Abstract:

Until recently, media research has been pretty much synonymous with readership research, audience measurement and ratings, and this is where the bulk of research funds have gone. But ultimately the more significant aspect is the measurement of commercial response, and the measurement of media strategies and tactics in order to optimize the media plan. This is even more important in view of the growing influence of the new electronic media forms. I believe a transformation has already begun, what with the changing media environment and a perhaps even faster change in research technology. In particular, with the advent of scanner technology, the people meter, and with technology-based experiments being conducted by Nielsen, Arbitron, AGB and others, we are moving toward "a totally integrated and automated national system one that has within it both audience measurement and media planning optimization and strategy-testing capabilities meshed together in a reinforcing system."