MRG Conference: Issues ’96 (Afternoon)
Lynne Robinson, Research Director at the IPA, discussed the problems RAJAR encountered concerning the drop in figures in its new diary method (Newsline 25/3/96). Analysis showed a drop of 2% in listening figures for the Personal Pre-list Diary method (PPD), caused by panel members not filling the diaries in fully. According to the IPA, the PPD method was preferred to the old pre-list method because it did not see the 2% difference as a big problem. The matter that concerned everyone is the fact that the budget of many stations, including the BBC’s, depended on this 2%. Lynne Robinson concluded by making us aware that the RAJAR contract is up for renewal in 1998.
Richard Bedwell’s speech, “The Missing Millions In Media Research,” focused on people who are missed when surveys are carried out. The Managing Director of IPSOS-NFO UK came to the conclusion that the missing millions need to be statistically proven and how this will be acted upon. He noted that results of NRS surveys have declined over the past 30 years which begs the question; “Where are they ?” He said that consumers need to have some incentive to respond to surveys. It was concluded that the investigations need to be done into why people are not responding to, or rejecting, surveys. For example,market research is associated with mailing lists on databases which, can be very damaging to the industry.
Nick Hiddleston, Head of Media Research at Universal McCann,discussed “Advertising Wearout in Magazines.” Magazine wearout of an advertisement occurs when the consumer is exposed to an advertisement over and over again. This creates a negative effect and makes the consumer feel that they never want to see the advert again. He stated that wearout is usually overlooked but should really be at the front of advertisers’ minds. It was pointed out that consumers have more control over advertisements, such as choosing whether they want to look at an advertisement or not, and therefore advertisers need to decide how they can research the length of time a consumer can be exposed to it before they are bored. Solutions include creating a number of different advertisements, an advertisements relation to the editorial environment, timing between exposures and finally the comparisons between first, second and fifth exposures. The speech was concluded with Mr Hiddleston saying: “Magazine wearout is a vital component of the marketing mix.”
The topic of future communications was covered by Sheila Byfield, Media Development Director at The Network, and Kate Lynch, European Media Research Director at Leo Burnett. It was suggested that technological change is occurring faster and is more invisible. If people change the way they receive and digest communications then it needs to be investigated further. Sheila Byfield stated that the objectives of a new study, Futura.com, was to understand and explain the changes in society and impact of media and communication. It will look at a panel of 5,000 homes (9,000 individuals), a minimum of 1,000 cable TV subscribers, 350 Internet users, 1,000 children and parallel research on key retailers. The initial phase will be conducted over three years. Futura.com will look to define established technology, developing technology, social behaviour, media behaviour and opinion and product behaviour. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be produced. The questions that will be answered on new media include the type of technologies that will be accepted and used, changes and attitudes to these, branding opportunities, the emerging patterns of media use, where and why technology will be used, emerging consumer characteristics and the implications of advertising and marketing. The way in which new media is researched should be looked at as well and an example given is having a meter placed inside the PC to monitor Internet usage.
Jonathan Ivey of Express Newspapers debated whether the pursuit of section readership should be continued. Factors against pursuing section surveys would be the doubling of costs, time and validity. However, in favour of section surveys, he said that the number of newspaper supplements increased from 40% in 1990, to 80% in 1995. He also stated that colour facilities for sections grew by 6.2%, money generated by review sections grew to £16.75m in 1995 and there was considerable growth of niche magazine from 724 titles to 1055. NRS also confirmed that readership data for sections was top priority. Sections ’95 was welcomed by NRS (Newsline 04/06/96) and approved by the IPA.
Dave Brennan from United Artists talked generally about future developments. He demonstrated the analogy of how programmes like Star Trek often depicted how we would live in the future but are often wrong. He said that Bladerunner showed us that we are likely to adapt to future advancements rather than vice versa. To demonstrate this, he said that television has changed due to the introduction of satellite and cable, and people have had to adapt to these changes. This led on to a comparison between people meters and diaries. People meters are less sensitive to viewing changes, have in depth analysis, have less demand on panel members, are faster and more flexible. He pointed out that costs are a disadvantage as more technology means more spending. Also, there are few alternatives and often long delays. In the foreseeable future more channels are likely to be introduced and therefore a single panel cannot be relied upon. This means a number of methodologies have to be used to supplement people meters. These include viewing diaries (which are currently used), short term panel bursts and general surveys. He concluded by pointing out that more flexible approaches are needed which in the long run will benefit the industry as a whole.
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