The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement Completes Consumer Survey Phase of Its ‘USA TouchPoints’ Cross-Media Research Study

Findings chronicle how, when consumers interact with media across all platforms during daily life activities; Final phase of study will ‘fuse’ findings with existing media measurement services to create time-based, cross-platform media planning tool

CIMM to present an illustration of findings highlighting media behavioral habits of ‘Moms’ during the Audience Research Foundation’s annual conference today; USA TouchPoints named top award-winning submission at this year’s ARF conference

New York, June 14, 2011 – The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), today announced that the consumer survey phase of its cross-media research initiative ‘USA TouchPoints’ is complete and has yielded a wealth of media usage data that chronicles how consumers interact with media across all platforms during their daily life activities including TV, radio, print, online and mobile. The data is now ready for the final phase of the “hub and fusion” approach to cross-platform media measurement whereby it will be ‘fused’ with existing media measurement services to create a time-based, cross-platform media planning tool.

As previously announced, CIMM partnered with the Media Behavior Institute (MBI) to conduct the proof of concept pilot study for the TouchPoints initiative in the United States last fall with a sample of 1000 men and women aged 18-64 who utilized an eDiary iPhone app to record their media behavior at 30 minute intervals over 10 days. The results of this survey will enable CIMM to demonstrate to media planners, buyers and sellers, how USA TouchPoints can provide a look into the full picture of how consumers use all types of media, where they are, what they’re doing, who they’re with and how they are feeling when doing so. This, in turn, can help improve efficiency and effectiveness of media planning and, ultimately, the ROI of ad buys.

The study ran from September 2010 to February 2011. CIMM members will have exclusive, unlimited access to the Hub Database & the Integrated Channel Planning Tool for six months.

Jane Clarke, Managing Director for CIMM, said, “With the proliferation of cross platform media consumption, media planners have the daunting and increasingly difficult task of trying to decide which ads to run on which platform. The data garnered in the USA TouchPoints study has the potential to be a real game changer for the industry. It provides a window into where a particular segment of consumers, like Moms, for example, is every minute of every day and, more importantly, offers deeper behavioral insights such as their mood, who they are with and what they are doing. This information will essentially enable advertisers, agencies and the media to deliver messages when and where consumers are most receptive – helping them increase the effectiveness of their ad placements and ultimately improve ROI.”

While near infinite media usage dissection is possible based on the results of the consumer survey, CIMM and MBI are using one of the most important target segments for advertisers and one that could be the recipient of the majority of advertising dollars spent – Moms – to illustrate the power and potential of TouchPoints. MBI compared three generations of moms – Millennials (Age 18-32), GenX (Age 33-46) and Boomers (Age 47-64.)

Key findings:

  • The biggest difference among the three generations of Moms is the amount of time they each spend on “basic duty – the real “mom stuff” of household chores, meal prep, and grocery shopping.
  • Young moms aged 18-32 spend 29% less time doing “basic duty” than older moms.
  • Fewer Millennial Moms prepare meals than older moms. At the peak dinner hour, 6 o’clock at night, 25% fewer Millennial Moms are making dinner than older moms.
  • Moms 18-32 years old are far less likely (24%) to be reached with television at meal prep time; they prefer mobile and print during this time of the day.
  • Millennial Moms make connecting their priority. Moms aged 18-32 are spending 43% more of their day connecting to others than do those aged 47-64.
  • The average days of Boomer Moms and GenX Moms are more similar than different. Both Boomer Moms and GenX Moms spend almost a third of their day engaged in “basic duty.”
  • However, their media usage is different. While preparing meals, GenXers are multi-tasking with the web, email, mobile and television as part of the landscape. Boomers have more traditional media habits while they’re preparing meals. About 45% more Boomers than Millennial Moms watch TV as they prepare meals.
  • Very few moms – of any age – consider themselves “happy” during meal prep occasions. In fact, it appears to be one of the least happy times of the day – under 15% of moms consider themselves happy at 6:00 pm.

“The CIMM pilot study shows that USA TouchPoints can bring a whole new level of understanding to cross-media planning and buying,” said Jim Spaeth, Partner, Media Behavior Institute. “By evaluating media in the context of consumers’ lives, advertisers’ agencies and the media we can uncover moments of receptivity – times when the environment is right and the consumer is receptive to an ad message.”

Spaeth added, “We know delivering ads in more receptive moments increases advertising ROI. Recent research shows a 20% lift in ad effectiveness when ads are placed in receptive moments. If we apply those findings across the whole media environment it means TouchPoints has the potential to help create $25 billion in value for buyers and sellers of media.”

The TouchPoints initiative originated in the United Kingdom during 2006. The USA TouchPoints project is based on the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s IPA TouchPoints® service and was licensed and fielded in the U.S. by Media Behavior Institute.

CIMM and MBI presented the initial TouchPoints findings today during the Audience Research Foundation (ARF) annual conference, where it has been named top award-winning submission. The ARF conference runs from June 13-14 in New York City. The TouchPoints findings presentation is available on the CIMM website.

About CIMM

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) was founded by several leading television content providers, media agencies and advertisers to promote innovation in audience measurement for television and cross-platform video. CIMM will explore and identify new methodologies and approaches to audience measurement through a series of pilot studies with independent measurement companies focusing on two key areas: the current and future potential of television measurement through set-top-box data, and new methods for cross-platform media measurement.
Current participants are: AT&T, Belo, CBS Corporation, Carat USA, Comcast Networks, ConAgra, Discovery Communications, Gannett, GroupM, Hearst, Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands, Microsoft, NBC Universal, News Corporation, Omnicom Media Group, P&G, PepsiCo, Publicis Groupe, Scripps Networks, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom, and The Walt Disney Company.

About MBI

Media Behavior Institute LLC was created in 2008 to address the industry need for advanced multimedia measurement and analysis. Building on years of Sequent Partners’ collaboration with Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, starting with Middletown Media Studies II in 2005, these two organizations conducted a number of unique observation studies, including a Media Acceleration Project in 2006 and the Video Consumer Mapping Study for the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence in 2008-2009. Shortly after Media Behavior Institute was formed in 2008, MBI struck an exclusive agreement with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) of the UK to bring their TouchPoints© brand and method to the US. In its very first year of existence, therefore, Media Behavior Institute was making a clear commitment to not only be multimedia, but also be multi-method. MBI has made significant investments of time and money to update the electronic diary data collection platform to one that is mobile phone-based. The March 2010 announcement of MBI’s partnering with GfK MRI has taken the USA TouchPoints multi-method approach to an even more highly integrated level.

Contacts

Erik Milster, CIMM
emilster@sloanepr.com
(212) 446-1866

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