MRI & Media Behavior Institute launch Consumer-Centric Multimedia Measurement Offering.

Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) and the Media Behavior Institute (MBI) announced a strategic partnership with the goal of jointly launching a syndicated, consumer-centric, multimedia database that could transform the way media is planned, bought and sold.

“Our goal is to create a U.S. database of consumer activity that can serve as a hub of information on all the factors that could affect a consumer’s receptivity to a brand message,” said Kathi Love, President and CEO of MRI.

“We decided to partner with MRI because it has more than 30 years of data on consumer media usage and purchase behavior gathered in face-to-face interviews, a highly reliable way of collecting information,” said Bill Moult, CEO of MBI. “MRI is already the gold standard resource for understanding advertising targets; where else would we want to partner as we add the dimension of life and media context to targeting?”

The partnership between MRI and MBI began with a pilot test in 2009 in the Detroit and Indianapolis DMAs. 50 adults in these two markets —all of them respondents to MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer—completed an iPhone-based electronic diary. Equipped with an iPhone application created by MBI, the respondents were asked to report their daily activities, media usage, and mood by entering this information on the iPhone application for a ten-day period at half-hour intervals.

“The result will be an unprecedented tool for multichannel and context planning. Based on the overwhelming cooperation rates shown by the respondents in Detroit and Indianapolis, we are on our way to establishing a new standard for integrated research to support multichannel planning,” continued Moult.

“The pilot tests exceeded everyone’s expectations for consumer response and timeliness,” continued Love. “We know where a respondent was, who they were with, what they were doing and what media they encountered along the way. And, because these consumers are respondents to MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer, we also know what they buy and how they think. This facilitates the highest form of context planning by helping to identify and define communications opportunities, enhance the planning process and inform budget allocation decisions.”