• Adweek, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:15 AM

TV networks traditionally base their sales pitches to advertisers on the demographics of their audiences, but that is no longer enough, says David Poltrack, CBS chief researcher. Better than the demo approach are new techniques that allow marketers to link their ad placement to the buying behavior of the viewers watching the ads and related programming.

He points to the experience of his own network. For the past year, CBS has been working with TRA, a service that combines second-by-second TV viewing data with shopping behavior provided by frequent shopper cards. "For the first time you can measure whether the people who saw your ads were more likely to buy your product than the people that didn't see your ads. This is what TV measurement should be moving toward," says Poltrack.

But before TRA's system can be used to buy and sell ads in the marketplace, it will have to go through the accreditation process by the Media Rating Council.

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