CBS And TRA Report Purchaser Targeting Receiving Significant Usage By TV Advertisers

NEW YORK, June 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TRA, Inc., the leading media and market research company, together with CBS, this week presented a comprehensive analysis of research from TRA's Media TRAnalytics® system that suggests multiple ways of increasing television advertising ROI by using purchaser data directly matched with set top box data.  The findings were presented at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) "Audience Measurement 7.0" event in New York.

"While age/sex demographic delivery is the functional currency in the television advertising market today, purchaser targeting data is a growing part of the television planning and vehicle selection process," said David Poltrack, EVP and Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation. "TRA single source is a tool available to optimize advertisers' ROI of their own television campaigns to a degree that has never before been possible."

"We are beginning to see the real effects of making purchaser target data an integral part of media planning, and it marks an exciting time for the television industry," said Bill Harvey, Vice Chairman and Chief Research Officer, TRA, Inc. "Giving advertisers a comprehensive single source solution and the tools to understand big, naturally occurring data, are truly revolutionary developments. Our findings are helping to re-shape the present and future of media buying and selling."

CBS showed evidence based on TRA and ARF data that it is important to ROI to maintain a sufficient amount of broadcast advertising. TRA's analysis of several brands also found that Primetime delivers the highest sales impact of all other television alternatives. These results indicate that advertisers can positively affect their TV ROI by leveraging the franchise programming in this important daypart. 

TRA also examined the effectiveness of branded integration. In instances where the brand was woven into a program's plot, the integration always produced a higher sales lift relative to traditional commercials. TRA's integration analysis demonstrated a particularly strong delivery in the beauty category. A beauty product organically integrated into a program's plot boosted sales by more than 15%, whereas food, beverage and household products tested in the same analysis saw a five percent maximum sales increase.

TRA's solution, which employs the largest single source sample size in the world, is now being used by 45 top consumer brands, five top agencies, as well as more than 25 major cable and broadcast networks. As the influence and reputation of big data continues to gain traction in the television industry, it is being proven as a true game changer.

About TRA, Inc.
TRA, Inc. (www.traglobal.com) is the leading media marketing and analytics software company whose products help advertisers, agencies and television networks improve advertising targeting, accountability and return on media investment. TRA's web-based Media TRAnalytics^® platform matches the TV advertising households actually receive with the products the same households actually buy, enabling TRA's clients to find "The Right Audience^®" while providing an unmatched level of transparency, measurement, media planning/selling and improved ROI. Licensed users of the Media TRAnalytics® platform include 4 of the top 10 advertisers, 45 of the top 100 brands, as well as the top agencies and networks. TRA's investors include Intel Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners and Arbitron. TRA is certified under ISO 27001, the information security management system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designed to ensure security controls for protecting information assets. TRA owns U.S. Patent No. 7,729,940, entitled "Analyzing Return on Investment of Advertising Campaigns by Matching Multiple Data Sources"; U.S. Patent No. 8,000,993, U.S. Patent No. 8,060,398 and U.S. Patent No. 8,112,301, all entitled "Using Consumer Purchase Behavior for Television Targeting."

About CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company that creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. The Company has businesses with origins that date back to the dawn of the broadcasting age as well as new ventures that operate on the leading edge of media. CBS owns the most-watched television network in the U.S. and one of the world's largest libraries of entertainment content, making its brand – "the Eye" – one of the most recognized in business. The Company's operations span virtually every field of media and entertainment, including cable, publishing, radio, local TV, film, outdoor advertising, and interactive and socially responsible media. CBS's businesses include CBS Television Network, The CW (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network, Smithsonian Networks, Simon & Schuster, CBS Television Stations, CBS Radio, CBS Outdoor, CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Interactive, CBS Consumer Products, CBS Home Entertainment, CBS Films and CBS EcoMedia. For more information, go to www.cbscorporation.com.

SOURCE TRA, Inc.