The use of Nielsen Media Research's SIGMA electronic monitoring system continues to push TV PSA evaluation to new heights and shatter myths about the placement and shelf life for PSA campaigns.
Goodwill Communications, which has been using the SIGMA system for over three years, has developed a benchmark resulting from seven typical PSA campaigns covering a variety of issues. The table on page 2 shows a profile of a typical PSA campaign using SIGMA monitoring data for a 26-week period.
One campaign, a humorous PSA entitled: "Dinosaurs," produced by Kershner & Company for the U.S. Savings Bonds marketing department, generated $8.8 million in verified advertising exposure. It was used on 468 stations (about half of all those to which it was: distributed) and in 298 cities. The PSA was aired over 45,500 times in five different spot lengths.

Shattering Myths

In addition to building credibility for PSAs as a mass communications technique, SIGMA has also helped shatter widespread misperceptions about PSA effectiveness.
Using bounce-back cards as the evaluation mechanism, many PSA producers believe that. PSAs are used in "junk" time from midnight to 6AM when audience viewing levels are comparatively sparse. However, SIGMA usage data tells a different story. On average, for the seven campaigns in our benchmark model, 56% of all PSAs aired during optimum dayparts from. 9AM-10PM.
Another misperception. held by many producers is the belief that only shorter length spots get aired by stations. Here again, SIGMA provides contradictory data. In those cases where a 60-second PSA was distributed to stations, they received. nearly two-thirds of all airplays.
Finally, because very few bounce-back cards are returned from stations after a. 12 week period,. most PSA producers believe the shelf life for a PSA is about three months. However, the typical SIGMA tracking cycle is 26 weeks, and in every SIGMA campaign we have monitored, dollar values and airplays continue to build throughout the six month cycle.
"To test the shelf life of our 'Dinosaur' campaign, we let. the PSAs run a full year and tracked them via SIGMA," points out David Starck, Savings Bonds advertising manager "We found that even after 11 months, we were still getting good exposure across the country. The longer monitoring period provided a much more accurate picture of the campaign's impact, he said
"We found that even after 11 months, we were still getting good exposure across the country..." David Starck - Savings Bands Monitoring Improvements Perhaps the only weakness of the SIGMA system, which monitors all U.S. commercial stations in 211 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) seven days a week, 365 days a year, is the lack of monitoring within broadcast network programs. In the past, existing technology did not permit Nielsen to accurately track and separate exposure generated as a result of network feeds, compared to airplays generated by direct delivery of TV PSAs to stations.
Local stations have the option of preempting PSAs in favor of paid commercials and networks have no way of determining when this occurs. This is a major weakness of PSA monitoring since networks can account for as much as two-thirds of overall PSA attainment. Beginning this summer, Nielsen will be able to monitor airings within broadcast network programs for the first time and has also expanded the number of cable networks it presently monitors for a total of 28.
"We have been studying and testing methods for accurately monitoring network programming for several years," points out Deb Anderson, marketing manager for Nielsen New Media Services. "While we have recognized the importance of offering the service, it is a very complex undertaking and we wanted to insure that we would be able to provide highly accurate network data, just as we have done for commercial stations," she said. The new monitoring system will be based on a Nielsen Universal Encoder which can encode up to three levels of identification data and a redundant set of ID data to insure that a SIGMA code will remain if local stations strip off or overwrite the code.
The SIGMA service will begin broadcast network program monitoring this summer, starting with the largest markets. All markets will come on line by the end of 1997. Nielsen encodes and monitors both lines 20 and 22 of the video signal, which greatly increases SIGMA detentions.
Nielsen has also established a station support program to encourage stations to modernize and maintain theft editing and video equipment to insure that the encoded information is retained on the station's broadcast signal. To learn more about the new network monitoring capabilities, as well as how other Nielsen services can be used, Goodwill Communications staff will be visiting Nielsen New Media headquarters in Dunedin, Florida.

Benchmark TV PSA SIGMA Profile

• Unduplicated markets 198 Number of stations using PSAs: 299
  
• Number of PSAs aired: 15,178 Optimum daypart usage: (9am-lOpm) 56%
• Optimum lengths: (:60) 65%
• Average value: (millions) $2.544

Broadcast Data Systems BDS, the other major service providing passive monitoring, is also expanding its capabilities. It has changed from using an audio footprint tracking methodology to a passive monitoring system called Identification Coding Embedded (ICE) and increased its coverage by 25 markets. In the past, however, BDS monitored the top 75 markets and our PSA trend analysis shows that 52% of stations that use PSAs are located in the lower tier markets, (DMAS 76-211), meaning a substantial amount of exposure could be missed with this system.

Cable Networks to be Monitored by SIGMA:
America's Talking Network
Arts & Entertainment Network
Black Entertainment TV
CNBC
CNN/CNN Financial/CNN International
Comedy Central Discovery/Learning
Channel E! Entertainment
ESPN/ESPN 2
Family Channel
Foxnet FX Headline News
Network Lifetime Network
MTV/Nickelodeon
Nick at Night
VHl Nostalgia
Nashville Network
Sci-Fi Channel
Travel Channel
Turner Network TV
Weather Channel