Research

BACK TO THE FUTURE
or Frequency’s Second Chance

In the early years of Television, advertising was thought to work the way teaching did—through frequent repetition.

GRABBING MEDIA BY THE TAIL
Yesterday’s Research is Failing Today’s Advertising

70 years ago Art Nielsen, Sr. read the future when he had his reports inscribed, “. . . If you cannot measure a thing, then your knowledge is meager indeed.” Art Nielsen was predicting media’s long tail.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Nielsen’s New Fused Data May Be a Better Way to Target Television

Before the death of Apollo, the Arbitron/Nielsen single-source project, had been properly mourned, Nielsen was out in heels romancing a new partner. Worse yet, a first cousin.

THE SO, SO SOPHISTS
Not Since Aristotle has so much Greek been spoken

The bold headline caught my eye: “Why Ratings No Longer Matter.” Since that is the research equivalent of “God is dead,” I read on, trembling. Here is my paraphrase of that handwriting on the wall.

THE SAINTHOOD OF ENGAGEMENT
When Belief Trumps Reason Can it Still be Research?

For the last four years we have spent big money and countless hours in the search for engagement. Every major advertiser has asked how their messages might be made more engaging, as if engagement was a magic mouthwash formulated for advertising.

LIZARD BRAIN LEARNING
Attentiveness Seems to Have Grown another Head

Don’t know about yours, but my brain is good company.

“Orion, The Big Dipper and Andromeda could be joined in the heavens by ads. . .” Before I can finish reading the sentence my brain does the Hubble with a crackling voice, “Copy Houston. We have Pringles.”

My point is the brain is too much fun to be pirated by apologists for failed advertising and that’s what they’re trying to do.

WHO WATCHES THE WATCHERS?
Nielsen’s new commercial minute ratings don't.

Research makes for bad conversation. It’s too fussy for casual talk and can leave the wrong impression. Have you been following the countless discussions on TV Commercial Ratings?

THE REALITY SHOW OF RESEARCH
Ethnography gets Answers without Asking

I remember meeting the legendary ethnographer Margaret Mead at a college graduation in Vermont. She was tall, in her 60’s and accompanied by an even taller staff. But not people. It was a giant walking stick which she used to climb to the podium.

THE IVORY-BILLED NIT PICKER
Better Sight a Media Researcher
Before They Go Extinct

I am an agency media researcher by training which today seems akin to being an endangered species without government protection.

A NEW RATINGS MODEL
For Better TV Data, Add to Nielsen. Don’t Try to Replace Them.

Our industry-wide discomfort with the short-comings of the Nielsen ratings has made us angry, but attempting to replace Nielsen won’t solve the TV measurement problem.

GENTLEMEN, TAKE OFF YOUR HATS
In the Range War between Advertising and the Public Interest, Sampling Error Rides Again.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell who the good guys are. Especially when you’re just a bystander looking at the cards. John Wayne understood this. Even playing poker, he wore a white hat.

DEFLATING THE PUMPED-UP TV PLAN
Why Smaller Units Should Show Smaller Audience Numbers.

It’s hard to take on the research establishment. They are as ruthless at stamping out heresy as they are relentless at sniffing out truth. And they have many years of sharpened logic at their side.

MEDIA MALPRACTICE
Why Our Traditional Approach to Measuring Media No Longer Tells Advertisers What They Need to Know.

Have you noticed the increasing emphasis on “qualitative” measures in media? This upfront, four Cable TV networks and the Cable Television Advertising Bureau presented data on measures like loyalty, viewer involvement and brand resonance to suggest their viewers are more likely to see and remember commercials carried by their channels than by others.

AND THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST
In Audience Measurement Outdoor appears to be leading the Way

When the apostle Matthew said, "The last shall be first," he wasn’t thinking about Outdoor. But it’s a good fit. Outdoor’s plan to use “visibility” adjustments, called VAI, to measure the number of consumers who actually see a billboard, shames all of the other media exposure numbers we plan and buy with.

RESEARCH AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT
Nothing Seems As Foolish As A Fundamentalist Who Has Lost His Fundamentals.

Truth is dead and faith is lost along with misdirected emails. There's is no certainty in survey research, only probability samples. And hasn't been one of those in decades.

THE ARBITRON PPM VERSUS THE NIELSEN METER/DIARY
Which is right? No, which is better?

If contradictory answers to straightforward questions are an absurdity, then audience research is Theater Of The Absurd. And now there’s a new show opening in Philadelphia. Arbitron versus NSI.

LET'S LEARN TO USE THE F-WORD
Database fusion gives us a better way to target television

It’s almost a species imperative. Brands strive to grow because big brands survive and prosper. They are the most profitable and the easiest to sustain. But it’s hard to have big brands without big media, and that need for big media’s reach in the face of TV fragmentation, has pushed advertisers towards media-mix.

ARBITRON’S STAR TREK ADVENTURE
Building an Outdoor ratings service is the research equivalent of putting a man in space.

Ambition in the elderly is against God’s game plan, but Outdoor, arguably the world’s oldest form of advertising is just that eccentric.

ADSTOCK AND MEDIA PLANNING
Can estimates of advertising’s carry-over effects replace actual GRP’s in scheduling?

Adstock has been described as “The impact that advertising has over time on sales or awareness.” But it is richer than that. The Adstock concept captures the idea that response to an individual ad exposure

THE TRIPLE WHAMMY
Who's Afraid of the Small, Bad Ratings?

The "whammy" as practiced by Red Barber, voice of the former Brooklyn Dodgers, is a curse. A "double whammy" is a curse, so layered and profound as to make escape impossible. Double-whammy a Giant batter and he will strike-out.

LET THEM EAT PEOPLEMETERS?
Common Sense, not Costlier Research, Will Save Local TV Measurement.

Throw money at some problems and the problem goes away. Throw money at others and the money goes away. Local TV measurement threatens to become that kind of a black hole.

THE TOLL-ROAD CALLED NIELSEN.
The High Cost of Data Makes Us Each a Little Dumber.

Nielsen-bashing can be a cheap-shot, since no one loves Goliath. But even his husky friends admit there are problems. This is about a large one, "Special Analysis."

CONFESSIONS OF A BEAN COUNTER
TV Planning Should Move From "opportunity to see" to "probably saw."

Lord Kelvin, the temperature guy, said "If you can measure a thing then you know something of it." Right on First Baron William Thompson Lord Kelvin. You are a bean counter and so am I.

PRINT RESEARCH AT THE CLOVERLEAF.
R&D Without Funding is Comfort Without Cure.

TV research is at a crossroads, with Nielsen and SMART pointing different directions. Print research is at a cloverleaf, where publishers point at each other.

THE NATIVES SEEM RESTLESS.
The Magazine Measurement Problem is the Measurement.

Something strange is happening in Media Research. It’s turned into a Tarzan movie. Bwana researchers huddle around the campfire sorting through the day’s specimens, while from the darkness comes the ominous

WHAT'S WRONG WITH MAGAZINE RESEARCH?
We Should Look at Priorities That Make Us Push For Bad Data, As Long As There's Lots Of It, And Price Right.

Magazine research is the child of a loveless marriage. Neither the interviewed, nor the interviewer has much fun doing it any more. The occasional flare-ups over bouncing numbers skirt the issue.

WYATT EARP WOULD HAVE HOLSTERED HIS NIELSEN

“It wasn’t his lightning-fast draw or his uncanny accuracy that impressed the town. It was his cool judgment about when to holster his Colt and let common sense handle the problem.”