We are grateful to those readers whose specific industry experience gives us a broader view than we may see in any given report or study we summarized. We welcome your inputs and suggestions to make The Center for Media Research work for you! Last week we reviewed a study that concluded that kids advertisers may be swinging toward the use of family sites (Family-focused companies have a core competency of creating products and services that can be used by the whole family.) at the expense of advertising carried on kid’s sites (Child -focused companies are companies whose core competency …

American Demographics states, in a recent article, that ads inside buses, on airplane overhead bins, elevators, gas pumps, public restrooms, and imprinted on beaches, have all crept onto advertisers' media plans. Over the past year, the alternative media segment of the traditional advertising business has recast alternative outdoor as a niche marketing tool, offering businesses more creative ways to reach specific types of on-the-go consumers. This alternative segment accounts for $100 to $200 million of the current $4.8 billion outdoor ad industry. Diane Cimine, executive vice president of marketing for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America said that …

A Restructured Target Audience If you're planning, advertising or merchandising e-tail sites to consumers, the segments are not typically age and income stratified, but characterized by psychographics, and a new pattern called cybergraphics. Harris Interactive, in conjunction with ebates.com, released a study in May of online shoppers that identifies six shopping personalities, of the estimated 120 million internet shoppers, that differ in mindsets and spending habits from traditional brick and mortar shoppers. Ben Black, vice president, Harris Interactive, analyzing the data using factor analysis and cluster analysis describes the e-commerce implications raised by each of the six …

Research is Practical: Create a Sales Estimator for Print Advertising Leads Cahners Business Information summarized information from the American Business Press in New York City, and the Carr Reports, and created a formula to estimate the impact on sales of leads generated by print advertising. Because the calculation of this information was long, laborious and expensive in the intensive study by the ABP, Cahners developed a way to estimate these numbers with reasonable accuracy. The key is inquiries, and what is known about the people who make them. The CARR Report (#210.0) finds that after six months, 20% of …

Yahoo! Internet Life magazine published the results of its exclusive Y-Life Poll on Web Surfers' Online Habits, Experiences and Attitudes in its September, 2000 issue. The Web-based study, which was created in conjunction with Harris Interactive, cites a variety of interesting shopper psychographics from compiled statistics. The study concludes that the Net has become a part of everyday life. The online press release of the compiled statistics included these summary statements by Yahoo! Internet Life: 71% of men have made a purchase online, while 58% of women have done so. Young males, people …

Targeting Families to Reach Kids Online Is The Current Trend Advertisers wanting to reach kids online are shifting their focus away from children and on to families, according to a report released in September by AdRelevance, a division of Media Metrix. The report shows that a majority of ad impressions for child and family-focused online advertisers run on relatively few kinds of sites - portals, kids and family sites. And that online advertising by businesses targeting families grew 96 percent between May 2000 and August 2000, while advertising by companies targeting children declined 56 percent in the same period. …

A Radio SubSet Serving a Powerful Consumer Group As part of the ongoing Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet Study, a comprehensive examination on the state of webcasting and Internet use, a new report identifies 20% of Americans who have listened to radio stations online, tripling in two years. These folks are “Streamies,” Internet consumers who either watch video webcasts or listen to audio webcasts. Streamies are highly interactive and involved with the Internet, they buy more online, and they spend more time online. They are considered to be a highly valued target group of consumers online today. The report strongly …

Online Advertising Rate Card Discounting In a special report released in August by AdRelevance, a division of MediaMetrix, their findings support the general media buying concensus: purchasing advertising on the internet can sometimes be more of an art than a science! To support that contention, their data shows that online banner discounts average 1/3 off the rate card prices, ranging from 3% to 84%. The report says that “despite recent claims in the press that the full banner is dying, the 468 x 60 pixel workhorse is still a standard, gradually increasing over the last six months.” …

In their Marketing Guide and Factbook for Advertisers, the Radio Advertising Bureau points out, and supports, the fact that radio is selective, mobile, intrusive, cost-effective, intimate and immediate. OK, it’s from radio for radio, and that always raises the question about who’s research is accurate or biased (a subject for a later report), but in this case, more is better. Whether or not you’re planning or executing radio in your media mix, this report is a valuable primer. 53 pages of sourced statistics, charts, and editorial comment preclude an adequate summary in this space, but here’s a few of …

Of Importance to Those Dependent on (More) Accurate Viewing Measurement Data… Nielsen Media Research has announced that as of the October 2000 measurement period, a revised viewer imputation model will be implemented for its diary-based local market services. The fact that Nielsen imputes, or assigns based on probabilities, unknown diary viewing is not new. What is new is that Nielsen will update the model through which it determines the probabilities by which viewing will be assigned to unknown diary entries. The data on which the prior Nielsen model was constructed is nearly 25 years old, and, because …