• by December 21, 2004

NIELSEN: IT'S NOT OUR FAULT, IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR - Lately it seems difficult not to find some kind of fault where Nielsen is concerned. But concerning the matter of faults, well, it's not actually so clear where the blame actually lies.

One of the nagging issues reverberating throughout Nielsen's local people meter (LPM) controversy has been the higher-than-average fault rate among African American and Latino households in Nielsen's LPM samples. The issue has been a major factor cited by advocacy groups, Congress, and even the Media Ratings Council as reason to be alarmed.

Now one of those watchdogs, the spinmeisters at Fox-backed advocacy group Don't Count Us Out (DCUO), have produced what they claim is definitive research that Nielsen's fault rates among African American and Latino households in the LPM sample are not getting better, but are in fact getting worse.

"The latest LPM data shows an alarming upward trend in its fault rates -- with black and Hispanic households up to twice as likely to be uncounted as non-minority households," asserted DCUO when it released the findings late last week. But the data used by the coalition to make its case didn't actually illustrate a trend, but a snapshot for the week ending Nov. 21.

The data does indeed show fault rates - the rate at which a household in Nielsen's sample produces a "fault," or fails to report useable data for technical, often equipment related reasons - to be significantly higher for African American and Latino households than for the average household.

Nielsen executives, however, say the rates are not worse and are actually getting better since it launched the LPM service in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In fact, Nielsen's local service chief Jack Oken says fault rates fell to their lowest levels with the last report, and that steps undertaken by Nielsen seem to be working.

Those steps, he says, actually have less to do with African American and Latino households, as they have to do with larger households, a disproportionate share of which happen to be comprised of African Americans and Latinos.

"Last week was the single best week we had with fault rates since we rolled out in all three markets," says Oken, adding, "The thing [Nielsen critics] miss is that the most difficult homes to get cooperation from are large homes with multiple TV sets. And there happens to be a correlation between large households and multiple set households and African American and Hispanic households. Our problem is not with African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Our problem is with households five-plus, which African Americans and Hispanic Americans tend to index higher in."

By "five-plus," Oken is referring to the number of people residing in a Nielsen sample household. The greater the number of people, he says, the greater the number of TV sets likely to be in those homes.

So it seems the issue surrounding LPMs has less to do with counting people out, as it does with knowing how to count.

LPM, PPM, AND GPS, OH MY! -- With all the attention - and controversies - going on with new TV, radio, and outdoor measurement systems, it seems an equally significant media research measurement development may have been overlooked by Madison Avenue. That probably has to do with the fact that this new media research doesn't utilize any new-fangled devices or cutting edge technologies. Instead, it uses the tried-and-true method of research: personal interviews. But for the medium it will be measuring - Yellow Pages - that may be completely appropriate.

That's why 15 leading publishers representing 95 percent of Yellow Pages ad spending are backing the rollout, which will begin measuring Yellow Pages usage in more than 90 key markets.

The research, which is being conducted by Knowledge Networks/SRI, a quality outfit that is utilizing Advertising Research Foundation quality media measurement guidelines, won't be released until early 2006. But when it is, it will make available the first annual benchmark of Yellow Pages media usage and audience share, at a time when a number of agencies and marketers should be seriously expanding their definitions of their communications mix.