CIMM to Drive US TouchPoints Launch

CIMM, the coalition of US firms formed last September to promote innovation in TV and cross-platform video audience measurement, is to fund the rollout of the IPA's UK TouchPoints study in the US. It will be fielded by the Media Behavior Institute (MBI) in partnership with GfK MRI.

In the UK, the IPA's TouchPoints provides the media industry with a single source of media planning data across a range of media including TV, radio, print, online and mobile. In the US, it is licensed by MBI (a partnership between media research specialist Sequent and the Center of Media Design at Ball State University), and together with GfK MRI, the pair will create a USA TouchPoints study to offer attitudinal, category and brand purchase data.

The study will be based on a sample of 1000 men and women aged 18-54 drawn from respondents who have completed GfK MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, and will employ eDiaries in which participants will record their media behavior at 30 minute intervals over 10 days.

Resulting data will be combined with existing media measurement services to provide a time-based way of understanding how respondents use all types of media, and how to measure unduplicated reach across all media.

Members of the consortium will be given unlimited access to the database and channel planning tool for six months.

'We scoured the globe to find the most consumer-centric cross-platform approaches before identifying and initiating a thorough consultant-led study of UK TouchPoints,' explained CIMM MD, Jane Clarke. 'It provides the best way to link cross-media measurement and understand media usage in the context of daily life activities.'

Web sites: www.cimm-us.org , www.mediabehavior.com , www.gfkmri.com and www.ipa.co.uk .