• by Wayne Friedman , October 31, 2013

Looking to better sell its entire reach for local media advertisers, CBS has begun a trial with Nielsen to measure cross-media campaigns on local television and radio.

The test looks at local CBS TV and radio audience data -- all to build measurement, revealing unduplicated reach and time spent across both media. In addition, it will measure reach and frequency for campaigns that run on both local TV and radio.

In analyzing local TV and radio in a given month, CBS seeks cross-media strategies that address day-to-day and week-to-week reach, with distribution as well as the concept of “recency,"which delivers messaging to customers near their purchasing actions/decisions.  

Nielsen’s LPM [Local People Meter] data -- and newly acquired Nielsen Audio’s PPM [Portable People Meter] data -- will provide local cross-platform measurement. Results will be released in the later part of first-quarter 2014. Recently, CBS and Nielsen completed a two-week trial to measure viewing of television content on mobile devices using Syncbak technology.

David F. Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp, stated: “The advertiser must distribute the exposure to their message over time -- and in a manner that assures that each potential purchaser is exposed to that message in a consistent manner before each purchase occasion.”

He added: “Armed with this new cross-platform, local market custom analysis, each advertiser will be able to use these powerful media to their full potential and both TV and radio stations nationwide will benefit.”

While starting with CBS in this area, Nielsen will seek similar efforts for a wider group of clients .