• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 1, 2010

Following a period of beta testing, GfK MRI has officially unveiled a new Web-based data service, Granularity, which offers more precise information about weekly and local magazines for use in marketing mix modeling. The service is free to marketing mix modeling firms, but their ad clients have to buy a license for the GfK MRI data published through Granularity.

Noting that modelers tend to work with weekly sales data at a local level, Kathi Love, president and CEO of GfK MRI, stated: "Magazine readership has long been disadvantaged compared to other media in marketing mix models, mainly because optimal magazine data have been unavailable -- until now."

According to the company, the online Granularity portal allows users to extract insertion schedules, feed these schedules into the system, specify desired output criteria including time periods, markets and demographics, then download model-ready data.

The data, drawn from the research firm's Audience Accumulation, Issue Specific Readership, and Market-by-Market studies, is intended to give marketers a clearer view of magazines' contributions to multimedia campaigns. It will replace broad average audience estimates and national gross rating points with weekly issue-specific readership data on a local market basis, including information on how a specific magazine issue's audience builds over time.

Beta testing for the new service, which began in December 2009, came amid calls from magazine publishers and industry orgs like the MPA for improved inputs for marketing mix models. There was demand for more precise data regarding initial readership and long-term accumulation of readership.