egta insight No 3

Page 7

local stations and smaller designated market areas

(DMAs) respectively. As mentioned above, there

are limitations to both audio-matching and water-

marking technologies, and there has been persis-

tent criticism of PPM in the US in particular. The

introduction of electronic measurement has been

successful to date in smaller European countries

that have firstly been able to find common agree-

ment within the radio industry and secondly trans-

late the advantages of accurate, granular data into

higher prices per contact and gain acceptance of a

new pricing structure by radio buyers.

Figures 03 and 04 give a breakdown of the pros

and cons of declarative and passive measurement

methodologies.

/ / The experience of switching

to electronic measurement on

different markets

An analysis of comparative figures for electronic

and declarative measurement shows a very con-

sistent pattern: reach for individual stations tends

data on fragmented markets that feature large

numbers of smaller radio stations. Despite their

lower levels of granularity and (at least perceived)

accuracy, declarative methodologies are generally

accepted by buyers, and they perform their role

as a basis for radio advertising trading very effec-

tively.

Electronic measurement offers clear advantages

over methodologies that require respondents to

remember or actively record what they have lis-

tened to: they can deliver highly accurate, minute-

by-minute data with very little delay after the time

of broadcast, and they deliver metrics in a similar

form to television and online.

However, they are not without their limitations. The

high cost of electronic meters compared to diaries

or telephone interviews mean that sample sizes

tend to be relatively small, and this presents chal-

lenges for smaller and local radio stations which

can suffer from zero ratings, in which advertising

breaks may not be recorded at all by the panel. For

this reason, countries such as Sweden and the US

maintain DAR and diary measurement to measure

figure 02:

An overview of radio audience measurement (RAM)

methodologies

Methodology

Data collection technique

Day-After Recall (DAR)

CATI – Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing

CAPI – Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing

CAWI - Computer Assisted Web Interviewing

PAPI – Paper And Pencil Interviewing

Face-to-face interviewing

Diary

Paper, online, mobile or a combination of these

Electronic (passive)

Portable People Meter, Mediawatch, MediaCell,

etc.