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If you don't have a Nielsen box

Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SavantB5:
There is currently respondent level data available in the U.S. now. It's full enough to develop TV optimizers such as X*Pert and SuperMidas and software that allows agencies and networks to analyze things like program duplication and "source and destination" right on the desktop. These programs were introduced in the U.S. relatively recently but are now pretty ubiquitous around all the major agencies.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hm. I had been under the impression that all of the available tools used modelling rather than real respondent data. But I certainly could be wrong, especially if it's recent stuff...


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-- Marty
"Always do what you're good at," they tell me.
So I go around annoying people.
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

I've gotten the Neilson viewing habits questionaire in the mail a couple times.
Not the box, just the paper question booklet and weekly viewing logs.

It is VERY detailed. It even included questions about family members who Don't live in my house.

As for the people Living in my house, they wanted to know just about everything, from age, to education, to favorite color and the pecking order for holding the remote control.

It is, indeed very Big Brotherish, but at least it is Voluntary.
Neilson depends on their families Wanting to be Neilson families. If people start turning them down, they are out of business.

That's going to be the biggest difference when the new desk top boxes invade everyone's houses.

Micro$lut has already taken a bit of heat about the capabilities they originally said they were building into theirs.
The box would (according to their PR) keep track of all the shows you watch and "learn" about your likes and dislikes.
THEN, it would start to make Suggestions about shows you Hadn't watched that the software thought you might like.

Oh, and it would keep all this info on Micro$lut's computers.
So it wouldn't clog up Yours, of course.
But, no worry.
M$ promises Never to use this information for their own benefit.
Just for Yours.

Of course, what BillyG thinks is to your "Benefit" might surprise you. (Fe)



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Do not ascribe your own motivations to others:
At best, it will break your heart.
At worst, it will get you dead."
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MartinRoth:
Hm. I had been under the impression that all of the available tools used modelling rather than real respondent data. But I certainly could be wrong, especially if it's recent stuff...
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have the software at the office. It's really neat what you can do with it. ("How many people who watch B5 also watch football")

There are still tools that rely on modelling, but if you want to be "cutting edge", you buy the RLD from Nielsen.

A lot of these tools did originally get developed in the UK because they got access to RLD first, but they've been Americanized.

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Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SavantB5:
I have the software at the office. It's really neat what you can do with it. ("How many people who watch B5 also watch football")<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, I'm extremely familiar (on several levels
smile.gif
) with the corresponding software on the US radio side, and have had some exposure to international TV stuff. I just hadn't realized that Nielsen had started making the data available...


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-- Marty
"Always do what you're good at," they tell me.
So I go around annoying people.
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

Question:

Does Nielsen Research only cover the US markets or all of North America?

If it's the latter, can one "volunteer" to become a "Nielsen Familiy" or atleast ask to fill out the Nielsen questionare?

If one cannot volunteer, how does one get chosen?



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"I walk, i shop, i sneeze. I'll be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out ... and i don't sleep on a bed of bones."
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

"The advertisers care more about things like reach and frequency from spot placements - the definitions of which I'm not going to go into unless somebody says they really care. In the US TV market, these numbers are generally modelled based on more than just the total viewer counts."

I can't re-iterate enough how important it is for the data to be rich and representative of the entire population. While one advertiser may be interested in an upscale audience, another might be selling diapers or toilet paper.

Martin's point about reach, frequency, and schedule delivery is also correct.

"And that's not even getting into the issue of full respondent level data, which is available for most electronic media measurements around the world, but not for US TV at the moment."

There is currently respondent level data available in the U.S. now. It's full enough to develop TV optimizers such as X*Pert and SuperMidas and software that allows agencies and networks to analyze things like program duplication and "source and destination" right on the desktop. These programs were introduced in the U.S. relatively recently but are now pretty ubiquitous around all the major agencies.


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Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

Each country has a separate service. I believe there is a "Nielsen Canada" service that is independent of the U.S. service.

You can't choose to be a member of the panel. They have to select your home at random.

There are important reasons why they don't want volunteers. It would be very easy for people from the stations and networks to stack the deck in their favor.


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Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SavantB5:
There are important reasons why they don't want volunteers. It would be very easy for people from the stations and networks to stack the deck in their favor.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Even beyond that, volunteers generally don't have the same habits as the rest of the population. So allowing volunteers would be likely to give bad results, even without any interference from the broadcasters.

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-- Marty
"Always do what you're good at," they tell me.
So I go around annoying people.
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

I see, too bad
frown.gif


Thanks for the info.

