WPP Firms Link TV Ad Exposure and Purchases

WPP firms Kantar Media and media operations unit GroupM have announced a partnership aimed at uncovering the links between exposure to TV ads and purchase decisions. Viewers of Hispanic programming will be the first group studied.

The firms will integrate return path data (RPD) with other data sets, in order to define consumer behavior from media consumption through to product usage.

GroupM will license data from Kantar Media's audience measurement panel DIRECTView to understand Hispanic viewing behavior, and overlay it on purchase data from Kantar Shopcom - the firm's database of transaction-level data for 231 million US consumers - with the aim of linking viewing behavior with subsequent product purchases.

To begin with, the initiative will focus on identifying specific Spanish-speaking Hispanic target audiences and their TV tuning by program, commercial, channel and time period; while also measuring performance such as tune-away behavior and reaction to product placement.

Bud Breheney, Chief Commercial Officer for Kantar Media Audiences North America, says the partnership will enable Kantar to explore the relationship between Hispanic programing viewing and purchasing behavior for the first time. Lyle Schwartz, GroupM's Head of Implementation Research and Marketplace Analysis, says all the group's agencies are 'keenly interested in improving methods of collecting, measuring and interpreting television viewing data'.

Web sites: www.kantarmediana.com and www.groupm.com .