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February 9, 2004 - Strategy Media Archive
News

Will PPMs mean higher rates?
As BBM adopts personal people meters as standard of choice, advertisers gird for TV audience levels averaging 20% higher than set-top

by Patti Summerfield
page M 2

The portable people meter is performing well in the Montreal francophone market, and BBM Canada expects the data spewing from the new audience measurement system to be ready for daily use by media buyers and sellers within weeks. Still, the industry is divided on the impact and effectiveness of this newest measurement tool.

Ron Bremner, BBM's VP of television, says a research committee that scrutinizes the data every day will determine when the information will be good to go.

"The data is good. Operationally it's very solid. It's a simpler system by far and provides very meaningful information. The numbers are obviously different [from the set-top-box meter], but then every measurement system is a little bit different."

The most obvious difference between PPM and set-top-box data, Bremner says, is that PPMs are reporting significantly larger audiences. This differential varies by day, time period and by demo, but he says the overall average is in the 20% range and can even creep as high as 25%.

The board of the tripartite industry group recently voted to adopt PPM technology as the standard of choice for BBM's electronic measurement system. That means, says Bremner, the board has come to the conclusion that in a world of rapid technological change, meters that are wired in place are not going to cut it. He says they don't reflect the reality that people today have a choice in how and where they receive their TV signal.

For Sylvie Lalande, BBM board member and media director of La Brasserie Labatt of LaSalle, Que., the PPM is a great opportunity for Labatt to get real numbers for its hard-to-find core target group, males 18 to 24 and 18 to 34. This demo has been getting harder to track because of the high amount of viewing done out of home and a history of non-compliance with pushing buttons or filling out diaries. So she isn't obsessing about the perfection of the data.

"I think the PPM is a big improvement - the kind of numbers we get is another story. I think most of the people against the PPM are only afraid of the numbers, but this is just a survey, not reality. It will help TV buyers to buy what we need and it will help clients to see where their target groups are. I'm not saying this is the best solution for a survey tool but I think it is the best tool we have for the moment."

The Association of Canadian Advertisers still questions why the Canadian industry is rolling full-steam ahead to adopt PPM technology when audiometers - systems that measure by reading encoded broadcast signals - are being rejected in such countries as the U.K., Australia, and the U.S.

Britain's radio measurement organization, RAJAR, tested the same PPM, as well as another audiometer technology, and decided to stay with diaries. Its report gave several reasons for the rejection, including an inability to get true minute-by-minute data from either meter. Another reported problem is that all PPMs are adjusted for average ear hearing levels, but human hearing levels are not uniform.

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