While the use of Arbitron Diaries and the Arbitron PPM system seem to have similar objectives, they are in fact quite different. Their objective is to measure radio listening across a market’s stations. They each have long lists of demographics and each has a number of sub sets of information, all pretty much similar but because their methodologies and technologies are worlds apart, their results can often be wildly different.
Throughout the years, people have complained about the Arbitron Diary method where the participant kept a minute by minute paper log of what they listened too. The paper log was dependant on the person keeping it with them to write down any and all changes as the person moved through their busy day. After years of fluctuating results and strange unexplainable anomalies, the advertising agencies got to a point where they demanded a change. When the ad agencies said they wanted a change, Arbitron started to look for a new and contemporary system that would drastically update the technology and methodology. I guess no one asked how the results might differ but we all know that would eventually become a real problem.
Arbitron, with the help of some high tech people came up with a system that uses proximity listening methodology which simply means their little unit attached to the belt of the person participating in the study, keeps track of the audio from radio stations it hears around the person carrying the unit and makes the assumption that if the participant can hear the audio from a radio station, then that is what they are listening to. (Even if in real life the person wouldn’t be caught dead listening to that station.)
When tested side by side, it was amazing how much different the results would be. And then sometimes it would be amazingly similar so therefore nothing seemed to be predictable. It became really strange when Arbitron started to bring the PPM systems to market and the research changed from Dairies to PPM methodology and rating results in what seemed like the middle of the survey. There is a period of time in every market where half the results were from Diaries and half from PPM- and in most cases it left some people totally frustrated and in the same city other stations totally thrilled.
Programmers who took the time to learn how the diary system really worked and how you could make programming, marketing, and advertising work for the station to positively impact the Diary Keeper were freaked out. Sometimes they just sat with the “Deer in the headlight look” because everything they learned over the years now was no longer relevant to the process of scoring in the ratings. I guess that while the Dairy system was flawed research, at least we had spent a lot of time and brain cells figuring out how to play the game so to a large part, we knew how to work with it.
Special reminder- when a market switched to PPM, everyone in the radio station from Programming to Sales had to totally rewrite the game plan. And right in the middle of the game. Every advertiser watched with amazement as everything that they had learned about how to best use radio over the years was at times totally trashed and questioned. Along with all of this upheaval came “The Internet” and that threw them all into another tail spin. It was nothing short of pandemonium.
Smart programmers have now taken the time to learn the nuisances of the PPM system and many feel they have a grasp of how it works but I find that they probably are luckier than smart.
Arbitron itself is still having monthly battles with the MRC “The Accrediting Committee” that studies the validity of the results that the PPM is generating. Recently the MRC delisted five major markets. That means that what the PPM is doing is not providing statistically correct results and therefore everything has to be thrown out and started over again.
Minority and ethnic organization, who also have some pretty smart people working for them, have demonstrated that the PPM has biases that have proven at times to diminish the importance of their audiences. And none of this is consistent across all markets.
So here we are…It looks like we may have gone from bad to worse BUT the good news is that we can get the bad results much faster. The advertising community is at a loss about what is really TRUE so they are making incredible assumptions, formulas, graphs and I believe pure guesses about how to spend the advertisers’ dollars wisely.
To make it even more FUN…. Not all markets are using PPM yet so as the advertising agencies go around America trying to properly place advertising schedules, they are doing it using two completely different “Products” from the same company with alarmingly different explanations of WHY.
How do the diary markets differ from the PPM markets? It is still an ongoing process that seems to be as riddled with confusion and mistakes as possible and we all hope that Arbitron gets this wildcat by the tail before it becomes way to risky and difficult to “Buy” radio and the money leaves for other media.