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Understanding the True Value of Multi-platform Advertising June 24, 2008

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the value of advertising across multiple platforms. By examining media exposure and subsequent behavior of Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) panelists in six markets, we determined that advertising on more than one platform offers demonstrable benefits. We found:

• Multi-platform advertising increases reach over individual platform advertising, but the effect is not simply additive. IMMI data allow us to identify how many unique panel members are being added (over television) by radio, and in some cases by theatrical trailers.
  
• By tracking panel member viewing activity after being exposed to ads for television shows and movies, we determined the effectiveness (conversion rate) of multi-platform advertising for media.
  
• Six TV shows ran significant TV and radio campaigns before their new season premieres. For each of these shows, the rates of panelists that watch the program being promoted (conversion) are consistently higher among the segment exposed to a combination of platforms than among those exposed to one platform alone.
  
• For four cable shows, we were able to quantify the impact of advertising on television, Internet, in-cinema, and Tivo Showcases. In all of these cases, we find that exposure across more than one platform increases effectiveness.
  
• Of the movie releases tracked by IMMI in 2007, five employed significantly large multi-platform advertising with enough exposure to quantify the effects of campaigns. In almost every case the conversion for multi-platform was higher than
  conversion for a single platform…in some cases much higher.
  
• Further analysis of the data enabled us to identify the effects of increased frequency, recency and targeting. We find these factors do not account for the increased effectiveness of multi-platform advertising.

This report draws on data gathered by the IMMI system from a panel of 3000 members in six major DMAs: New York, Chicago, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami.

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