Groundbreaking Cross-Media Research Using 'Hub and Fusion' Launched for the First Time in the U.S. by CIMM - the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement

NEW YORK, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The "TouchPoints" initiative, launched in 2006 in the United Kingdom, is now entering the United States thanks to the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), it was announced today by Jane Clarke, Managing Director at CIMM.  This landmark research project – based on the U.K. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's IPA TouchPoints® service and licensed by the Media Behavior Institute (MBI), will be fielded by MBI in partnership with GfK MRI.  IPA TouchPoints has provided the media industry in the U.K. a single source of media planning data, which cuts across a range of media including TV, radio, print, online and mobile.

"A new media world requires new tools for measurement.  Developing these tools is the mission of CIMM," said Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President, Strategic Insights and Research for MTV Networks and Chairman of the CIMM Executive Board. "As we approach the first anniversary of CIMM's founding, we're pleased to be launching this innovative U.S. version of 'TouchPoints.'"

"We scoured the globe to find the most consumer-centric cross-platform approaches before identifying and initiating a thorough consultant-led study of U.K. TouchPoints," explained Clarke.  "It is by far the most comprehensive and provides the best way to link cross-media measurement and understand media usage in the context of daily life activities. We're delighted to be partnering with MBI to bring this innovative measurement tool to the U.S. Media industry."

The project will include a sample of 1000 men and women aged 18-54 drawn from respondents who have completed GfK MRI's widely used "Survey of the American Consumer," and will employ eDiaries in which participants will record their media behavior at 30 minute intervals over 10 days. That data will be fused with existing media measurement services. This "hub and fusion" approach to cross-platform media measurement provides a time-based way of understanding consumers' media behavior.  The final database will, for the first time in the U.S., allow media planners, buyers and sellers a look into the full picture of how respondents use all types of media and how to measure unduplicated reach across all media.

The study will run from September 2010 to February 2011. CIMM members will have exclusive, unlimited access to the Hub Database & the Integrated Channel Planning Tool for six months. 

"The Media Behavior Institute was formed to address the growing need for more actionable multimedia planning insights.  Working with CIMM enables us to realize this critical capability with the full support of the industry we plan to serve.  We can't imagine a better way to launch USA TouchPoints," said Bill Moult, MBI's CEO.

About MBI

Media Behavior Institute LLC was created in 2008 to address the industry need for advanced multimedia measurement and analysis. Building on years of Sequent Partners' collaboration with Ball State University's Center for Media Design, starting with Middletown Media Studies II in 2005, these two organizations conducted a number of unique observation studies, including a Media Acceleration Project in 2006 and the Video Consumer Mapping Study for the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence in 2008-2009. Shortly after Media Behavior Institute was formed in 2008, MBI struck an exclusive agreement with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) of the U.K. to bring their TouchPoints© brand and method to the U.S.  In its very first year of existence, therefore, Media Behavior Institute was making a clear commitment to not only be multimedia, but also be multi-method. MBI has made significant investments of time and money to update the electronic diary data collection platform to one that is mobile phone-based. The March 2010 announcement of MBI's partnering with GfK MRI has taken the USA TouchPoints multi-method approach to an even more highly integrated level.

About CIMM

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) was founded by several leading television content providers, media agencies and advertisers to promote innovation in audience measurement for television and cross-platform video. CIMM will explore and identify new methodologies and approaches to audience measurement through a series of pilot studies with independent measurement companies focusing on two key areas: the current and future potential of television measurement through set-top-box data, and new methods for cross-platform media measurement.

Current participants are: AT&T, Belo, CBS Corporation, Carat USA, Comcast Networks, ConAgra, Discovery Communications, Gannett, GroupM, Hearst, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, Microsoft, NBC Universal, News Corporation, Omnicom Media Group, P&G, PepsiCo, Publicis Groupe, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Company.

SOURCE Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement