MRG Conference: ITV Segmentation Analysis Provides Insight Into Viewing Groups

Speaking at the MRG conference today, Doreen Dignan from Mindshare Insight and Peter Hawtin from ITV presented the findings from their segmentation analysis project conducted for ITV.

Commenting on the changing viewing culture, Dignan commented that “people have more and more things to do than watching TV, and nowadays people have more and more things to do while watching TV.” Given the problem of declining mass television audiences, ITV’s segmentation analysis was put in place to try to better understand the types of viewers for the broadcaster, believing that simple demographics no longer fully reflect their audience.

Mindshare spoke to 6,000 people, analysing responses to 16 key statements and in the process uncovered six segments that reflected ITV’s viewers:

1. Plugged in Achievers – this group make up 10% of all watched television, for whom television is a low priority. They tend to be men and like the latest gadgets such as iPods 2. Ambitious Fun-Lovers – they make up 21% of all TV hours watched and tend to be young, style conscious individuals who also like to be up on the latest gadgets 3. Cultured Connoisseurs – this group tends to be slightly older and don’t want to upgrade to digital television until they have to, and they enjoy reading the Telegraph 4. Middle of the Road Traditionalists – making up 18% of all television hours watched, this group know what they like and they like what they know 5. TV-Loving Trend Followers – this group love ITV1 and make up 24% of the all viewing hours. They are not wealthy but are getting by, and they enjoy celebrities and TV listing magazines 6. Home Loving TV Addicts – again, this group loves ITV1 but they are not very adventurous, and make up 21% of all watched TV hours

Segmentation is now at the heart of all ITV’s marketing activity, including what and how programmes are promoted on-air. ITV2’s drama Supernatural was aimed directly at Ambitious Fun-Lovers through its marketing activity. The programme achieved very healthy viewing figures for the channel at 1.1 million viewers, with Plugged In Achievers and Ambitious Fun-Lovers responding well to the marketing campaign.

ITV is rolling the segments out across the company and is installing champions within each department to ensure that the data is used. However, some departments, such as sales and commissioning are finding it difficult to work with the segmentation.

When asked whether the segmentation would have a positive effect on viewing figures for the channel if the commissioning department was not yet fully on board, Peter Hawtin replied that, following personnel change within the department, a new team is now in place and subsequently he is optimistic that there should be greater usage of the data.

Media Research Group: 01980 862 248 www.mrg.org.uk