Methods And Apparatus To Correlate Census Measurement Data With Panel Data

What is this patent about?

’402 is related to the field of audience measurement, specifically correlating census measurement data with panel data. Traditionally, audience measurement involves collecting media identifying data and user data to generate media exposure data. Census data, gathered through methods like tagging media, provides broad reach but lacks demographic information. Panel data, collected from registered users, offers demographic insights but may not represent the entire audience. The patent addresses the challenge of linking these two data sources to provide a more comprehensive understanding of audience demographics and media effectiveness.

The underlying idea behind ’402 is to use the geographic location of a user's device to bridge the gap between census and panel data. When a user accesses tagged media, their device sends a message containing its location to a monitoring entity. By comparing this location to the known locations of panelists' homes, the system can infer whether the user is a panelist and associate the media exposure with their demographic information. This allows for enriching census data with panelist demographics, providing a more detailed audience profile.

The claims of ’402 focus on a computing system, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and a method for accessing demographic information of an audience member associated with a mobile phone within a reference area. This involves receiving a message from the mobile phone containing its geographic location and an identifier, determining if the location is within the reference area by comparing it to a reference location stored in a database, accessing media identifying information, and associating the media information with the demographic information if the media was presented within the reference area during a relevant time interval.

In practice, the system relies on embedding tags within online media. When a user's device renders this media, the tag triggers the device to send a beacon to an audience measurement entity server. This beacon includes the device's location, obtained via GPS or other positioning systems. The server then compares this location to a database of panelist home locations. If the device location falls within a defined reference area around a panelist's home, the system associates the media impression with that panelist's demographic data.

This approach differentiates itself from prior methods by leveraging location data to link census and panel data. Unlike server-level data collection, which cannot distinguish between panelists and non-panelists, ’402 uses device location to make this determination. Furthermore, it protects panelist anonymity by relying on geographic proximity rather than personally identifiable information. By varying the size and shape of the reference area based on factors like household type (apartment vs. house), the system can improve the accuracy of panelist identification and avoid misattributing media impressions to neighboring households, thus providing a more accurate correlation between media exposure and audience demographics .