Defining the Value of Cross-Media Properties and Advertising:
A New Approach Offers Efficiencies, Savings, and Accuracy
By David Tice

How can media brands that span multiple platforms, from TV to Internet to mobile phones, accurately quantify the value they bring to advertisers? With several iconic cross-media brands – HGTV, Food Network, and Fine Living – among its 60 properties, Scripps Networks has a powerful interest in innovative measures of cross-media impact ad receptivity. When an existing high-quality telephone survey was not delivering the cost/value and time efficiencies Scripps was seeking, Mike Pardee [SVP, Research, Scripps Networks] and Gabe Gordon [VP, Research, Food Network & Fine Living Network] began to look at viable options for Internet-based research – companies that could master the complexity of the task, deliver projectable and representative results, and provide insights that advertisers could truly bank on.

"Knowledge Networks seemed like the obvious place to go," recalls Pardee, "since you have the best of both worlds. You can maintain the cleanliness of a phone-originated, RDD sample, yet have the flexibility of the online environment."

Working with the Custom Research/Media team at KN, Scripps developed and implemented a measurement that serves as a model of a smart new approach to effective cross-media ad research strategies. In short, the survey was designed to obtain accurate and statistically reliable information about complex media use. The goals in surveying 1,249 members of KnowledgePanel® – the only affordable online research panel that is based on probability sampling – included:

• measure aided and unaided awareness of television, Internet, and print brands
• assess engagement, involvement, and ad receptivity for selected media brands for all three media
• derive a value for the "halo effects" of selected Scripps and non-Scripps properties
• validate the transition of the full survey to an online research platform

"A lot of people are looking for a single source that can measure multiple platforms," Gordon explained, "and the problems are respondent fatigue and getting a representative sample. The big measurement companies right now are talking about fusion, and trying to introduce Internet metering in households that are already on the TV panel; but there are a lot of cooperation and bias issues. So our study is somewhat unique; I don't know of any commercial studies that capture all three media with these types of dimensions all from the same respondent."

In addition, the team was able to determine the all important "why" behind the quantified behavior:

• Attitudes towards selected media properties, including
  • involvement/engagement
  • inspirational appeal
  • receptivity to products shown or featured
  • details of use

Personal and household demographics were culled from the pre-existing KnowledgePanel profile database. KN also developed an automated interactive scorecard that helped simplify use of the results – showing the most important data points and demos, and including correlation factors for some insights.

Also key was the use of KnowledgePanel®; which is recruited on a random sample by telephone; other consumer panels rely on "volunteer" respondents, creating a variety of accuracy issues. "I worry about these 'mega-panels' and about professional survey takers," Pardee said. "There are very few panels out there that in any way confirm that their respondents are even who they say they are."

Both Pardee and Gordon say they make clear differentiations between surveys for which a non–projectable opt-in panel is sufficient, and those that demand a more accurate and statistically valid data source. "The Scripps/KN study is the kind of thing you want to do with a phone-recruited, representative panel," Gordon observed. "If you are doing research that's a little more relational, I think it's okay to use a Web-recruited panel."

The Scripps/KN study showed that Food Network is best known of the Scripps TV properties, with 80% awareness (among persons with cable or satellite reception), with HGTV following at 64%. Perhaps more important, KN projected convergence effects for the properties by comparing the attitudes of weekly network viewers and users/non-users of the network Web sites. The analyses showed that

• among weekly viewers of the Food Network, those who also visited the network's Web site at least monthly were significantly more likely to have positive impressions of the network, compared to viewers who had not visited the site
• the same was also true for HGTV viewers and Web site visitors, though the differentials were slightly lower
• for both FN and HGTV, visiting the Web site more rather than less frequently – in addition to weekly viewing – also creates higher attitudinal scores; but sample size precluded our determining statistical significance

In the end, Scripps found the results largely consistent with previous waves of the RDD phone research – so trending and extrapolation were not a problem. Pardee called the results "an impressive testimonial for the quality of KnowledgePanel."

Looking to the future, Pardee and Gordon are hoping to develop even deeper measures of convergence. "We are quite sure that it's more than just incremental reach and frequency; more synergistic – but we need to start there," Pardee observed. "If I want to increase my reach or my frequency, or attract the light TV viewers, what's my most cost-effective bet? Is it to put X number of GRPs on the web, to buy so many specialty magazines, or to buy movie theater? And then what is the synergistic effect – if they see, for example, the same messages on both the Web site and the TV channel?"

"The fact is, not all media are created equal," Pardee said. "Not only are there fewer GRPs in the marketplace, but there are a lot of not-so-good GRPs; quality GRPs – where you're getting an audience that is very heavily skewed towards an interest group or the individuals you are targeting – are hard to come by."

David C. Tice is Vice President, Group Account Director, Custom Research, for Knowledge Networks and Director of The Home Technology Monitor™.

Tice has also directed audience and advertising research for many major sports properties (The Olympics, NFL, NBA, NASCAR, etc.). He has frequently presented findings at research conferences and has been called upon by major media outlets to provide background and context for news features.