In This Issue

Volume I April 2006

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New MediaDay Study is Communications Planning Tool

With more and more people "multimedia tasking," it's essential for marketers and their agencies to understand each medium's role and how those roles interact with each other. MRI's MediaDay study, scheduled to launch to the marketplace in the fourth quarter of 2006, will increase the value of MRI's product and media consumption information with time-based data. It will tell marketers when consumers use media in a 24 hour day, where they are when using that media, what else they are doing at that time and how focused they are on a particular medium.

The MediaDay study is being conducted via a telephone recontact of respondents to MRI's Survey of the American Consumer. It will launch with a sample of 8,000 and will survey 5,000 consumers each year after that.

Several "bonus" new-media questions will also be included, such as how commercials are treated on DVRs, instant messenger usage, consumption and creation of blogs and use of the Internet to download music, movies and TV programs. 

MediaDay Helps Marketers Deliver the Right Messages to the Right Prospect at the Right Time & Place

Armed with MediaDay's rich time-based data, marketers and agencies can:

• Target by Availability: Determine when and where the target is "reachable" by specific communication channels throughout the course of the day.

• Target by Behavior: Because MediaDay information will be married to respondents' product/attitudinal data, users can target consumers based on behavior and availability.

• Target by Attentiveness: Gauge when the target is most engaged by each of the communication channels. Engagement can be measured by targets' self-reported degree of focus and by the derived metric of Sole Medium Usage.

For more information on MRI's MediaDay study, please contact us. 

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Guideposts, Audience Engagement and MRI

Some magazines rely exclusively on the experience, judgment and insight of their editors to develop articles that will engage readers; others conduct proprietary research to help set direction. And then there are publications like Guideposts, that are also creatively mining the wealth of syndicated research available in MRI's Survey of the American Consumer to gauge the success of their editorial direction. Guideposts seeks an efficient approach to stay in touch with their nearly eight million readers as well as reliable metrics for measuring engagement and audience affinity with their content.

"Guideposts' strong connection to our readers' lives and the unique reader-written, first-person true stories that make up every issue are why our readers are so highly involved in this magazine," says Edward Grinnan, Guideposts editor-in-chief. Grinnan says MRI engagement measures help formulate the overall editorial direction that can inspire high levels of action among their audience. "I'm very interested each spring and fall in seeing the MRI reader quality numbers - almost like you'd look at 'customer satisfaction' scores in any business. As we track our progress, it's gratifying to see that Guideposts reader engagement levels remain in the top ranks of all magazines in MRI."

Editors and writers at Guideposts have known for years that their readers are highly supportive of initiatives that promote social action, specifically those that prompt people to participate in programs that have a direct and positive impact on the lives of others. For example, an article about refugee children spawned the Guideposts Knit for Kids program, resulting in readers donating more than 300,000 handmade sweaters to needy children around the world during the past ten years. Readers also volunteered with the Red Feather Foundation to build homes on Native American reservations after the magazine published an article on the program - further demonstrating how this unusually active audience is influenced by the magazine's content. MRI's qualitative measures, especially the engagement metrics, provide proof of Guideposts' audience involvement.

"Because our rankings consistently lead key categories, MRI's engagement metrics confirm that Guideposts' content is on track in terms of appealing to our audience," says Grinnan. "For example, 80% of our readers rate the magazine as 'one of their favorites' or as 'very good,' and 71% 'read or looked into three or more of the past four issues.' Guideposts' readers spend an average of 72 minutes per issue - further demonstrating their strong relationship with our title."

"MRI's reader involvement numbers are an important part of our editorial decision-making process and help confirm that we are on the right track," continues Guideposts' Grinnan. "We are in a unique position to affect change; knowing that we are selecting articles that will help inspire our readers and motivate them to take positive social action."

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New Column Answers Clients' Data Questions

This new column answers data questions from MRI clients. If you have a question you would like us to answer in future editions of The Source, please let us know.

Question: Why do MRI and Census Data on Pregnancy Differ?

Throughout the years, we have frequently been questioned about MRI's pregnancy numbers in respect to the Census Bureau's figures. The Census (as of 2002) reports that there are approximately four million births in a year. In the Fall 2005 Survey of the American Consumer, MRI reports approximately two and a half million pregnancies. The numbers are different because the Census reports total births in a year and MRI measures pregnancies at a given point in time. 

