For this week’s Programming To Win column, Richard Harker looks at some of the issues surrounding PPM meters. How often are panelists actually carrying around the meters? Harker tries to replicate the experience of carrying a PPM meter by using a Fitbit fitness metering device to deduce some of the patterns that panelists have shown.
Richard Harker
By Richard Harker
Did you realize that PPM panelists only need to carry their meter for eight hours to be counted in the ratings?
Just eight hours.
That’s about half of the time that most people are awake and potentially exposed to radio.
But Arbitron thinks it’s fine if PPM panelists carry their meter only half their waking hours.
And for children the requirement is even less. Kids between the ages of six and seventeen need only be active for five hours to be counted.
The reason Arbitron sets such a low bar for compliance is that it’s a pain to carry the meter.
Could you remember to take the “beeper-like” device out of the docking station, strap it on, and then try to pretend it’s not there for sixteen hours every day for up to two years?
That’s asking a lot.
If Arbitron insisted that panelists carry their meter all day, we’d probably have a lot fewer willing panelists.
And at eight hours a day, Arbitron still has problems with compliance.
That’s why Arbitron’s Panel Relations Team gets all over panelists who don’t carry their meter long enough.
Using a combination of carrots and sticks, the Panel Relations Team reward compliance with bonuses, and punish non-compliance with threats and motherly scoldings.
(It should be noted that Arbitron doesn’t actually tell panelists that they only need to keep the meters active for eight hours. Panelists are savvy enough to figure it out on their own. And the eight hours is accumulative and need not be continuous. Certainly some panelists carry it much longer to rack up eight hours.)
Is the eight hour rule a problem for radio? Does it explain some of the listening that disappeared as markets switched from diary to meters?
A diary keeper can “catch up” if she forgets to record some of her listening in the diary.
Admittedly, diary recall may not be all that accurate, but most diary keepers seem to make some effort to ultimately record their listening throughout the day.
If a panelist falls behind, like forgetting the meter at home, there’s no way she can catch up. She might listen to radio all day in the office, but all that listening is permanently lost.
If she never undocks the meter, that’s not a problem for radio because her meter won’t be included for the day.
However, what happens if she realizes her mistake when she gets home? What if she clips the meter to her pajamas and spends a quiet evening at home watching television?
She could log her eight hours, avoid the wrath of Arbitron’s Panel Relations Team, and be included in that day’s ratings—but contributing no listening.
What about a woman who throws the meter in her big leather purse as she heads off to work, and then leaves it there all day while she listens to the radio?
She then goes home and puts it on the kitchen counter as she fixes dinner while watching television.
She will log far more than eight hours of motion, win bonus points from Arbitron, and yet show no listening for the day.
The meter can’t “hear” through purses or heavy clothing, so it won’t log any listening.
How common are these scenarios? There’s no way of knowing. We do know that one or two meters can have a big impact in PPM markets.
And we know that as long as a meter is carried for at least eight hours, whether it picks up any radio or not, it will impact the ratings.
Have you ever tried to experience what it is like to keep an Arbitron diary by writing down your listening for a couple of days? Probably.
It’s a great exercise.
Have you ever tried to carry a meter for a week or two? Very unlikely.
Arbitron won’t let you “borrow” a meter. They won’t even let most people hold one.
Fortunately, we now have an inexpensive tool that can give us a very realistic idea what it is like to carry an Arbitron PPM meter.
All it takes is a fitness tracker like those made by Fitbit.
The PPM uses an accelerometer to determine whether the meter is in motion. As long as the accelerometer is sensing motion, the panelist is racking up time towards her eight hour requirement.
Fitness trackers use a similar accelerometer to measure activity. It’s how they figure out how active you’ve been.
Fitbit makes a couple of small devices that you clip on your clothing, just like a PPM meter, but much smaller.
Wear it for a day or two and then download the data. It tells you the number of hours you’ve been active along with a lot of other information.
You can use the Fitbit to see how quickly you rack up eight hours of activity, reach compliance with Arbitron, and impact the ratings.
To find out for myself, I started carrying a Fitbit Zip a few months ago.
At the start I was very conscientious about carrying my surrogate meter.
Unlike a PPM meter, the Fitbit is waterproof, so theoretically I could even wear it in the shower, but there’s the question of where I should clip it.
But after my shower it was with me at all times.
Gradually, however, I found myself grabbing it on the way out the door rather than first thing in the morning.
Early research comparing diary ratings to PPM found that PPM panelists seemed to be getting up later than diary keepers. At least that’s what the meter was saying.
I found the Fitbit started missing the first four quarter-hours of activity in the morning because I wouldn’t clip it on until I was heading out the door.
Could this explain why PPM panelists appear to sleep in?
After several weeks of religiously wearing the Fitbit, I began forgetting it, sometimes leaving it in a pocket, or forgetting it was clipped to yesterday’s pair of pants.
The fact that blogs report numerous Fitbits making it through the laundry suggests that my experience was not unique.
Over time the Fitbit was capturing less and less of my activity.
Were the Fitbit a PPM meter, it would have captured less and less of my radio exposure.
Yet even with the Fitbit missing the first few quarter-hours of my day and my forgetting it from time to time, it still detected 15-16 hours of activity every day.
So if Arbitron includes meters with as little as eight hours of motion, it is probably picking up as little as a half day’s listening.
And were I wearing a PPM meter rather than a Fitbit, would I really make the effort to keep wearing it longer than the required minimum, or would I just do the minimum to avoid a call from Momma Arb?
PPM is a more precise system for measuring radio listening. It counts only actual exposure to radio. However, Arbitron has never claimed that it counts all actual listening.
Wear one of these personal fitness trackers for a while, and you’ll understand why.
Richard Harker is President of Harker Research, a company providing a wide range of research services to radio stations in North America and Europe. Twenty-years of research experience combined with Richard’s 15 years as a programmer and general manager helps Harker Research provide practical actionable solutions to ratings problems. Visit www.harkerresearch or contact Richard at (919) 954-8300
