CBS Proposes New Model for TV Planning and Buying Based on Viewer Behavior and Attitudes Instead Age and Sex

Age and sex don't matter when it comes to TV ad effectiveness, said CBS Corp. Chief Research Officer David Poltrack, who has teamed with Nielsen to create what he called a historic move to replace demographics with a new model for TV planning and buying, based on viewer behavior and attitudes.

The proposed model is a better predictor of what people buy and what makes them buy than demographics ever were, Poltrack said in a speech to the Advertising Research Foundation's Re:Think 2011 conference in New York. A growing amount of data that matches audience measurement with purchase information shows that using demographics to target commercials is "essentially invalid," he said, "resulting in a misallocation of television advertising investments." Although CBS paid for the extensive research and analysis used to create the new model, the data and analytics surrounding it will be available to all Nielsen clients, including CBS rivals, Poltrack said, "in the spirit of open source." Various parts of Nielsen pitched in, including recently acquired consulting firm Cambridge Group and Nielsen Catalina Solutions, a joint venture that combines data from Nielsen's TV, set-top box, consumer and online panels with Catalina Marketing's shopper loyalty-card purchase data. CBS is also running a series of experiments with advertisers to fine-tune the system, Poltrack said. CBS purchased Nielsen Catalina data for 20 categories in health and beauty, household, pet and food products and has studied 15 of them in depth so far. The data confirmed what other smaller studies have shown in the past, according to Mr. Poltrack: "There is no link, none, between the age of the specified demographic delivery of the campaign and the sales generated by that campaign."