The Change Mariner

ABC's Behavior Ratings Push

TVWeek:
ABC, the network that pioneered the use of demographic ratings and transformed the way television is bought and sold, appears to be at it again. But instead of age-/sex-based demographics, the network is planning to leverage a new form of television ratings based on consumer attitudes, lifestyles and behaviors.

The network initially will begin using the new data to fine-tune the way it schedules shows and develops programming for its viewers. But over time it is expected to develop advertising sales strategies and maybe even advertising packages based on the so-called "behavior graphic" ratings.

"We're going to be using it for a number of areas, but one of the things we'll be looking at first is how the attitudes and lifestyles of our current audience segments impact viewing, as well as where we want to go in the future," explained Rachel Mueller-Lust, VP of sales research at ABC.

The new research, which Simmons Market Research Bureau developed in cooperation with Nielsen Media Research, creates a direct link between the TV viewing data provided by Nielsen's respondents and a wide range of consumer behavior data generated by Simmons' National Consumer Study, an exhaustive twice-yearly study that surveys more than 37,000 people about nearly 8,000 consumer brands.

It also asks people to provide information about other so-called psychographic data, including attitudes and lifestyles that might be relevant to marketers. By combining those two sets of data into a linked database called BehaviorGraphics, marketers, agencies and the media can now look at the behavioral characteristics of specific TV shows or channels.

In other words, instead of simply describing the TV audience by the limited age, sex, income or geographic composition of a show, the BehaviorGraphics data can determine the audience skew of a show based on 21 lifestyle segments, ranging from "Must-Buy Shoppers" to "Gadget Gurus."

..."On the sales side, we can use this data to find new sales stories," she noted. "We can use it where we are looking at more advertiser brand-level information and how to target the specific type of consumers they are looking to reach. It gives us an additional ability to talk about heavy users of ABC programming."#