[IBM 443] Media research: Sources of Marketing Data

October 11th


Useful links:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/

Media research: Sources of Marketing Data

Major Data Services

• Nielsen
• MRI
• Experian Simmons

Current Industry Structure

• Research monopolies
• Economic barriers to entry
• Customer confidence
• Arbitron in radio
• Nielsen, too
• Nielsen in TV, movies, music, books, games
• Competition for Internet ratings
• Nielsen Netratings v. comScore
• Magazines
• Simmons v. MediaMark 

MRI Syndicated Research

• National probability sample
• Adults 18+
• Living in private households
• 48 adjacent states
• Fieldwork conducted in two waves/year
• 26,000 respondents/year
• www.mediamark.com

Step 1: Personal Interview

• With one resident of each household
• Chosen at random from all adults of a given gender
• Information is gathered on:
• demos of the respondent and other household members
• media exposure for newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, websites visited
• Lasts about an hour
• 70% cooperation rate

Step 2: Product Usage Questionnaire

• After the interview, a 116-page questionnaire is left with the respondent
• 2-weeks later, interviewer returns:
• Checks the questionnaire for completeness
• Gives respondent $20.00 gift.
• Two sections:
• Personal products/habits - filled in by the person who was interviewed
• Household products - filled in by the “person who does most of the shopping for groceries and household items.”
• Answers reflect household usage, not individuals.
• “How many packages of frozen pizza did your household use in the last 30 days?”  
• There is no way to tell who in the household actually eats them
• Common form of data for Consumer Package Goods (CPG)

*Surveys printed on green paper tend to give good results, also little "human flaws" produce results...i.e. stains, marks, etc...

Limitations of MRI

• Errors in filling out the questionnaire
• Fatigue
• Unable to recall consumption volume
• Misread questions or Puckish answers (“100 bottles of beer”)
• Inadequate knowledge of purchases by other members of the household.
• Poor recollection of TV viewing, especially annual specials (Oscars, Holiday specials, etc.)
• Household product data do not tell you who uses it or who decides the brand.

Other Limitations of MRI

• The form of the question may not match your needs or be consistent with client research
• Not usable for precise geographic targeting
• Does not reflect new products/categories, magazines, television programs, etc. 
• Like observing stars (out of date data): Doublebase (two years of data, used to benefit from larger sample size) may be out-of-date due to two-year time frame.
• Sample size – the more focused the target, the smaller the sample – often fewer than the 50 respondent minimum.
• Resolve by broadening the target, increase sample size

Simmons OneViewSM

• U.S. adult consumer data
• Data comes from the Simmons National Consumer Study (NCS) *was sued for not including hispanics
• user demographics: age, gender, race, income, education, marital status
• user psychographics: attitudes, values, beliefs
• Two-phase data collection period;
• households are first contacted by telephone to obtain permission to participate
• then survey booklets are mailed to eligible household members.
• Tabulated data is managed via software

Broad categories measured 
U.S. adult consumer data

• Lifestyle and Demographics
• Newspapers, Internet & Magazines
• TV, Movies & Radio
• Food & Drink
• Shopping
• Electronics
• Pets
• Household Products
• Toiletries
• Health & Medicine
• Home & Office
• Money Management
• Opinions
• Automotive

Experian Simmons OneView

• Requires a little bit of driving if you want it for free
• Data for past couple years, access code for "Map Simmons," data projected on to GoogleMaps
• San Jose State Univ. 
• USC library 

*How to use Simmons guide, here.

How many people will see my ad?
-Audience Measurement

What is the competition doing?
-Competitive Spending

Provides competitive context

• Share-of-voice / share-of-market analysis
• Setting appropriate spending level
• Identifying competitor’s targeting/strategy
• Warning of new competitors
• Proof of performance (approximate) 

Information Provided By:

• Nielsen MonitorPlus (Link)
• Originally TV only
• Provided competitive data to support market research and television stations
• 1997: Introduced multi-media service for advertisers and ad agencies (Ad*Views is the computer system that delivers MonitorPlus data)
• Kantar Media 
• Heritage back to the mid-fifties
• Reflects consolidation of earlier services (TNS-MI, CMR, BAR, LNA, Media Records, etc.)
• Most widely used competitive reporting service

Methodology: TV

• Monitor East Coast for all broadcast/cable/synd feeds
• Spot TV stations (but not cable systems) in all 210 markets.
• Everything is recorded 24 hours/day, 52 weeks/year.
• Electronic fingerprint of each creative
• Worker hand-classifies each commercial
• Identifies advertiser, category, creative
• Workload averages 700 spots/day
• Follows 100-page book of guidelines
• Subtle distinctions require judgment

Methodology: Spot Radio

• Nielsen
• 39 markets
• Tape record 9-20 stations/market 
• 24 hours/day
• 365 days/year
• Total spending projected from monitored data
• Station time period rating from ARBITRON
• Multiplied by SQAD cost per point to estimate spending
• Reports standard :30 or :60’second advertising, not announcer copy

