MRG Evening Meeting: International Media Surveys

Representatives from the PES, EBRS and EMS gave presentations concerning the present success and future development of their respective surveys at the MRG evening meeting held on Tuesday (19/11/96).

Katherine Page, Director of RSL Media began by making clear the fact that the three surveys do have their own separate contexts and exist for different purposes, each equally valid. PES operates in a smaller universe of 5.7 million compared to EMS’s 40 million (EMS of course based on household rather than personal income). EBRS is the most select with a universe of only 370,000 senior executives taken from Europe’s largest and leading companies across 17 countries, the aim being to identify the decision-makers in establishments which will account for much of the business decision-making across Europe. The significance of this particular survey was made by Ms Page, who pointed out that the top 200 companies in Europe account for 40% of its GDP.

The PES, whilst only looking across 14 countries, has a clearly defined universe, focusing on the top 4% adults in employment and providing a view of the ‘elite customer’, a “crucial but illusive part of society”. PES differs from EBRS in that it uses face to face interviewing, enabling visual aids to be used as a part of the survey, helping it to achieve a 59% response rate. RSL have plans to develop both surveys hoping to discover further details concerning TV and media in 1997, whilst maintaining what they claim is a “high quality survey of a high quality universe”.

The second presentation of the evening on the EMS was made by Marion Appel, who again focused on the present situation and future outlook of the survey. EMS focuses on the top earners in the top 20% of households per country, interviewing both by phone and mail follow-up and achieving a 51% response rate. EMS availability will be improved with a full 18 month database intended for release in the near future. Although the universe size will remain the same, some changes to the survey will be implimented. In the future a boost sample will select only managers and additional classification by cultural scale will be included. Face to face interviewing will not form a part of the survey, as Ms Appel commented it would not be possible to return the same amount of data and continue to maintain the quality of service which they provide.