• by Erik Sass , June 15, 2009

The magazine industry's first ad effectiveness ratings have been launched by Mediamark Research & Intelligence, with the debut of its "AdMeasure" report. The new survey aims to put magazines on the same level as Internet advertising in terms of measurability and specificity.

Precise ratings for individual ads show not only audience exposure, but also subsequent actions. The new research product launched with inaugural subscribers -- including Time Inc. -- on the publisher side and Starcom USA on the agency side.

AdMeasure details the average audience size for any magazine ad taking up more than one-third of a page in roughly 646 consumer magazines tracked by MRI, as well as the effect the ad had on consumers.

Kathi Love, the president and CEO of MRI, recalled: "Historically, a magazine's total readership was accepted as a proxy for ad exposure. But accountability-focused advertisers are demanding more direct measurement of the reach of their ad campaigns."

To meet this demand, MRI's AdMeasure service is measuring "how many readers actually saw the ad, as well as how many took an action as a result of seeing it," she adds. The service lets marketers better gauge the effectiveness of print ad campaigns by supplying the granular measurements common to TV.

Some of AdMeasure's data comes from MRI's flagship product, "The Survey of the American Consumer," as well as its new issue-specific readership study. The data on audience figures are combined with data from MRI Starch (formerly GfK Starch), a division of MRI, which surveys readers to determine how magazine ads affect brand perception, recall, and purchase behavior, among other things.

MRI bought GfK Starch in July 2008 amid increasing demand for more pinpointed data on magazine readership from publishers and advertisers. Perhaps not coincidentally, the acquisition (and the rollout of MRI's issue-specific readership study) debuted when the Magazine Publishers of America issued a call for proposals for a new magazine ratings system. At the time, some industry observers said the MPA was issuing a challenge to MRI, the dominant magazine measurement firm, to force it to expand its research offerings.