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Arbitron is trying again to boost their younger sample returns with increased incentive and a long awaited announcement on the ‘cell phone’ contact issue. In McVay Media’s website in the Rock section you can find a number of articles the spell out the sample return in younger male demos and the impact it’s had on the ratings for the format (check out the 18-34 Male Sample Nightmare and Arbitron’s Troubles With 18-34s in our feature archive - coming soon!). Let’s take a look at their ‘press release’ with some ‘observations’ from our side:
Arbitron Raises the Ante for Response Rates and Proportionality with Increased Cash Incentives for Diarykeepers
Company introduces plan to bolster response rate and improve sample representation among young men
COLUMBIA, MD, March 13, 2006 – Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today presented a comprehensive set of initiatives to bolster response rates and improve sample proportionality for young men in the company’s diary-based markets.
The Response Rate and Proportionality Action Plan includes substantial increases in cash incentives and other survey treatments to encourage overall cooperation in Arbitron surveys and improve sample representation among the difficult to survey young male population.
Steps to bolster response rates
--Use of pre-placement letters with a one dollar cash incentive to ALL mailable sample by the end of 2006. Arbitron presently uses this treatment with 48% of households.
--Double the minimum diary incentive from $1 to $2 in ALL markets by end of 2007. This will affect the nearly two thirds of households which currently receive the $1 minimum incentive.
Steps to improve young male representation
--$5 cash incentive for each person in homes with one or two males age 18 to 24. This survey treatment will begin in spring 2006 in ALL markets.
--“$5 thank you” for agreeing to participate expanding from 58 markets to ALL markets by the end of 2006.
--Sampling of homes that can be reached only by cell phone starting in 2008.
“This plan is Arbitron’s most extensive investment in diary survey quality in the past decade. It demonstrates Arbitron’s full commitment to better measurement in diary markets, not just PPM,” said Owen Charlebois, president, Operations, Technology, Research and Development, Arbitron Inc. “These are a major steps forward while we work toward more long lasting solutions.”
Arbitron’s Better Measurement Initiatives
Today’s announcement about Arbitron’s Response Rate and Proportionality Action Plan is part of the company’s ongoing Better Measurement initiatives. Arbitron will make periodic announcements about its Better Measurement programs in all markets in addition to its plans for Portable People Meter (PPM) system. In February, Arbitron announced new ethnic measurement and reporting enhancements and plans to include cell-phone only households in its sample.
It looks like the first step here is to increase the incentive to all households from $1 to $2 along with a pre placement letter with a $1 incentive in it. So it looks like all diary households should be getting $3 to fill it out regardless of any other ethnic or young sample incentives by the end of 2007. I think it would be safe to assume that gas will be $3 dollars a gallon in most markets by Fall 2007 so you get 1 gallon.
Step 2 is linked to helping the 18-24 Male sample return problems. This kicks in this Spring in ALL markets with $5 dollars to everyone in the household where they have at least 18-24 male. This is a pretty big move for Arbitron and hopefully it will bring up the return – below is a graph of Arbitron’s success (or lack of) since 2001 in 18-24 and 25-34 male sample return:
They are below 75% here and this only shows the 4 book markets – looking over a number of randomly selected 2 book markets show the return to be even weaker. Note here that they are only doing this for 18-24 Males – what about 25-34s which are just as bad in these graphs and they are a 1/3rd of the all important 25-54 demo? Also what about females, taking a random look at a group of markets 18-24 females are also falling in their sample goal return percentages?
They are also tossing in a $5 ‘thank you’ incentive when the household participates. This could help get that diary back, but it seems like a lot of ‘offers’ here. How much could you get? I guess with an 18-24 male in the house and 4 people per household you could get $26:
Pre placement letter with a dollar in it: $1
Diary payment with 18-24 Male extra pay. $5 x 4 diaries $20
Thank You incentive $5 $5
That works out to $5.25 per person if you have an 18-24 male in the house. Without the young male the household would have gotten $14 or $3.50 per person.
The last improvement is to start calling cell phone numbers starting 2 years from now in 2008. 2 YEARS FROM NOW? Think about how fast the wireless phone movement has been growing? It’s been moving at a very fast clip over the last 4 years and the last 2 have been outstanding as we now see the cell phone as a ‘normal’ part of communication equipment from grade school kids to grand parents who struggle using an answering machine. By 2008 the Amish will probably be the only people without a cell phone and Arbitron is finally going to start calling? This seems way too little way too late.
Arbitron sees the decaying sample just as much as we do and they are obviously trying to plug some holes in the dike here. While I do feel we should all thank them – we also all need to see that the system is moving way to slow in light of how fast technology, communication changes, and the media all around us. This isn’t all Arbitron’s fault. They virtually have a monopoly here and as an industry we’ve allowed very willingly. We’ve also been stuck in our ways and had our head in the sand when it comes to new methods. We always fear that changing the data collection will lower our shares or numbers so don’t mess with the stew. The stew is starting to rot – hopefully we can work with Arbitron and pick up the pace of the much needed changes.
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