When planning your marketing strategy and budget for the year, do you know the best way to reach your audience? Do you know which medium they consume and at what times? The goal of all marketing is to spread brand awareness to bring in new customers, but how do you reach them?
Knowing what your customers like, how they behave, and where they spend their time helps you create better marketing strategies and just as important, manage the advertising spend. That’s where the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report comes in. This report provides detailed information about consumers and their media habits. But what exactly is the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report, and why should businesses care about it?
DW Creative is a Kansas City-based marketing agency that drives growth for clients by creating meaningful connections between their clients’ brands and the homeowners they serve.
By reading this article, you will learn what the Nielson-Scarborough top-tier report is and how it can help you develop your marketing strategy.
What is the Nielsen-Scarborough Top-Tier Report?
The Nielsen-Scarborough report is a major study that gathers data on consumer behavior across the United States. It focuses on people 18 and older and examines how and when they use media, what trends they follow, and their buying habits. Each report focuses on a designated marketing area (DMA) and is published through a paid subscriber base in well over 100 markets.
This report uses surveys and telephone interviews to gather information and is in field twice a year, ensuring the data is fresh.
A Trusted Source for Media Research
Nielsen is known as the “gold standard” for media research. They have years of experience gathering data about how people use media, which makes their reports very reliable.
While the Nielsen-Scarborough report can be complex and might seem overwhelming at first, it provides in-depth insights that help businesses make informed decisions. There’s even a 100-page document explaining their research methods.
Why Does the Nielsen-Scarborough Top-Tier Report Matter?
Unbiased and Useful for Better Marketing Decisions
One of the main advantages of the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report is that it is unbiased. This means it doesn’t favor one type of media over another. Whether you want to advertise on TV, radio, or online, the report gives facts about the best way to reach your audience. This helps you make better choices for your marketing campaign.
Local TV stations might also have some of this data, but they often focus on promoting their own programs. Nielsen-Scarborough, on the other hand, gives a neutral view of the media landscape, so you get a wider perspective on the best ways to reach your target audience.
Breaking Down Demographics
The Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report allows you to dig into the details of your audience within your chosen DMA. You can break down data by 39 different attributes ranging from:
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Homeownership
- Education level
- Employment status
- Household Composition
- Marital
- Net Worth
- Education
- County of Residence
This depth of demographics can help you build profiles or segments that mirror who you want to target or an existing segment.
For a free PDF download of everything in the Top Tier report, click here.
Getting the Information You Need
The Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report is an interactive tool that lets you choose your target audience and find specific data about them. You can customize your search based on demographics. For example, if you want to know how women under 40 with children in the home consume media, the report will tell you exactly how to reach that group.
You can also find out what kind of media they use. Do they watch traditional TV, or do they prefer streaming services? Do they listen to the radio or read newspapers? When and where do they use this media? This information lets you determine where to put your ads to get the best results.
For instance, suppose a company has a target customer base of men over 30 who like to golf. They want to invest in billboards in particular within their DMA. Using the Nielsen-Scarborough report, they can narrow down what local roads this group takes on a daily basis, allowing them to strategically place their billboards.
Improved Media Planning
The real power of the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report is how it helps businesses improve media planning and allocation.
If you want to target women aged 20-35 who went to a country music concert in the last six months, the report will show you what media they use most. Do they listen to the radio or stream music? What websites do they visit? By knowing this, you can focus your advertising on the places where your audience is most likely to be.
This is absolutely critical where most media outlets will send biased or irrelevant audience measurement data, clouding the planner’s ability to understand fact from fiction.
This helps you avoid wasting money on ads that won’t reach the right people. You’ll be able to target your marketing efforts to the right platforms, ensuring that your ads are seen by the people who are most likely to respond.
How Marketing Agencies Can Help With the Nielsen-Scarborough Top-Tier Report
While the Nielsen-Scarborough report is a powerful tool, it can be complicated to use. Most people outside a marketing department or research agency may not even know the report exists. And since the report is expensive, it’s important to know how to use it correctly.
Understanding how to interpret the data and use the interactive features of the report takes some practice. That’s why it’s helpful to work with a marketing expert or agency that has experience with this tool. These professionals know how to analyze the data and turn it into actionable insights that will improve your marketing strategy.
Don’t Guess in Your Media Buys
When you’re planning a media buy, you want to make sure you’re investing your money wisely.
Any reputable marketing agency will use tools like Nielsen-Scarborough to guide their decisions.
If an agency isn’t using this report, it might be a red flag.
You want to be sure that your advertising dollars are going to the right places, and the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report helps you do just that.
Next Steps for Using the Nielsen-Scarborough Top-Tier Report
The Nielsen-Scarboroughtop-tier report is an important resource for businesses looking to improve their marketing strategy. It provides detailed, unbiased insights into how people consume media, what they buy, and how they behave.
The Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report provides:
- A trusted, comprehensive, unbiased study of consumer behavior, media usage, and buying habits.
- Tools to segment audiences by demographics and preferences to help you create tailored campaigns.
- Strategic insights that avoid wasted ad spend by focusing on the right platforms and channels.
If your marketing partner isn’t using the Nielsen-Scarborough top-tier report, this may be a red flag for poor marketing strategy. How can you build a plan if you don’t know your audience?
By using this data, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns that target the right audience in the right places. While the report can be complex, working with an expert will help you make the most of its insights and avoid wasting money on ineffective advertising.
DW Creative is an agency committed to empowering homeowner-focused businesses. If you want help creating a marketing strategy, schedule a fit call with our team to see how DW Creative can help.
If you’re not ready to make a commitment or want to learn more about purchasing media, we recommend the following articles:
- 60-Second vs. 30-Second Commercials: Pros & Cons
- Streaming vs. Linear TV Ads: Which Is Right for You?
- American Homeowner Media Research 2024