NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Ratings: What is Optimal?
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Ratings: What is Optimal?
Frank Catalano (catalano_at_catalanoconsulting.com)
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 10:43:04 -0500 (CDT)
PAUL BENDAT WROTE:
>As an independent commercial radio station operator located
>in Albany NY, (WABY and WKLI) I have read the thread about
>ratings and sample sizes with great interest.
>
[snip]
>Any methodology that relies upon a sample will be utilizing
>people who are willing or incentivized to participate in
>surveys. This puts pressure upon sites to achieve better
>ratings by marketing to these people. The result could well
>become like radio where content becomes secondary to
>contesting and other audience incentive promotions. Just
>listen what happens on your local commercial radio station
>every sweeps period. In my view, it is not the average user
>who participates in surveys, contests or agrees to have all
>their internet usage monitored.
[more snips]
I know a fair amount about broadcast ratings -- before
getting into the computer industry a decade or so ago, I
spent more than a dozen years working in radio and TV. But
there are significant and critical differences in how Web
and broadcast ratings work.
Recall vs. Action. Radio and some TV rating services are
recall based; that is, participants are asked to fill out a
diary based on their recalled viewing or listening habits.
Media Metrix, Relevant Knowledge (as of today, part of Media
Metrix), Net Ratings and _at_PCData are based on actual
activity since clickstream data is tracked.
Length of rating period. TV and radio ratings "books"
typically run 3-4 weeks, in some markets only twice a year,
in others four times a year. Ongoing ratings are quite rare
except in the very largest markets or on a national basis.
All of the Web ratings service rate on an ongoing basis.
Approaches to measurement. Web sites can be measured two
ways -- site-centric or user-centric. There is no equivalent
of "site centric" measurement in broadcasting; that is, a
single TV or radio station has no way to monitor its own,
unique viewers/listeners. (Thus the preponderance of radio
station "clubs" and other ways to try and gather some
demographic information from broadcast station audiences.)
One other note on the effect of promotion: There is not a
single ratings service I'm aware of, Web or broadcast, that
somehow does not provide an incentive to those being rated.
This incentive, though, is much different than the
promotions run by those BEING rated to try and affect the
ratings. Indeed, I'd think that ongoing, actual-usage
ratings of the Web are much less likely to be influenced by
promotions and therefore skewed than broadcast ratings that
are only taken during clearly defined "sweeps" periods.
Frank Catalano
---------------------------------------
Frank Catalano
Computer & Internet industry analyst and marketing strategist
http://www.catalanoconsulting.com
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