Arbitron Receives Support for Outdoor Audience Ratings Test

Arbitron has recently announced that the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) has pledged $300,000 to support the company's research efforts to create an outdoor audience ratings service.

In June, Arbitron declared its intention to explore methods to create an outdoor ratings service comparable to existing ratings standards used by traditional media - radio, TV, magazines and newspapers. This summer in Atlanta, Arbitron successfully completed the first trial phase, which examined several different ratings techniques for utility, reliability, scalability and quality of consumer compliance. The funding from the OAAA will support a more extensive test, which is currently under way in Atlanta.

In the second phase of the research programme, which will last throughout the autumn of 2002, Arbitron is testing a system that will integrate existing data on consumer travel patterns with data collected from 1,000 Atlanta consumers using two kinds of travel diaries - a traditional paper diary and an Internet-based travel log. Using a sub-sample of approximately 50 consumers, Arbitron will also deploy portable global positioning system (GPS) devices designed to track potential exposure to outdoor advertising while consumers are in vehicles and on foot.

'Our approach combines the ready acceptability of tried-and-true with technology that is interesting and new,' said Jacqueline Noel, director, Sales and Marketing, Arbitron Outdoor. 'Our goal is to provide an outdoor ratings system that can be deployed to significant sample sizes at a reasonable cost. By the second quarter of 2003, we plan to share the results from a ratings system designed to produce credible, useful and affordable audience estimates, for both outdoor advertising buyers and sellers in the U.S. outdoor media marketplace.'

Arbitron's decision to explore the development of an outdoor audience ratings service comes in response to the needs expressed by agencies, advertisers and outdoor media companies.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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