Listening in Cars a Niche for New Audience Researcher

Michael Hedges August 25, 2004

Another company joined the pack offering an electronic device to measure US radio audiences. The company, Atlanta-based Navigauge, got some press this week (23/08) in the business section of the New York Times.

According to the NYT article, Navigauge tested the GPS-based product in Atlanta, with a little help from Coca-Cola and McDonalds. 500 automobiles fitted with the device measured which stations are heard inside a car as well as when and exactly where. The company says it will be able to extrapolate likely sightings of outdoor ads from the ultra-precise GPS locators second by second.

Unfortunately, emails requesting more information sent to three addresses listed on the companies website bounced.

Media measurement is a very hot topic. In less than a decade passive measurement, checking out what people hear, see and read without asking them to recall anything, has moved from an advertising agencies dream to – nearly – a reality. Research based on recall is inexact science. People seem to remember doing – seeing or hearing – some stations or channels and not others.

With the automobile providing surround-sound between home and work or home and the mall, measuring with greater precision what a person hears and where they hear it excites ad people.

Since radio moved from living rooms to automobiles a generation ago, advertising in morning hours has become the high priced time period. According to recall-based measurement, more people listen in the morning; before going to work and commuting to work. In the US the work-day commute can be 45 minutes or longer – much longer – in the major metropolitan areas.

Europeans – on average – spend about one-third as much time commuting to work and a significant portion walk, ride bicycles or scooters or take public transportation. This is changing. Personal automobile ownership in Europe has soared and with it traffic congestion. And that means more time in the automobile.

Morning radio is a battlefield. With more ad spending directed at the morning audience, radio stations invest more in morning talent than programs at other times of the day. Big morning shows are also heavily promoted. Even the non-commercial public service channels invest in morning programming. It’s where the audience is.

Or is it?

When measured with passive devices – Arbitron’s PPM pager or GfK’s Radiocontrol watch – morning radio listening remains the biggest audience grabber, but significantly lower in gross numbers than audiences measured by diaries, the old, tried and tested diary method. Debating which method is right and which is wrong begs the question. When methods change, results change. Diaries measure recall. Pager and watch devices measure exposure. Differences might be explained as a brand effect; recall methods benefit stronger radio brands.

The Navigauge service won’t cause any lost sleep at Arbitron, virtually the ratings monopoly in the US. Media Audit, which offers more qualitative audience information, got a boost when US broadcaster Infinity/CBS threatened to switch. In the end, Infinity re-signed with Arbitron, a service known and respected by ad buyers. 

What this all points to is more measurement services offering newer ideas. The US market can support multiple measurement services easier than Europe. The UK, however, appears to be moving in that direction.

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