4 Discuss the proposition that people who take part in panels may not be representative of Metro readers but may simply be representative of those people who want to take part in panels.

Everyone knows that the young, urban professional is the holy grail for advertisers.
Fortunately for Metro they make up its core readership. The free weekly newspaper, which is published by Associated Newspapers and distributed at key commuter points in eight UK cities, sought a deeper understanding of its readers to complement existing industry sources such as the National Readership Survey (NRS) and Target Group Index (TGI). Its Urban Life project was won by BMRB Media, which has a track record of online and media research as well as building and managing panels.
‘The objectives and logistics of Urban Life are huge and have required great imagination and hard work to solve them,’ said Doug Read, project director at Metro. ‘It is exciting to extend the boundaries of media research and add massively to our consumer insight. BMRB has been a true partner in this project offering great expertise and project coordination.’
As this young, mobile audience is hard to research via traditional data collection methods, Metro and BMRB chose a web-based methodology. An online approach fits with the readers’ busy lifestyles and is readily available to the vast majority.
It also has the advantage of allowing a fast turnaround of results, giving almost instantaneous polling.
Another effective response route for this group is to take advantage of its enthusiasm for mobiles and text messaging (SMS) by asking a small number of simple questions. Getting the permissions to conduct the research via email and SMS required the building of a reader’s panel.