• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 9, 2008

Nielsen next month will give some TV viewers who receive its paper diaries a raise - sort of. In an unusual experiment, Nielsen will conduct a test using two forms of "non-cash" incentives - electronic debit cards redeemable as cash and paper checks - as an alternative to the paper money it usually stuffs inside envelopes along with its diaries to motivate TV viewers to complete and return them.

Nielsen normally pays prospective diarists as much as $30 in advance, but will test the new non-cash methods with values as high as $40. The incentives are an integral part of the process Nielsen uses to convince hundreds of thousands of TV viewers to participate in its periodic ratings "sweeps," which are still the basis for demographic audience information in all but the largest television markets - and which are a vital factor determining the advertising rates local TV stations can charge advertisers.

The experiment is also unusual because it is being conducted on a "live" sample that could directly impact the results of the February sweeps, and it was not clear from a notice Nielsen sent to clients on Tuesday whether it had received an okay from the Media Rating Council to make the move.

Nielsen said 33,000 households, or about 7.2% of the 462,000 households that are expected to receive diaries during the February sweeps, would participate in the test. The households would be selected randomly. In some cases, the households would receive as much as three times as much cash value by using the non-cash incentives instead of paper currency.

"Previous studies conducted by Nielsen have shown that while cash is generally the most effective incentive for improving cooperation, non-cash incentives that have a larger monetary value than a currently provided cash incentive may be equally effective," Nielsen said in its client notice. "It is therefore the opinion of Nielsen that additional testing of non-cash incentives with higher monetary values is warranted to examine the impact on cooperation, response rate and sample representation, particularly among demographic groups typically less likely to cooperate."

The experiment is one of many steps Nielsen has begun implementing as part of a plan to improve the quality of its diary data, which is still the source of demographic ratings for all but the largest TV markets.