TNS displaces NOP after IPA survey wrangle
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has hit teething problems with its Touchpoints study that aims to analyse how people consume media.
NOP, the research company originally commissioned by the IPA to carry out the study, has been replaced by Taylor Nelson Sofres.
The move followed a pilot study carried out by NOP earlier this year. The IPA had hoped to go straight into a full-scale study following this pilot. However, TNS is now carrying out a further pilot study. If this goes according to plan TNS will be asked to conduct a full study early next year, the results of which will be made available in late spring, a little later than originally planned.
PHD managing director Morag Blazey, who heads the IPA committee overseeing the study that was launched a year ago, says: “We did the pilot study. It was clear that the methodology was not right. We are doing another pilot imminently.”
An NOP World spokeswoman says that the first pilot “was designed in collaboration with the IPA, to attempt to capture a particularly broad amount of data”.
For the research, consumers are being given hand-held devices on which they can log their media consumption habits. The results will then be integrated with established measurement systems such as BARB and Rajar to give planners a better understanding of consumer media consumption habits and levels of attention across media.