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"I walk, i shop, i sneeze. I'll be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out ... and i don't sleep on a bed of bones."
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

One thing that we can do to cheat the system & Neilson Ratings, is to give a spike to the advertising statistics.

Everyone pick one or two or more products advertised during the movie, and buy it within 3 days. The surge of sales will cause the Advertising Firms to research cause and effect. They will most likely test by rerunning the episode with show specific advertising, and the surge (us buying stuff,) happens again, now directly related to the show.

Advertisers will by in because of "Disposible Income Viewers", and we keep the trend. Buy 1 item (that you need anyway,) from every show, and we pay for it. This is a no brainer, we buy stuff, the advertising improves, the budget for the show increases.

We can control the destiny of LOTR without Neilson Boxes. It won't cost alot either, $5.00 each. Pass it around, and if we can cause a small sales spike, (better than one percent,) and they will look.

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Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

You could write a letter, a letter not email, to the advertising company saying you bought something because you saw the ad during B5.

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"Crying isn't gonna get your dog back. Unless your tears smell like dog food. So you can sit here eating can after can of dog food until your tears smell like dog food or you can go out there and find your dog."-Homer in The Canine Mutiny
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Hesperous:
One thing that we can do to cheat the system & Neilson Ratings, is to give a spike to the advertising statistics.

Everyone pick one or two or more products advertised during the movie, and buy it within 3 days. The surge of sales will cause the Advertising Firms to research cause and effect. They will most likely test by rerunning the episode with show specific advertising, and the surge (us buying stuff,) happens again, now directly related to the show.

Advertisers will by in because of "Disposible Income Viewers", and we keep the trend. Buy 1 item (that you need anyway,) from every show, and we pay for it. This is a no brainer, we buy stuff, the advertising improves, the budget for the show increases.

We can control the destiny of LOTR without Neilson Boxes. It won't cost alot either, $5.00 each. Pass it around, and if we can cause a small sales spike, (better than one percent,) and they will look.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way. I work with some econometric modelers and it is impossible to track sales to just one airing like that.

For one thing, advertisers rarely advertise on just one program in a give week. When you advertise, you tend to run 65-200 Gross Rating Points a week. In laymans terms, you buy enough spots that your entire schedule adds up to that amount of rating points.

Thus, most of the advertisers with ads in B5LR may have ads on dozens of other networks and programs in the same week. Statistically, you wouldn't be able to tease out the effects of just one show. Some of those advertisers may even be in the football game running opposite the movie.

You also have to really think about what you define as a "surge". How many people do you honestly think you could get to do this and what does that number compare to the total number of sales for the product in question.?

Do you have any idea how many people you would have to get to buy a Pepsi to cause a 1% blip in sales? A lot. That's why advertisers don't run in just one show to get a sales effect.

There's in one category of advertisers where this might work because they operate on a "response per spot" basis--Direct marketers. Those are the guys with the 800 numbers in their ads and you make a direct purchase.

Call up immediately after each 800 advertiser runs (if B5LR has any). If *they* get a surge of responses, they will be able to know exactly where it came from. Miss Cleo and Bowflex may very well notice and tell SciFi.
tongue.gif


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Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
You could write a letter, a letter not email, to the advertising company saying you bought something because you saw the ad during B5.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You better attach the check as well if you want them to believe you
laugh.gif

And i doubt any such activity from the fans would have any impact on Sci-Fi channel's decision. They don't want a show on life support, they want a ratings maker, like Farscape.

Are we so insecure though, in how B5:LOTR will do, that we're already thinking in terms of "saving" the potential series, before it is made, or even announced?


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"I walk, i shop, i sneeze. I'll be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out ... and i don't sleep on a bed of bones."
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

Actually, there IS one time when Advertisers pay attention to single show results.

When they place a specially tailored Ad on that particular show and nowhere else.

Or, sometimes in a particular City or state.

This is usually done on a show that is already top rated, though, because what they are doing is testing the Advertising to see if it is better or worse than their previous commercials.



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Do not ascribe your own motivations to others:
At best, it will break your heart.
At worst, it will get you dead."
 
Re: If you don\'t have a Nielsen box

I'm not feeling insecure about Rangers myself. More along the cautiously optimistic lines.

The thing is that Sci Fi fans, and B5 fans in particular have taken a lot of hits in the last few years. We've seen shows and/or ideas we've loved dumbed down,
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sexed up in steadily shrinking loincloths (loinclothes?)
crazy.gif
and occasionally just plain killed with a rusty spike.
mad.gif


So, as a group we tend to be a little jittery. We'll be happy to get over it, however.
cool.gif


Ro

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A ship in a port is safe, but that's not what ships are for.

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
 
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