What do the three things in this title have in common? That they are mythical? Perhaps, but let’s just stick to - Great minds have spent years searching for them with no tangible solution.

For us Internet people the GRP (Gross Rating Point) is a bit of a mythical beast. We hear about it referred to as part of offline media buys all the time but, despite the efforts of many groups, we have yet to see it really catch on. So what is a GRP? Well according to the AMA:

“A measure of the total amount of the advertising exposures produced by a specific media vehicle or a media schedule during a specific period of time. It is expressed in terms of the rating of a specific media vehicle (if only one is being used) or the sum of all the ratings of the vehicles included in a media schedule. It includes any audience duplication and is equal to the reach of a media schedule multiplied by the average frequency of the schedule.”

Although Wikipedia is probably a bit more useful here:

“GRP (short for Gross Rating Point) is the sum of ratings achieved by a specific media vehicle or schedule. It represents the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement. If the advertisement appears more than once, the GRP figure represents the sum of each individual GRP. In the case of a TV advertisement that is aired 5 times reaching 50% of the target audience, it would have 250 GRP = 5 x 50% — ie, GRPs = frequency x % reach.

Gross Rating Points (GRP) measure the total volume of delivery of your message to your target audience. It is equal to the percent Reach to your target audience times the Frequency of exposure. To arrive at your total Gross Rating Points, add the individual ratings for each media vehicle you are using. You may also get GRP by dividing your gross Impressions by the population base and multiplying the answer by 100.”

The concept of the Internet GRP has become somewhat popular to discuss again. Particularly with the growing strength of online video, media buyers are looking for a familiar metric that allows them to buy across media in a transparent way.

As clients begin to ask for it more, Nielsen Online is starting to have a lively debate internally to figure out our direction forward. Should we have GRPs as part of VideoCensus? Should we include a cross-media GRP? If we do this, will agencies be happy and publishers be annoyed? Is there a place for GRPs in NetView, or maybe even AdRelevance? At the end of the day, is there a better metric that will capture the reach of TV and the targeting of the Internet and put them on par in a useful way ?

So I would like to formally open up the discussion – I would expect we’ll hear feedback on this blog from such luminaries as Charley Shoemaker (product manager for VideoCensus), Pete Blackshaw (who runs Digital Strategic Services) and Ken Cassar (my evil twin who runs our advertiser research practice). But I would also like to hear from you – after all, if there is popular sentiment to provide this metric, we will.

Enough of the reaching out to the people…here’s my perspective:

I’ve spent 5+ years thinking about online GRPs and recently I’ve become more outspoken about my distaste for the concept. This has been an evolving process for me. I started my thinking with “what’s the big deal, it’s only reach multiplied by frequency”. The more that I’ve worked with the concept, the more complicated it becomes, particularly when you begin to consider the differences between TV and online measurement (that is a post for a later time…).

So, why am I such a zealot about this? I’ll be covering that topic in weekly posts for the next month or so. Here are my top 3 reasons, and again, I’ll go into each of these with a separate post:

1. GRPs tell you very little about an actual campaign (Isn’t the net of reach and frequency just impressions?)

2. GRPs do not take into account the efficiencies brought about by Internet delivery (How do I measure waste and make it relevant across media? Targeted rating point, I think not!)

3. GRPs will not be comparable across media (What is the equivalent of a 6 minute qualifier online?)

You’re going to get a month of what I have to say, so let’s hear what you have to say. Send me a note or leave a comment in the comments section below.

Tags: gross rating point, GRP, online