Dear Mr. Bassik:

I’m responding to your email message containing the link to your posting regarding the exclusive PQ Media data contained in our “Political Media Buying” series (the 2004 and 2006 editions), some of which was featured in a February 14 Wall Street Journal article. You requested that I respond to your comments perhaps best summarized by the following statement:

“PQ Media’s numbers don’t gel with conventional wisdom and competitor data. Interviews with campaign strategists, estimates from TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, data from Nielsen’s AdRelevance, and my personal knowledge as an online political advertising consultant peg online political advertising in 2006 at no more than $5 million.”

I applaud your characterization of PQ Media’s data as unconventional, as we pride ourselves on being the world’s leading alternative medianomics research consultancy. Our methodology differentiates us from traditional media researchers because we have invested an enormous amount of sweat equity in answering the call from media research end users who have made it clear that they no longer trust “conventional wisdom.” As a result, PQ Media has remained independent and forward-looking in order to provide our clients with unbiased strategic intelligence that empowers them to make high-stakes investment decisions.

While PQ Media’s clients have made us the leading authority in media econometrics, they have also challenged us to use our proprietary methodology to take a fresh look at myriad media markets, trends and drivers to provide them with an alternative perspective on the hyper-change transforming communications models. Part of this challenge was for PQ Media to expand traditional coverage of political media spending, which tends to focus on broadcast TV, radio and newspaper advertising. We launched the “Political Media Buying” series in 2004 to expand coverage beyond just advertising in these three segments to include advertising and marketing spending in broadcast TV, radio, newspapers, cable, direct mail, promotions, internet, out-of-home, magazines and wireless outlets. This we did because it had become clear that the traditional methods being used and segments being covered were not telling the whole story of political media spending.

Although our political media spend data has received high praise and news coverage worldwide, I understand the need to sometimes explain why our data differs from conventional sources. Your comments focused specifically on PQ Media’s political internet spend figures, and why they are higher than what traditional sources have published. First, PQ Media’s data includes all forms of advertising and marketing spend, not just advertising. So while other researchers limit their online spend data to just advertising, such as banners and search, PQ Media also includes email marketing, website development, blog/podcast advertising, and the increasing use of online video advertising. For example, our research indicates that in 2006 email marketing accounted for the majority of political internet spend, as databases have become more sophisticated and list generation has been refined, driving up implementation costs.

Second, while I do not wish to disparage other researchers, you mentioned TNS specifically and its $5 million estimate for 2006, per the TNS presentation you forwarded to me. In addition to the aforementioned differences, there is also a disparity as it relates to spending in gubernatorial races, which we believe featured more contentious races than TNS presents in its document. Third, PQ Media’s preliminary estimate of approximately $80 million in political online spend for the 2008 campaign is driven by two additional factors: increases in local search engine advertising as well as local online advertising, a perspective supported by researchers such as Borrell & Associates, eMarketer and The Kelsey Group. Other factors driving growth in the 2008 cycle include the first election in decades without a current administration official running for office, the abnormally high number of candidates, the expected record increase in fundraising, the battle to regain/hold both houses of Congress by each party, and the high number of issue-oriented organizations that are using the internet for a majority of their political marketing spend.

Taking a step back from PQ Media’s political media spend research, the broader view is that our proprietary econometric methodology has produced 20 years of unrivaled accuracy using our exclusive SpendTrak and UsageTrak databases, which cover the 18 major segments and more than 100 subsegments of the global media industry. PQ Media’s data and forecasts are also vetted through our proprietary Global Opinion Leader Panel, a process that has allowed us to pioneer the alternative media research category and to deliver the most comprehensive analytics, insights, and perspective available to our clients.

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your questions, and I hope they have been answered adequately. I wish you and your organization a successful 2008 campaign.

Best regards,

Patrick Quinn
President/CEO
PQ Media LLC
Two Stamford Landing
Suite 100
Stamford, CT 06902
Phone: 203-921-0368
Fax: 203-921-0367
Email: pquinn@pqmedia.com

PQ Media
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