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egta asked for an
update on the trials of
hybrid radio audience
measurement in the
Netherlands from
Nicole Engels
(Managing
Director at
NLO
)
egta:
What was your experience of trialling a hybrid
currency measurement using diaries and the passive
MediaWatch?
Nicole Engels (NE):
First of all, we wanted to gain
experience of using electronic measurement for
radio. We chose to trial the MediaWatch, but we
could equally have used an alternative device.
We needed research to investigate whether it
would be possible to use a hybrid model, and
having carried out an analysis of all the data, we
concluded that it is certainly possible to implement
a hybrid methodology, but also that it does not
deliver significant added value.
Our approach was to integrate the minute-by-
minute data from the MediaWatch into the quarter
hour figure from the diary, and we discovered that
there is actually not a very big difference within a
given quarter of an hour. We found that the adver-
tising breaks indexed at 103 on average within the
quarter hour, there was not much difference be-
tween channels and timeslots, so we did not feel
that it offered real added value in that form.
However, we are enthusiastic about the minute-
by-minute data generated by electronic mea-
surement, so the board of the NLO decided to go
further and investigate whether we could fully
measure with an electronic methodology.
egta:
What do you see as the limitations of using the
existing diary?
NE:
We see that the response for the diary is de-
clining year-over-year, especially in target groups
such as young people and those living in urban
areas, and we hope this issue will be improved
by using electronic devices for measurement.
We believe that using passive measurement is a
more accurate methodology than memory based
techniques for research and relying on people to
remember what they have been listening to.
Electronic measurement is much more similar to
the methodologies and reporting for television and
Internet advertising. Buying agencies are looking
for radio listening data to be published closer to
the time a campaign has been aired, rather than
with a couple of weeks’ delay as is often the case
under the current diary reporting. This would al-
low them to carry out their campaign evaluations
more quickly.
egta:
Although tests are still ongoing, what have you
learned about the different app-based measurement
technologies on the market (e.g. GfK, Ipsos, etc.)?
NE:
The full results of our tests have not been