In This Issue:

Volume II June 2008

New Data Enhances Issue Specific Readership Study

Starcom Sharpens Focus on Target Audiences with Psychographics

How Consumers Construct Story Trails^sm

Omnibus Insights into Holiday Shopping

What is the process for changes to the Product Booklet?

New Webcast Shows how Market-by-Market Connects with Consumers on Local Level

Data Integration Webinar Presented by Market Solutions Group

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Next week, MRI's Issue Specific Readership Study will release demographics on age, complementing the gender data available since 2007. Additional demographics on income and education will be released in August.

The Issue Specific study helps publications, agencies and marketers better understand magazine readership by showing which issues attract higher- or lower-than-average readership.

"The whole idea of planning on audience is to invest the client's print dollars efficiently against the most likely consumers for their products," said Universal McCann Vice President, Research Director Karen Ring. "Having issue specific data for more audience demos provides the ability to get a little closer to the targets we are planning against. The new demos also give the opportunity to delve more deeply into which issues appeal to which demos. For instance, will an issue focused on personal finance appeal more to low, middle or upper income groups?"

Now that there are two years of Issue Specific data, the study's utility for post-buy analyses, business development and editorial insight is becoming increasingly promising. For instance, MRI is able to quantify the tendencies for certain types of issues, such as "Best of" and "Repeat Covers" to gain higher- or lower-than-average readership; moreover, when looking at gender differences in dual sex titles, the data show how, especially in newsweeklies, cover topics can skew female or male.

"We've been supporters of more granular and timely print readership data from the start, and MRI's Issue Specific is a major step towards delivering what the industry needs to improve all facets of print planning, buying and accountability," said MediaVest SVP Connections Research & Analytics David Shiffman. "Until now, these data have been restricted to broad Adult, Male & Female numbers, placing limitations on data application. We're excited about the addition of more detailed demographic data and are confident that the ability to report and analyze Issue Specific audiences by the demographic breaks that we commonly use in other areas will help drive more widespread use and industry acceptance of these data. The demographic detail addresses an important need and is another step towards getting print measurement more inline with other media currencies."

Here are a few examples of insights from Issue Specific data:

"Best of" Issues 
The study shows how "Best of" issues can perform compared to average audience numbers. For example, readership for selected "Best of" covers increased 40% for a business title, 33% for a travel magazine and 26% for a newsweekly.

Repeat Covers 
The study helps analyze Repeat Covers' impact on readership. For instance, when a financial title featured annual retirement guides in 2006 and 2007, both issues had significantly higher-than-average readership with indices of 120 and 137, respectively. 

6/26/06 Issue  120 Reader Index		6/25/07 Issue  137 Reader Index

Topics 
Reader reaction to timely topics, such as the release of a "hot" new technology, can be quantified with Issue Specific. Looking at computer magazines, for instance, an iPhone cover capitalized on marketplace buzz indexing at 131, a marked increase over that magazine's average issue readership. However, that topic did not fare as well -- when the buzz flattened -- on subsequent covers.

Gender Patterns 
Issue Specific data for dual sex titles reveal audience differences by gender. Looking at newsweeklies, the data show how certain topics skew male versus female:

The Issue Specific Readership Study supplements the Survey of the American Consumer. All Issue Specific indices are referenced to the average issue audience numbers determined in the Survey. Approximately 200 magazine titles are included.

For more information about the Issue Specific Readership Study, please contact us. 

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MRI’s Psychographics Provide Key Insights in Starcom’s Audience Profiles and Segmentation Systems

Starcom is looking for people with attitude. And MRI knows just where to find them.

MRI psychographic data gives Starcom consumer attitudinal information, an important component in their comprehensive marketing campaigns. Psychographic insights on the attitudes and opinions of consumers augment Starcom's use of demographic, product and media data as important elements in designing campaigns for current accounts and in developing proposals for potential clients.

Included in MRI's psychographics are more than twenty consumer segmentations from the Survey of the American Consumer that provide marketers actionable insight into consumer attitudes and behavior. These segmentations cluster consumers into distinct groups based on their answers to corresponding batteries of attitudinal questions. A range of other attitudinal data also are available through MRI including psychographics related to products and services, marketing issues, personal issues and lifestyle choices.

"The richness of MRI's attitudinal data allow us to present a comprehensive picture of an audience rather than the traditional snapshot provided with demographics or media consumption alone," said Vice President, Captivation Director Starcom Judy Bahary.

Among the varied research tools that help Starcom create its strategic plans are a series of custom-built consumer segmentations. They are used for profiling a target, for media optimization and as a marketing tool to apply certain factors to business objectives. Starcom creates custom segmentations by combining demographic, product and media data with psychographics, day-in-the life data and life stage information. Custom surveys also can be included to round out the process.

"MRI's psychographic data give us another dimension in building consumer profiles which helps us more efficiently address clients' needs," said Bahary.

MRI's psychographics provide intelligence about the relationships between consumers' mindsets and their involvement with media and with the client's brand. When these data are compared side-by-side with demographic, product and media data, a story forms that helps to build contact plans across media platforms.

Clients and prospective clients are enthusiastic about the depth of information offered through Starcom's audience targeting techniques. "As the demand to increase ROI or ROO grows, our clients are looking for as much information about target audiences as possible," concluded Bahary. "Psychographics, MRI's included, give us rich, robust data that increase the value of other syndicated and custom research, helping us meet that need."