Issues that Affect the MRI Numbers: 
During the first trimester of pregnancy, the MRI numbers are understated because either the respondent doesn't know of the pregnancy or the pregnancy may not be reported for personal reasons, such as superstitions about sharing early on. Since there are 3 million pregnancies in any given point (see math below), there are about 333,000 pregnancies in a month. If one looks at the MRI pregnancy data arrayed by when the baby is due (in one month, two months, etc.) one sees that the appropriate levels are attained in later stages of the pregnancy and in earlier stages of pregnancy one can see the understating playing out. For example, in Fall 2005, there are 365,000 pregnancies reported at the point when the baby is due in one month, while there are only 54,000 pregnancies reported when the baby is due in eight months.

The Math:

• 39/52.75 (number of gestation weeks/number of weeks in a year)
• .75 (4,000,000) 3 million pregnancies in any given point
• Difference is = number of total births in a year (CENSUS) versus number of pregnancies within any given point (MRI).

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MRI Launches Hispanic Recontact Study

Mediamark subscribers targeting Hispanic Americans can expand upon the information provided in the Survey of the American Consumer by asking proprietary questions in the new 2006 Hispanic Recontact Study. MRI is accepting reservations for this limited-space study that allows media, advertisers and agencies to secure a set of proprietary questions administered to Hispanic respondents from the 2006 Doublebase study. Like MRI's Omnibus Recontact Study, which has been conducted for four years, this is a shared survey, costing far less while offering the same benefits of proprietary research.

"Companies marketing to Hispanic Americans must develop strategies that address their unique interests and needs, and this study lets subscribers ask targeted questions of respondents who have already participated in our survey," says MRI President and CEO Kathi Love. "This represents another step in MRI's long-term initiative to capture the media and lifestyle characteristics of the American Hispanic market." 

MRI's Survey of the American Consumer already reports differences in the purchasing behaviors and psychographic mindsets of the Hispanic and General Market consumers. The Hispanic Recontact Study affords opportunities to gather additional information addressing unique characteristics of Hispanic Americans. Buyers of the Hispanic Recontact Study will be able to compare their proprietary data to MRI's Survey of the American Consumer. 

The price of participation in this study is $40,000 for a page (approximately 50 lines) of questions; half pages (25 lines) are available at $25,000. Commitments from subscribers are due May 1, 2006 and fieldwork begins September 2006, results delivered in January 2007.

For more information on this study, or to place your reservation, please contact your MRI representative, or Susan Nunez.

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Just How Popular is Podcasting? 

In 2005, "Podcasting" - the verbal melding of iPod and broadcasting - was dubbed "Word of the Year" by the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary. But exactly who is listening to/viewing these widely distributed digital files?

Last fall, MRI joined forces with Podtrac to create the first-ever profile of the podcast audience. Podtrac was founded in 2005 to enable podcasters - everyone from individuals to The New York Times - to monetize their audio and video feeds, and to give advertisers a way to measure, target and buy podcast sponsorships and advertisements. 

According to the findings of Podtrac's first online survey of 1,000 respondents, fielded in December 2005, 78% of those who had ever listened to a podcast were men, reinforcing the early "maleness" of the Internet itself. However, of those who had ever listened, 51% of women versus 39% of men had done so in the past week. This is "reflective of the ever-increasing variety of podcast content with broadening appeal to both genders," according to Podtrac CEO and Co-founder Mark McCrery. 

Podtrac, with MRI's assistance, also conducted additional research, the Podtrac Audience Insights survey (22,202 respondents, November through December 2005), and is offering the survey free to podcasters. Among its findings, this survey reveals that in terms of hardware, 56% of podcast listeners/viewers received podcasts on an MP3 player, compared to 41% via computer. Other ways of accessing podcasts include cell phones, PlayStation and PocketPC. 

MRI matched the Podtrac Audience Insights responses to its Survey of the American Consumer, generating various indices by podcast genre - for example comedy, entertainment, music and technology. Demographics for the technology podcast were decidedly male (96%) and indexed at 361 for household income between $100,000 and $149,199, and 869 for having earned a master's degree. Listeners of the entertainment podcast indexed at 236 for income exceeding $200,000, and those who had spent more than $800 online in the past year indexed at 790. 

For more information about podcast users, please contact Paul Gold.

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