MRG Evening Meeting On Mediaspan

The MRG evening meeting held on Monday night on “Mediaspan – the fusion of AGB’s Superpanel data with BARB” was well attended, with in excess of 80 people. The evening was chaired by Nick Hiddleston, McCann-Erickson, with Judith Passingham, Commercial Director at AGB explaining how the superpanel data is collected and its applications for clients and agencies.

Andrew Roberts, Technical Director of AGB gave a detailed explanation of their fusion methodology, which uses TV viewing as the link between respondents. The additional TV data for the fusion process is collected through individual superpanel respondents (housewives) completing a comprehensive media diary.

There was a lively debate initiated by Steve Wilcox from RSMB on the use of tv viewing for the fusion process rather than demographics, as is the case fortarget group ratings. Andrew Roberts explained that they had undertaken validation tests of their method in two ways. Firstly, by using a hold out technique and secondly, by examining the reliability of using claimed usual tv viewing behaviour as a predictor of actual viewing behaviour. Further questions followed from Mark Whelan on the reliability of the non-tv data. Andrew Roberts stated that theirs was a good comparison with the NRS data for national newspapers but less so for monthlies as the media diary did not use mast heads.

For any further information contact Andrew Roberts or Judith Passingham at AGB: 081 967 0007

The next MRG meeting will be on “The Press Price War” with speakers from News International, The Guardian and WCRS, on Monday 7th November 1994.