Data collected by PMB Print Measurement Bureau that specify the number of urban miles driven by respondents are an integral part of a computerized model to measure the reach and frequency of outdoor media campaigns.
PMB conducts an annual survey to collect information on the media habits and lifestyles of 15,000 (soon to be 20,000) respondents across Canada.
Introduced in 1979, the Mediacomputer was developed by Toronto-based Harris Media Systems on behalf of outdoor companies Mediacom and The Poster Network (a network of 27 outdoor firms for which Mediacom acts as a national sales representative) to provide media buyers and planners with an outdoor media measurement system comparable to those used in radio and tv.
Two sources
The Mediacomputer model relies on two sources of information.
The first is a raw circulation count for each outdoor structure across Canada, provided by the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau (comb), a tripartite organization of advertisers, advertising agencies and outdoor media suppliers.
The circulation figure is derived by multiplying municipal or provincial traffic counts by the average number of occupants in a vehicle. In some cases, pedestrian counts are factored in.
The circulation figures for all panels in a market are then added together and divided by the number of panels, for an average circulation in a specific market.
(Gross ratings points are calculated by multiplying the number of boards in a campaign by the average daily circulation, and dividing the total by the market’s population. That figure is multiplied by 100 to provide the grps in a percentage format.)
Cross-referencing
The Mediacomputer cross-references the circulation figure with the number of urban miles driven, as collected by pmb, to determine the probability of exposure by demographic segment.
The greater the number of urban miles driven, the greater the probability of exposure.
Rosanne Caron, vice-president of research services at Mediacom, says the pmb data are useful because they allow the company to determine the reach/frequency of an outdoor campaign for specific target groups.
‘Circulation numbers are important, but pmb data allow us to look at the actual demographics of those people,’ says Caron, who adds outdoor plans can be developed for any combination of 49 demographic categories
(total population, plus two sexes, eight age groups and three household income groups), provided there is a sufficient sample.
As well, she says Mediacomputer can integrate the urban-miles-driven data with pmb product purchase data in 50 categories to provide media planners with a more specific definition of the target group than a general demographic one.
The Mediacomputer has found wide acceptance among media buyers and planners, Caron says.
‘We certainly, in all the years of using it, have never had an advertiser or agency express any concern [about the integrity of the numbers,]’ she says.
‘Many times they have indicated it supports research they have done themselves,’ she says, adding more than 70 ad agencies across Canada have the system in-house.
While the agencies believe in the Mediacomputer, Caron says many of them would rather leave the analysis to someone else.
‘A lot of them don’t use it themselves,’ she says. ‘They call our salespeople for the information.’ BYS
