Cell phone only HH’s to be included in the Media Audit/Ipsos Media Measurement.

At a Radio Committee meeting of the ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) today, Bob Jordan president of The Media Audit announced that The Media Audit/Ipsos’ Smart Cell Phone solution will include “cell phone only” households in its media measurement panel. The Media Audit/Ipsos is one of 3 finalists in the bid for electronic media measurement in America.
In making the announcement Jordan observed, “The Media Audit has been tracking the growth of the cell phone for more than a decade. It (the cell phone) has become the fastest growing consumer product of all time. Very quickly the cell phone has become an integral part of people’s lifestyles thereby making it the ideal passive monitoring device for media measurement.”

The Media Audit and its partner Ipsos, the 5th largest media and marketing research company in the world, claim the cell phone is the simple, common sense solution for media measurement…for today and tomorrow.

“For many consumers, particularly, the young mobile demographic, the cell phone has displaced the landline in many households” commented Jordan. “Indeed Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media just released internet poll of rock (Alternative, Mainstream/Active Rock, and Classic Rock/Hits) listeners indicated 37% of 18-34 year olds were ‘cell only households’ (http://www.jacobsmedia.com/033106-techCPOprn.htm). We are also seeing a strong trend to “cell only” in the Hispanic and Black markets. These are key demographic groups for media measurement. Historically media research companies have used landlines as the first contact for drawing samples. Following the demographic trends to “cell only” we now have to take this into consideration.”

“For the Smart Cell Phone initiative, The Media Audit will use an addressed based methodology” explained Jim Higginbotham Chairman and chief of research at The Media Audit. “With the Smart Cell Phone methodology, we designed a measurement system not only for today but also for decades to come. We will randomly select addresses proportionate to the residential population. These addresses will be cross-tabbed for matches with the phone databases. When we get a match we will communicate with the household over the phone. We don’t get a phone number, we will use the mail and in-person contact.”

“It is true, research expense goes up significantly when in-person contact is used” continued Higginbotham. “However ‘cell phone only’ households are an important and growing demographic in our society and need to be included in the research panel from day one. You can’t omit this important demographic group – particularly when dealing with a panel that you live with for more than a year.”