• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 14, 2009

Mediamark Research & Intelligence is poised to expand its AdMeasure database, which gives subscribers access to magazine ad effectiveness ratings, by 500%.

The news comes just a few months after AdMeasure launched. MRI is moving to meet publisher and advertiser demands for more comprehensive measurement of print ads, which it hopes will make it more competitive vis-à-vis Internet advertising.

Since its launch in June, AdMeasure has offered subscribers ad effectiveness ratings for a total 646 issues from 112 titles. By 2010, it will offer subscribers ad effectiveness ratings covering a total 3,100 issues from about 200 titles, representing over 155,000 total ads.

With this expansion, MRI says the AdMeasure service is now large enough to be considered a syndicated industry currency for media transactions. It will include measurement of virtually all print ad campaigns.

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 is 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.