History Sheet Information entered by

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Presentation to 28th July 2003
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We will cover

• Background
• What is available?
• The role of online as a methodology for media
  research
• Onlines areas of strength and weakness
• Summary

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Background
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Lets set the scene

• Fox Kids Research Services is only an expert on
  the kids market
• Methodology was first established in the USA and
  is now becoming established in Europe
• Evolution stunted by COPPA and rapid growth of
  non-kids sectors
• UK is leading the way for Europe
• Limited opportunities for close scrutiny
• Legal rules and industry guidelines for kids
  limit what can be done

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Ethical and legal environment

• Constraints unique to kids arena
• Cannot elicit or use personal information without
  express parental consent
• Cannot contact kids for initiation via email,
  phone etc
• Cannot reward kids via use of any personal
  information
• Limitations on how well the methodology can serve
  the media industry and its clients
• Has led to a number of methodologies emerging,
  each with their own strengths and weaknesses

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What is available?
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The kids online market arenaAdult Panels

• Contacting kids via their parents/guardians
  membership of an online panel
• Recruitment
• Initially via a selection of internet sites and,
  in practice, from membership of their panels
• Comments
• Offers ability to conduct parents with kids
  research
• Often limited to home penetration
• Research not likely to be self-completion

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The kids online market arenaSchools Panels

• Contacting kids via their schools
• Recruitment
• Schools provide access to kids in the classroom
• Comments
• Offers ability to conduct self-completion kids
  research
• Often limited to fixed waves and windows for
  timing
• Can be very low cost because of non-commercial
  schools
• Can be very small and regionally focussed

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The kids online market arenaCommercial Platforms

• Contacting kids via their involvement within
  online communities
• Recruitment
• Registration with express parental consent and
  fieldwork devoid of personal information
• Comments
• Scalability and economies of scale are
  considerable
• Fastest methodology due to immediacy of fieldwork
• Care needs to be taken with recruitment and
  selection of online communities

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Penetration levels are credible
Source Industry Estimates/FKE data (FKE response
rates)
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The kids online market arenaKids community
All kids
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
Online Community
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The kids online market arenaKids Community
?
All kids
Online Community
Use of a single media brands or properties are
unlikely to be robust sources for fieldwork
?
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Reliance on one brand or property is risky
9 year olds
Number of Kids
4 year olds
14 year olds
Age
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Panel or platform needs to more robust
9 year olds
Number of Kids
4 year olds
14 year olds
Age
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The kids online market arenaRecruitment
FIeldwork
Need to account for national and regional spread
of advertisers media activity
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The Role of Online
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• The new technologies provide a wonderful way of
  speeding up and simplifying the process.
• This is a major opportunity for the market
  research industry.
• Sir Martin Sorrell (March 2001)

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Role of kids online research

• Main role is with quantitative
• Very powerful option in this arena tracking
  studies, testing, usage and attitudinal studies
• There is a small qualitative role to be played
• Very difficult to crack efficiently and safely
  within the many constraints of the law and
  guidelines but it is possible
• NOT limited to research about the internet
• But there are obvious areas where care must be
  taken

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Strengths Weaknesses
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Strengths Weaknesses

• These exist at a number of levels
• Strengths and weaknesses of kids online research
  versus traditional market research methodologies
• Strengths and weaknesses of different specific
  types of studies and projects

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The kids online research market

• Strengths
• Cost particularly with large and robust samples
  and international studies
• Speed lead-times, turnaround and fieldwork
• Flexibility timing and designs can be easily
  adapted
• Quality of Engagement multimedia capabilities
• Weaknesses
• Questionnaire Length primary Achilles Heel
• Can limit analysis no re-contacting or class
  structure

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Other ways of representing population
Source Fox Kids Research Services (FIFA World
Cup study)/7,632 respondents
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Levels of engagement can fall rapidly
Aggregated Word Count
Question Number
Source FKE data (Word count for 1,000 resps
open text responses)
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...but kids can handle more questions

• Boys Boys Girls Girls All Kids 4-9 10-14
  4-9 10-14 4-14
• 1 5 questions 24.2 12.3 25.7 11.1 18.3
• 6 10 questions 39.3 31.7 37.2 26.6 33.7
• 11 15 questions 16.1 17.6 13.5 20.6 17.0
• 16 20 questions 8.1 16.3
  9.7 19.7 13.5
• Over 20 questions 12.3 22.1 13.9 22.0 17.6