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Story Trails^sm Measures Audience use of Multiple Platforms to Define Parameters of News Stories and Incremental Reach Associated with each Platform

Gone are the days when a handful of media controlled the life expectancy of a story or the depth of information reported in the news. Today's audiences select their news in a universe of ubiquitous content by creating story trails across space, time and platform; they can select content from multiple media and content providers anytime, anyplace and via many different technologies. Providing stories that stick with consumers and strengthen media brand loyalty are among the challenges facing the media, and that requires an understanding of how audiences seek the information they use to create their own story trails.

GfK Media & Communications, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, developed the Story Trails^sm approach as a custom and potentially syndicated research application. It provides in-depth analyses of how audiences use different media to select news stories or follow other kinds of content from political news to health, sports, or entertainment. Story Trails^sm helps media companies, advertisers, and advertising/public relations agencies understand how audience members follow specific content across platforms and when and where they are exposed to advertising messages. Among the new metrics developed is a measure of unduplicated and incremental reach for each story that can be cumulated up to broader news categories and ultimately a media brand - something not available anywhere else.

Respondents are surveyed via a diary and online questionnaire, and responses are analyzed using proprietary metrics that provide insights about consumer acquisition of and response to news stories and content across all platforms. "Story Trails^sm calculates how audience members develop content across platforms and brands," said Group Managing Director of GfK Media & Communications Barry M. Feinberg, Ph.D. "It provides information about the complex levels of interaction that audiences have with the media and the increasing number of choices consumers make when putting together a story trail."

GfK Media & Communications researchers developed the diary and online questionnaire to capture all of the stops along a Story Trail and profile each by: Day of Week, Start/Stop Time, Story Name, Story Type, Location/Situation, Media Brand, Platform, Parts/Amount of Story Attended To, Qualitative Measures of Engagement, Evaluation of Content Quality, Brand Preference, "Stickiness", and Advertising Looked At.

A pilot study was fielded in early 2008 and was funded in part by CNN. The pilot confirmed the viability of the methodology. The findings provide a new and unique picture of cross-platform media consumption at the content level generating estimates of total audience size in terms of people, occasions and minutes. Some 500 news followers participated in the study recording all news consumption occasions across a one week period.

For more information about Story Trails^sm, please contact Annie Weber at 212-240-5326 or Barry Feinberg at 212-240-5395 at GfK Media & Communications.

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As Americans gear up for summer, many marketers are planning strategies for the 2008 holiday shopping season. According to the latest MRI Omnibus study, nearly one in three (28%) U.S. adults say they begin their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. 29% begin shopping between Thanksgiving and December 15th and 21% shopped from December 16th-23rd. One in five (20%) are holiday laggards who shop on or after Christmas Day.

MRI's Omnibus also revealed that:

• 60% of Americans gave a gift card to friends or family
• 53% made a list of gifts they planned to purchase for their friends/family
• One out of four (26%) gave a wish list to friends/family

"A range of clients can benefit from these insights," said MRI Vice President Marketing and Strategic Planning Anne Marie Kelly." For example, marketers can leverage these data to support gift-card programs or add wish list elements to their holiday marketing tactics. Ad sales can use the information to show how targeting shoppers throughout the buying season requires placements that start before Thanksgiving and extend until after Christmas Day."

MRI's Omnibus Re-contact Study extends the value of MRI's Survey of the American Consumer by letting subscribers ask their own questions of Survey respondents. Custom questions are tailored to specific research objectives and the responses are placed in a national context. Omnibus is a shared survey, but all results are proprietary.

For information about how MRI's Omnibus can augment your research initiatives, please contact us. 

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What is the process for requesting Product Booklet additions or deletions, and how does MRI's Research Department decide which requests will be approved?

MRI updates the Survey of the American Consumer on a semi-annual basis to incorporate products, services, brands and attitudinal statements most relevant to our clients. We look for current trends in consumer actions and also remove outdated questions/brands.

Each year, MRI thoroughly examines every page of our questionnaire and gathers input from a variety of sources. While many product categories have unique elements, MRI maintains review standards common to all categories. Client recommendations (especially multiple requests) are the highest priority. At times, especially when focused on updating a specific category, MRI will also actively solicit specific client expertise. In addition, we look at sales data, advertising expenditures, national vs. local brand penetration, news from trade associations and media, and results from previous MRI studies that give insight on trending and incidence levels.

MRI formally solicits requests from clients every fall, but we will review requests submitted at any time. The most efficient way to submit requests is through the electronic form on MRI's website. MRI also periodically reviews requests we were previously unable to accommodate.

To best position your request:

• Give the reason(s) for your suggestion; 

• Include market share or other supportive information; 

• Suggest deletions, as well as additions; 

• Organize by priority (not alphabetically); 

• Review MRI's newest questionnaire currently in the field. Your item may have already been included!

Although we do our best to honor requests, some are inevitably turned down. Our most significant challenge is balancing requests for additions with space limitations in the survey document. Deletions free up space, of course, but determining which data to delete can be difficult. While relatively few clients use all the MRI data, almost every piece of data is used by someone.

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New Webcast Shows how Market-by-Market Connects with Consumers on Local Level

Give us five minutes, and MRI's Market-by-Market Webcast will tell you everything you need to know about this valuable study. Information on demographics, consumer actions, media usage & exposure, psychographics and Volumetrics is included for each of the 205 DMA's in the continental U.S. 

MRI VP Market Solutions Group Andy Arthur Leads Webinar on Data Integration Techniques

Data integration is an efficient technique to analyze multiple datasets and provide actionable information.

In an AMA webinar Andrew Arthur, vice president, Market Solutions at MRI, discusses alternative targeting approaches that have been successful for agencies, consumer goods companies and the media.

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