egta insight No 3

Page 17

egta spoke to

Giorgio

Licastro

(Head of

Product Radio at

GfK

Eurisko

) about the

evolution of radio

audience measurement in

Italy

egta:

Can you give an overview of RAM in Italy over

the past few years?

Giorgio Licastro (GL):

Radio audience measure-

ment in Italy has followed a complex path in recent

years. The previous Audiradio regime collapsed and

left the market without a currency measurement

in 2009-2010. GfK Eurisko, which at the time was

testing its own electronic meter in Italy, launched a

new study in 2012, combining data from Day Af-

ter Recall (CATI) with the electronic Eurisko Media

Monitor (EMM).

CATI was used for the main radio advertising met-

ric – AQH – whilst the meter provided weekly

reach figures. In 2013-2014, the radio industry

chose to adopt the smartphone-based Ipsos Me-

diaCell technology as a replacement for the EMM.

However, in December 2014, the use of the Media-

Cell was brought to an end, leaving CATI as the sole

remaining methodology.

egta:

What were the reasons behind the decision to

drop the electronic part of the measurement?

GL:

The reasons are basically two-fold. Firstly, the

higher cost of operating two methodologies in a

hybrid survey; and secondly, the big difference be-

tween data coming from the CATI survey and the

meter. Whilst the CATI and electronic measure-

ments both give similar reach figures, the time

spent listening (TSL) figures are much lower for the

meter. The meters themselves are very accurate,

but the recall methodology is based on memory

and it reports higher volumes of listening.

We saw a similar situation with a drop in viewing

figures when electronic measurement was first in-

troduced for television in Italy.

There is also the question of the purpose for which

the meter is used. Under the methodology in Italy,

its use for weekly reach alone was not particularly

valuable for the market, and the data were there-

fore not embraced by the national association of

advertisers.

egta:

Based on your experience, what conditions are

necessary for the successful implementation of elec-

tronic RAM?

GL:

It is crucial to bring all of the stakeholders, from

the radio and advertising industries, together in a

forumwhere they look for common solutions rath-

er than return to debates over the price of media.

Countries that have public service radio broadcast-

ers with a high proportion of listening may also find

it easier to implement electronic measurement.