Source FKE data (Length of questionnaire? -
2,310 resps in UK/DE/FR/ES/NL)
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...but the onus is on to play it safe

• Boys Boys Girls Girls All Kids 4-9 10-14
  4-9 10-14 4-14
• Get bored with long 34.4 20.2 30.2 17.3 25.5
  questionnaires
• Like long 47.8 62.1 49.8 66.8 56.6
  questionnaires
• Dont know 17.8 17.6 20.0 15.9 17.8

Source FKE data (Length of questionnaire? -
2,310 resps in UK/DE/FR/ES/NL)
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Important to understand fieldwork
Source of respondents, split by source
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Cost savings can be demonstrated
Waves 1 1 1 2 2 2 5 5
5 Territories 1 2 3 1 2 3
1 2 3 Cost Index 100 146 191 159 25
0 273 273 464 545
Source Fox Kids Research Services
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The roles of online research include

• Proven
• Advertising Tracking Studies
• Characters, Properties and Media Tracking
• Concepts Testing
• Usage Attitudes Studies
• Not Proven
• Focus Groups
• Re-Contact Analysis
• Omnibus Surveys

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Proven Genre of Studies

• Advertising Tracking Studies
• Requires national reach
• Requires environments with breadth across
  different media distribution platforms e.g.
  terrestrial, multi-channel and non-TV
  environments
• Need close control of sample (e.g. exclusion) and
  timing of waves (i.e. affects robustness of
  survey)
• Can easily use actual materials without relying
  on descriptions

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Proven Genre of Studies

• Characters, Properties and Media Tracking
• Agencies have increasingly sought this to
  establish learnings and comparative advantages
• Need to take care to ensure environments are not
  overtly skewed
• Perceptions of solus usage amongst kids is
  heavily overstated but opinions can be skewed by
  online environments
• Self-completion questionnaires can work better as
  skewing from peers and parents can be considerable

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Proven Genre of Studies

• Concepts Testing
• Was primary source of revenue in early stages
• Even at early stages of lesser access and
  penetration it has been able to create controlled
  samples
• Ability to incorporate images, pack-shots and
  video clips and conduct studies at speed has been
  key
• Originally positioned by clients as a
  quicknrough solution but has become core
  supplier
• Key barrier can be ability to protect key
  concepts in what is regarded by some as a public
  environment

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Proven Genre of Studies

• Usage Attitudes Studies
• Many perceptions as to skews that online research
  can result in as a methodology
• Perceptions are mostly unfounded with robust kids
  online research but some exceptions can exist
• Barrier can be length of questionnaires versus
  traditional UA studies parallel questionnaires
  have historically been used
• True benefit can lie in open text responses
  completely free of any potential skew of peers,
  parents or supervisors

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Unproven Genre of Studies

• Focus Groups
• Online cannot compete with the potential
  qualitative benefits of face-to-face research as
  a whole
• Very specific strengths using open text boxes are
  often not enough for some research objectives
• Some organisations have developed online focus
  groups akin to chat rooms which have potential
• Require moderators, and strict adherence to laws
  and industry guidelines will limit the rate of
  growth

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Unproven Genre of Studies

• Re-Contact Analysis
• Very strict rules governing re-contacting of kids
  
• The re-contacting of kids even with original
  consent will require fresh express consent from
  parents
• Possible but is likely to be inefficient both
  cost-wise and time-wise
• Only Adult Panels can plausibly do it reasonably
  efficiently in a permitted manner but with
  implications

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Unproven Genre of Studies

• Omnibus Surveys
• Omnibus Surveys involve long questionnaires split
  by different investors
• Length limitations on kids questionnaires make
  the viability of an Omnibus Study questionable
• Considered pointless by some organisations as
  cost of study itself is low and investors may not
  exceed two
• Nearest relation is the syndicated study where
  huge scale of projects demands cost of common
  questions to be shared by many

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Summary
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The online kids research methodology

• is fundamentally different to most adult
  methodologies
• Depending on the type of study and type of online
  methodology used
• is equal to offline methodologies in the UK
• Depending on the type of study and type of online
  methodology used
• limited by the length of questionnaires
• Need to adapt to the limitations of the
  methodology and its audience kidifying is key!

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Thank you