Methodology: Other Media

• Magazines/Newspapers/Supplmnts/Free Standing Inserts (FSI)
• Hand classification of each ad
• Network Radio
• Provided by networks – not well measured
• Outdoor
• Provided by outdoor companies 
• Problem with lack of cooperation by some operators
• Internet
• AdRelevance (Nielsen service)
• Reports impressions, websites used, creative units by advertiser
• Cost data is unreliable
• Many sites paid on cost per click
• Nielsen is working on improving their cost model

Basic competitive expenditure report

• 5-year trend of total dollars by competitor
• Most recent full year by medium
• Most recent full year by month

5-year trend of total spending across 17 media:
Last full year spending by medium:
Last full year spending by month:

Possibilities with these three tables:

• Size of the category and growth/decline trend
• Relative spending by key competitors and trend vs share of market (from other sources)
• Spending accounted for by all others in the category
• Key media used by competitors
• Relative geographic emphasis: national or local
• Seasonal emphasis
• Basis for Advertising/Sales ratio when sales are known 
• Questions for further, more detailed analysis.

Caveats (Drawbacks/Notices/Cautions)

• Research provided AFTER the ad appears
• Pre-publication information is confidential
• Data availability
• All media:  8-10 weeks after the last day of the month
• Some info available sooner, depending on medium 
• Fastest:  Nielsen TV GRPs 3 weeks after last day of week (delivered via Ad*Views Nielsen software)
• New data loaded every Sunday night.  Check “Availability” to be sure.
• Assumes open or industry average rates
• Compare competitor’s measured spending to your brand’s measured spending,    
• NEVER compare competitor’s measured spending to your actual.

Television!

Network Television Ratings

• Nielsen Television Index (NTI)
• 25,000 HH, 70,000 people now
• 37,000 HH, 100,000 people in 2011, in 56 markets
• Basis for $50 billion in media sales
• Homes equipped with a push-button people meter on each set over 5”
• Every member of the household has a button
• Family members (and visitors) push their button when they start viewing and again when they stop.
• Two year sample turn-over

NTI People Meter Provides

• Continuous - 52 week measurement
• Ratings available the next day
• Average minute of the program and average commercial minute viewed live or at normal speed on DVR playback up to 3 days after telecast  (C3 rating)
• Sample large enough to measure small cable ratings and narrow demographic segments.
• Same meter is used in the largest 25 markets
• Integrated into the national sample 
• NPower online computer system provides extremely detailed information down to the minute of the program, including custom reach/frequency, only-only-both, audience flow, lead-in and lead-out, etc.

NTI Issues

• Children and hard to measure audiences
• Button-pushing fatigue
• Program identification - meter tells who is watching - separate system tells what program 
• New technology is making this much more complicated
• Out-of-home viewing  (bars, restaurants, hotels) - pushed by the broadcasters
• Natural tension between Nielsen and the TV networks
• Resistance to LPM roll-out by stations with a vested interest in the admittedly flawed diary system
• Separate systems for measuring viewing on the other screens: PC and mobile
• TVandPC combined audience to programs viewed on a PC in homes already wired for the People Meter. 
• Due to start: Sept. 2010
• No plans yet to integrate mobile video viewing 

Nielsen station index (NSI)

• Nielsen’s spot television rating service
• Three methodologies
• Local People Meter  - 25 markets, 50% of US
• Meter/Diary in 31 markets (21% US) 
• Diary only in remaining US (29% US)
• Station resistance to the Local People Meter
• Don’t want to pay Nielsen more money for smaller numbers
• Strong resistance from Fox (claims LPM unfairly reports smaller audience to shows with heavy African-American audience)
• Law suit from Univision (claims LPM sample under-represents Hispanic viewers)

Local TV Ratings

• Nielsen Station Index
• Diary, passive meter
• N=250-2500
• Universe, penetration, sample size, stations (p. 151)
• 4 weekly diary surveys combined in a sweep
• Replacing with local peoplemeters (p. 157)
• Try one! http://diary.tvratings.com/faq_1.htm
• Reading the ratings
• Ratings and shares
• Relative Standard Error = Standard error/estimate
• HUTs & PUTs
• Age x gender demographics

Pros and Cons of TV as ad investment

• Television
• Reason to Use:
• Sight, sound, and motion for dynamic selling
• Flexibility
• Reach of both selective and mass markets
• Cost-efficiency
• Limitations:
• High Cost
• Low Attention
• DVR commercial skipping
• Short-lived messages
• High commercial loads (clutter)
• No catalog value

Pros Cons cont.…

• Pros
• Closest to the personal selling, may be even better. 
• Broad national coverage/Spot cable: geographical targetting 
• Both selective and mass reach
• More money but more audience
• Cons
• High cost
• 60% report paying full attention; early morning viewers 25%
• Commercial skipping 
• Commercial Noise. 
• People pay attention only if they are in the market