Digital industry survey means more effective audience profiling

As the collection of this new survey data went live on 1 November 2015, EM now has four months of data, released into the EM Dashboard on 14 March 2016, including an improvement of data quality and survey methodology, as well as increased representation of South Africa market trends.

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In addition the survey uses a ‘Lite LSM’ - 13 of the 29 variables included in the LSM (Living Standards Measure) that apply to a digital survey.

IAB SA and Effective Measure have also licensed the e-Clination Score (ECS) from Echo and this segmentation is now included on the questionnaire as a measure of technology and the connected lifestyle adoption. As the LSM measures what’s in homes, the ECS measures individuals’ inclination to access and use technology and the “connected or digital” lifestyle.

Nicolle Harding, country manager at Effective Measure South Africa says the new survey and inclusion of LSM and ECS is likely the most impactful development that has happened in digital for several years...

Digitally savvy respondents

Harding explains need for the new survey arose from a desire to optimise it to ensure the survey was short enough so people could complete it quickly while still including enough information to be relevant. "We also noted that if we combined multiple questions together we could create very powerful metrics. One of those metrics is the eClination score. It gauges how digitally savvy a person is which we expect to be a very valuable insight for planners. It has the added benefit of being a people-based metric while the LSM is a blanket household-based metric."

Harding adds that LSMs are, for better or worse, a South African standard. She says Peter Langschmidt’s presentation at the IAB Digital Summit recently highlighted why LSMs are antiquated and quite skewed to older white people, but as it’s a standard they wanted to ensure the survey assisted end-users who still use LSMs daily.

“By making the survey quicker, we get more people to complete it, which means there is more data for the industry to use,” clarifies Harding. By adding additional metrics to the data, it’s that much easier to plan with and compare to other research surveys.