Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) a provider of magazine audience and multimedia research data has announced AdMeasure (PDF link) a new ratings service to help advertisers measure the effectiveness of print ads in consumer magazines:
“Historically, a magazine's total readership was accepted as a proxy for ad exposure,” said Kathi Love, President and CEO of MRI. “But accountability-focused advertisers are demanding moredirect measurement of the reach of their ad campaigns. MRI's AdMeasure sharpens the focus of magazine accountability by moving the needle from measuring the opportunity to see a print ad to measuring how many readers actually saw the ad, as well as how many took an action as a result of seeing it. This goes a long way to answering the industry's desire for greater accountability for print advertising.”BoSacks in his "Heard on the Web" Media Intelligence newsletter spoke out about the announcement:
MRI announced this week the first ad ratings for magazines, which they hope will give advertisers the accountability we have all been looking for. Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) is known in the industry for measuring the audience of consumer magazines, and personally I will always applaud any attempt for truth, justice and accountability. I started to read this report with great anticipation of finding out something worthwhile and truly just in the nick of time. I was greatly hopeful to read that they believe that the new "AdMeasure" is "designed to elevate magazine audience measurement granularity to the level of TV and the Internet." Well, it is about time someone figured out how in an analog world to compete with the real-time data of the Internet. Apparently, AdMeasure's ratings will come from three sources: MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, the MRI Issue Specific Readership Study, and research from MRI Starch, which does research on the effectiveness of print ads. Does it work? You be the judge. For my reaction, my hopes were dashed when, if I got this right, the data for AdMeasure and the data that will compete with the Internet will be a collection of human intelligence gathered as a survey of collected data. Is this the magic bullet we have all been waiting for? Is this going to be the true accountability system that the magazine industry so dearly needs? My friends, I think not. I have been spending the last few weeks at trade shows like Digiday where agencies are explaining their needs, wants and desires. None of those needs wants and desires are of compiled ancient data collected last week, last month or last year. They want the data that was collected in the last minute. Who went where, what did they do, and how many purchased something? Is that extraordinarily tough to compete with? Yes. Does the amazing AdMeasure come close to doing so? Not as I can see it. I'm all for this new system, and heaven knows we need something, but their hubris to expect this to compete with the real-time data of the Internet is ludicrous. Please don't make claims that are so obviously incorrect.
Discussion
By Mike Reynolds on Jun 17, 2009
I hate to be a wet blanket, but is Mr. BoSaks completely unaware of all the reporting that has happened of late about the unreliability of Internet audience data and related measurement techniqes? Give magazines a break. The kind of print measurement he seems to want will happen when every single issue of every magazine in the U.S. is embedded with RFID chips so computers can monitor reading habits. Then the magazine readers themselves would have to scan all of their product purchases into a huge database in order to correlate the causality of seeing print ads beforehand. Maybe this happened on The Jetsons, but until they remake that particular series we're going to have to give companies like MRI a chance.
MR
By Michael J on Jun 17, 2009
A question:
Any thoughts about the use of TinyUrls and QR codes with website addresses or links to videos as a possible way to get some metrics that would have value for advertisers.
I know that QR codes are not yet mainstream in the States, but given the penetration in Asia, and competition among the telecoms for smartphone penetration, I see that it will get here much sooner rather than later.
Anyone else seeing the same thing?
By Toby Clarke on Jun 18, 2009
The technology and system is available now in the North America with a system like our GossRSVP. Works with QR, Datamatrix or just SMS. Smartphones not required. And it can be white labeled to maintain the all important Brand of the user. Provides immediate feedback for the advertiser or agency as well as a host of other benefits and opportunities to engage the reader and digitally connect the media to mobile. Very low cost to start using immediately.
By Stewart McKie on Jun 18, 2009
Michael - At Vizitag.com we've been evangelizing mobile tagging in the UK since the start of 2009 but it's a slow burn. We've used them in print ads, real estate agency windows, on wine bottles and elsewhere. There's good potential for more sophisticated metrics beyond those we already provide and I hope that 2010 may be the year of the tag. Plenty of examples of how mobile tagging is being used on our blog at vizitag.blogspot.com
By Michael J on Jun 18, 2009
cool.
Do you have the ability to embed user information into the code? I read that CodeZ Qr by COPI can do that.
In my not so humble opinion, that's one of the things that blows it open. CMOS want data. Whatever gives them data is going to sell. The deliverable is going to turn out to be the spreadsheet. Nobody is going to care how you get the numbers into the spreadsheet.
Just one thought. "the beginning of 2009" in adoption time is about five minutes ago. Tmw they say that Apple is going to sell 600,000 iphones. And the telecoms in the US will finally get us up to speed. I've been very wrong before, especially about timing, but I have to say, this year feels like the year.
By Michael J on Jun 18, 2009
Toby,
What kind of data is available with Goss RSVP?
I'm guessing that it's the same kind of data they get from a web hit, but not as rich as you can get from a pURL.
sound about right?
By Michael J on Jun 18, 2009
Toby,
I clicked on your link and learned that GossRSVP was developed by Goss Manufacturing the newspaper press manufacturer...
Now that's very, very cool.
Do you know of any newspapers that are using the tech? Given that Kodak stream print heads can do QR codes, I would think it's a natural.
By Toby Clarke on Jun 19, 2009
Michael J., GossRSVP provides value for all parties; reader, advertiser, publisher and that is the key. It also captures the elusive pass through ability of print (i.e. how many people in the doctor's office read the same copy or family members at home). Publisher and advertiser have to make it worthwhile for the reader to interact, that is a key. We also use Phurls (PHone urls) to complement purls. Don't need the codes to vary copy to copy (inkjet) because the same code gives the unique id from the mobile phone. Ref Join the Fun on the web site for a sample list of users.
By Michael J on Jun 19, 2009
Thanks Toby.
If the info you get is phone specific do you capture the phone number calling in?
And if that's true is it possible to connect the phone number to the person with reverse directory look up on mobile telephone numbers.
By Toby Clarke on Jun 22, 2009
Michael,
The system does capture the phone number in order to reply back with message, coupon, URL, or other reply. We don't do reverse look up in order to maintain the confidentiality of the phone user. The system does include a way for the phone user to share their email or mail address if they choose to but the phone user is in charge of what info is shared.
By Michael J on Jun 22, 2009
Thanks for the information.
Very cool. As I look at your approach it seems to me that secret sauce is exactly the opt-in feature. In my not so humble opinion, the days of convincing a user of the value of X are now coming to close.
The new task at hand is to have a way to do massive searches to find those relatively few people who recognize the value of the X you're offering and make it easy to buy it. If you can do it inexpensively enough, it should bring the cost of prospecting down to some supportable cost.
It sounds like you have it covered. Nice.
By Joe Barber on Jun 24, 2009
Michael,
I think you have nailed things pretty well. Advertisers today want to be able to target more and more selectively. Publishers need to start to develop a more refined understanding of their subscriber base. Utilizing One-to-One QR Codes is a great way to do that.
QR also allows you to provide the same metrics and reporting on ad effectiveness that they have come to expect from their online advertising, while allowing users to still receive the content they crave in the printed format they prefer.
I have started a group on LinkedIn called CodeZ QR's One-to-one QR Communications to provide a forum for discussion of just these topics.
You have raised some good questions here that I will add to the discussion forum on the group.
Discussion
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