We heard from one of Puget Sound Radio PD pals, who brought up something not only very timely, what with the up coming ratings period to kick in, but how NUMERIS is not at all like BBM.
He voiced concerns about skewed results being taken as valid, something we believe should be addressed by those in the industry.
We welcome your input.
Here’s the release from Numeris:
Numeris Public Awareness Campaign
With the birth of Numeris on June 19 we took on the challenge of moving the company to the exciting new world the new name promises.
The most important challenge is building awareness.
To help, starting September 8 on television, and September 15 on radio, Numeris launches a 10 week on air campaign. We can do this thanks to the sale of the BBM trademark, and the incredible cooperation of our broadcaster members providing pre-emptible commercial inventory.
The goal is to raise awareness of the Numeris brand so we have a higher probability of calls being answered with “Numeris” on the call display. We reach out to 9 million Canadians a year, so even a modest uptick in initial co-operation will have a dramatic effect on our sampling success level.
Our agency, Cundari, is overseeing placement of the campaign on member television and radio stations across the country. In light of this we do have a few requests of our members to ensure this campaign works as planned.
1. This campaign will run on the majority of member stations. Even accounting for some pre-emptions we expect this will deliver high GRP levels. It is important we
do not over-deliver and burn the creative.
2. Please run the schedules only to the maximum that has been placed. While advertisers usually appreciate bonus occasions, in this case we would like to stay
with the total weekly plan due to the very broad placements in the market.
3. In radio, please ask your personalities not to comment on the creative. It should run like any other commercial.
4. This creative is designed to raise awareness of the Numeris name, and to answer the phone when we call. To ensure we are not introducing bias to our surveys we are
not asking for panelist or diary keeper cooperation in the creative.
Numeris will be tracking actual delivery with CMR and Radtracker where possible and may adjust schedules when we see what is actually delivered. The success of the campaign will be measured by awareness tracking using the level of awareness of the BBM brand as a base.
The creative is designed to cut through and be remembered. Edgy? Maybe a bit, certainly not something you would ever think BBM could do. But, hey, this is NOT BBM, it is Numeris, and this campaign is designed to set us apart from 70 years of history.
Your comments please…
THANK the Radio gods someone told Pugetsound! I too have concern about this campaign. Not the idea itself, but the timing. As a programmer, we’ve been told NEVER EVER talk about ratings in any way shape or form, and all of a sudden its OK for THEM to do it? Not to mention stations running FULL LOGS. Stations who are quiet get the advantage of reminding their listeners to fill out a book, yet busy stations are busy making money and shove the spots into evenings and nights. I emailed a letter to the President of Numeris this afternoon. This must be done when stations are NOT in RATINGS. let’s be fair here.
I don’t get where you’re thinking that these are “free”; even though preemptable inventory is being used, Numeris appears to be paying for this (“thanks to the sale of the BBM trademark”).
It says in the release “we do this thanks to the co-operation of our member broadcasters”. That means many are running them with any budget. Money or no money, is this ethical?
I’m sick of the “Numeris” commercial and really don’t give a flying flip. I suspect that not many other do either. Change your name and be done with it.
What is with the phone calls we are getting from NumerisBBM….. Answer the phone and no one is on line.
As an ex BBM ratings enumerator, I feel the Numeris TV ads are very offensive. It is bad enough when you were calling folks and they would hang up on you, tell you to get a “real” job or to yell at you for disturbing their supper (which BBM actually intentionally programs in to the auto-dialers to do, so as to have the best chance of finding people at home)… but to have the actual company portray the enumerators as “idiots, morons, etc. as depicted in this TV commercial is beyond offensive. I mean, how much more geeky and clueless looking could the guy with the headset to the left of the main actress be???? PS: BBM also continually pesters people to fill out additional questionnaires (beyond the radio and TV ratings surveys) once you’ve agreed to take part. Glad I am an ex-employee and don’t have to bother people anymore.
Really!!! People need to relax! Regarding the so called “idiot” salesman. We find the commercial humorous. The sales person is young and obviously set back by the customer’s rude comments. I don’t like these calls anymore than the next guy, but I’m not rude..They are trying to make a living too
It appears from some of the comments that people are missing the concept of Numeris. The people in the commercials pretty much express my feelings about television in general. There are too many channels resulting in quality being spread so thin that you get mediocre at best, to crappy at worst. Then there’s the overwhelming onslaught of sports channels and virtually nothing for the arts, the exception being the one PBS channel in Buffalo. I find a lot of programming just plain annoying and wonder who actually watches the crap. I’m in favour of anything that will lead to any improvement.
Why is my fax machine getting calls from you 2-3x/day?
Ed Note: You are not getting calls from Puget Sound Radio!