Monday, August 11, 2008

CNN to study out-of-home TV viewing habits

Fresh from MediaWeek:
CNN has commissioned Integrated Media Measurement Inc. to analyze out-of-home ad exposure for 10 clients of media agencies OMD and PHD with an eye toward ensuring greater accountability for viewership in bars, dorm rooms, gyms and other venues.
Sweet!
Once data is processed in early 2009, D’Alba will share the results with the agencies and their participating clients to better contextualize media planning.
Bummer.

The rest of the article covers how digital out-of-home viewing is poised to nearly now between now and 2011 (topping out at around $2.25 that year), and how effectively advertising in these places might help networks make up the shortfall in revenues sure to come when people start watching less TV inside the home. Of course, nowhere in the article does it note that most "TV screens" outside of the home aren't really used to show TV, they're used to show some kind of highly-optimized content loops to inform, entertain or just plain sell stuff.

OMD and IMMI, please repeat after me: it's not TV!

I know... I know... they look just like regular TV screens hanging from the ceiling and mounted behind those bars, don't they? But every time you get started trying to use your existing TV marketing savvy to analyze the workings of the screens you'll be examining in various out-of-home environments, repeat that mantra. Otherwise I can tell you right now that your data won't be accurate, and the advice to your clients probably won't be too useful.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of places that just show good old TV. They buy an LCD or two, mount them behind the bar or in a corner, and turn on CNN.

However, most of the establishments I'm familiar with that do this leave the sound muted because they play overhead music. Of course, this doesn't help CNN because the IMM measurement approach requires an audio signal!

Bill Gerba said...

Oh, right you are. On second reading it does look like the focus of this study specifically is plain 'old TV viewing in out-of-home environments, and not "retail TV" as we'd call it. Good catch!