Jessica Lynn is the Director of Research for a TV duopoly in a medium-size southeastern market. Lynn has access to a variety of research data, including the Nielsen local report as well as qualitative reports from Simmons and VALS. Yet Jessica was convinced they were missing data from the reports, so she scheduled a meeting with her Station Manager, Mark Schwartz, to discuss the matter.

“I’m not suggesting we drop any of these efforts, but that we consider putting some resources into doing our own local research,” she began. “According to Nielsen, we have few younger people in the 18 to 25 demo- graphic watching any television outside of prime time, and our Rentrak data confirms this trend. As such, several key advertisers targeting this demo are reluctant to buy time in other dayparts.”

Schwartz trusted the instincts of his Research Director; she had proven to be a valuable asset in her time with the stations. “OK, I’ll find some funds to get you started, but it won’t be much—maybe around $15,000 max,” said Schwartz. “You are going to have to do this with limited resources until we see some tangible results. What’s your plan?”

Take the role of Lynn and generate some ideas to collect some low-cost research data for the stations that could tap into the viewing preferences of the 18–25 demographic. What are some possible options? What methodologies might be considered to obtain some data? How could the Internet and other digital platforms be used to acquire the data the manager is interested in?

The book is Management of Electronic and Digital Media by Alan Albarran