ADVERTISING & AUDIENCE RESEARCH

Ø Challenge for advertisers: How to stand out in the clutter

Ø Questions about advertising:

s Wrong question: Does an individual campaign for a product increase sales?

- 1880s – 1920s: Focus on products

- 1920s – present: Focus on images of happiness and the quality of life and happiness (linked to the market and objects)

s Right question: What impact does advertising have on the culture?

- What are the consistent stories told by the whole range of advertising?

- Which values does advertising stress?

- How does advertising relate to our concepts of happiness?

Ø Television Ratings – selling eyeballs to advertisers

s Rating = Households Tuned / HWT (Households with Televisions)

s Share = Households Tuned / HUTs (Households using Television)

Ø Population – What is it?

Ø Sample – What is it?

Ø Reliability and Validity

s Reliability = Consistency or replicability of measurement

A bathroom scale tells you the same weight each time you stand on it. It’s reliable.

s Validity = Accuracy of measurement

- The bathroom scale may be reliable, but is it accurate?

- Television ratings tend to be reliable, but they also tend to have questionable validity (based on metering and diaries).

- Problems w/sampling and w/accurate data reporting in the diaries.

Ø Use and abuse of ratings:

s Tampering: Influencing households in the sample – that’s why identities are kept a secret.

Imagine the value to a dishonest program producer or network executive in knowing who is in a ratings sample.

This is against the law, and the FCC enforces against it.

s Hypoing: More widespread – Deliberate efforts to influence ratings by scheduling extraordinary programming during ratings sweeps.