Yellow Pages Rollout Of Syndicated Measurement.

The nation’s top Yellow Pages (YP) publishers and Knowledge Networks/SRI (KN/SRI) are planning to roll out a syndicated Yellow Pages measurement in early 2005. The service will deliver objective consumer usage data to help media planners assess and leverage the unique and important benefits of this medium.

The 15 leading U.S. Yellow Pages publishers — representing over 95% of the medium’s ad revenue nationwide — have joined forces to sponsor and develop the measurement; the service will initially cover over 200 Directory Distribution Areas (DDAs) in more than 90 DMAs, with other markets likely to be added in the future. (See Appendix 1 for a complete list of DMAs that will be included.)

Interviewing will begin in early 2005, and initial annual measurement of usage and directory share will be delivered in early 2006. This approach is in keeping with ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) guidelines for quality media measurement.

“Syndicated directory measurement provides us the unbiased data necessary to justify and better understand the value and usage of the Yellow Page program,” said Janice Lucente, Marketing Manager for Allstate and Chair of the ANA Telephone Directory Advertising Committee. “It demonstrates that Yellow Pages is a strong and viable medium and could help support a business case for an increased investment.”

“The entire industry, and especially our advertisers, will benefit by this effort,” says Sue Hume, Executive Director, Marketing, at SBC Directory Operations and co-chair – with Blanche McGuire, Senior Vice President, Marketing Strategy, at Ketchum Directory Advertising – of the YP Syndicated Research Committee. “Standardized usage data will enable advertisers and their marketing reps to educate themselves more about our publications and then channel their investment dollars more strategically. Right now, some usage data can be difficult to interpret. The new service will inject needed consistency and discipline into the industry.”

Burt Michaels, Vice President and Managing Director of Knowledge Networks/SRI and director of the syndicated Yellow Pages measurement, said the service “will help national advertisers obtain a clearer sense of the return on their YP investments. We are thrilled to be working with all the constituencies in this business, from publishers to CMRs to advertisers.”

The syndicated service will provide measures of:

overall Yellow Pages usage

directory and publisher usage shares

user demographics, including gender, age, income, race, education, county size, and number of YPs in the home

To view publisher that will particpate in the study CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

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