced the panel relations contact as an important benefit. These contacts received the highest altitudinal ratings of any dimension of panel experience. In 1988 an analysis of panelist-initiated backouts showed that performance-feedback contacts were associated with significantly increased panel tenure. This panel-treatment variable explained more tenure variation than household demographics among the selected group of backouts. These results, along with the phenomenological framework, contribute to current ScanAmerica contact procedures. Examples of these include a toll-free, 24-hour panelist hotline, regular performance feedback (both positive and negative), panelist suggestion programs, and panel newsletters which include an activity-oriented children's comer. This paper also reviews procedures that help minimize bias in panel relations contacts (scripting telephone contacts, data and field audits, and organizational checks and balances). We conclude by mentioning remaining methodological issues such as the need to determine optimal contact schedules, and to assess the impact of contact by demographic.