research methods

Unlocking Reach in Premium Content

• Posted: June 2, 2023

NBCU’s Mike Levin and Emily Kwok tested brand safety in premium video content from a viewer perspective in their research using NBCU’s proprietary AI tech for automating brand safety and suitability decision making. The study’s three objectives asked whether increasingly violent episodes influence viewers’ experiences, if they then assign blame to marketers for knowingly advertising in explicit or violent content, and if there are specific instances where adjacency affects viewer sentiment towards an ad.

Let’s Face It: Facial Coding Isn’t Up to the Task

• Posted: June 2, 2023

There are limitations in terms of measuring the emotional impact of video. Facial expressions are powerful. Neuroscience has proved that special parts of our brain is dedicated to faces. Development psychology also demonstrates the power of facial expressions. Consumer neuroscience also demonstrates the importance of faces. The question is whether Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is the best tool to measure consumers emotional response when viewing ads?

Using Attention AI to Predict Real-World Outcomes

• Posted: June 1, 2023

Mars and Realeyes prove connection between creative attention and sales performance. Mars’ Agile Creative Expertise (ACE) tool tracks visual attention and emotion responses to digital video ads. Visual attention AI and facial coding measures how long participants watch a video and how their attention changes as they watch. Proven this model to work—optimizing content, lifting sales up to 18% in 19 markets, $30 million in ad optimizations in 18 months.

In-Home Psychophysiological Television Measurement

• Posted: June 1, 2023

How to measure attention? This presentation introduced MindProber—a tool that includes biometrics, physiology, conscious/dial AND survey methods to assess attention. MindProber measurement is passive—second by second emotional engagement is measured through electrodermal activity (EDA), aka galvanic skin response (GSR) and also active—measures cognitive response via an optional feature to indicate like/dislike content through app. N= 1,500 and growing to 3,000 by end of year.

Why Visual Attention is a Flawed Measure of Attention

• Posted: June 1, 2023

Because of the complexity of attention, Duane Varan proposes to focus on inattention and regard attention as absence of inattention. Attention is the threshold above which the cognitive processing of stimuli occurs. It is not linear; it’s best understood as occurring above a threshold (inattention) after which other variables can deliver their value. There are many different kinds of attention, and the different measures capture the different types of attention. Inattention, on the other hand, is a constant construct.

Using In-Flight Measurement to Properly Assess Advertising Impact on Sales and Conversion

• Posted: June 1, 2023

Marketers are faced with many challenges such as smaller budgets, targeting decisions and the quantification of media effectiveness, but Harvey Goldhersz of Circana explained that in-flight measurement and optimization provides opportunities to overcome these challenges. Knowledge gained from in-flight measurement can strengthen the optimization of campaign media by enabling maximum impact with lower cost.

Expanding Spanish Language Audiences

• Posted: May 31, 2023

Sergey Fogelson and Edouardo Vitale, both from TelevisaUnivision, outlined their motivations for developing a custom lookalike model (LAM) to expand Spanish-language audiences, which were under-represented:

• Misidentification: 4 in 10 Hispanics are excluded from 3p datasets.
• Waste: 70% of impressions targeted at Hispanics are wasted.
• Scale: The true scale of the Hispanic population within a given brand’s 1p dataset is hard to identify without extensive validation.

Context Matters

• Posted: May 30, 2023

Heather Coghill (WBD) and Daniel Bulgrin (MediaScience) shared methodologies and results from two in-lab studies that sought to understand how impactful category priming can be without brand mention and if viewers associate brands with adjacent unsuitable content.

Their presentation focused on two types of contextual effects within program context—“excitation transfer” and “brand priming”.

Creators Drive Commerce

• Posted: May 30, 2023

Vita Molis and Abby Thorsgaard, both from TikTok, discussed the reasons that TikTok’s creators are impactful, drive full funnel metrics for brands and are a good investment for advertisers. Consumers view TikTok creators as authentic and informative. Not only do people learn from creators in a fun and engaging format, they also trust and relate to them. Sixty percent of consumers find TikTok creators more influential than celebrities. Creator content on TikTok is entertaining and on-brand. The real and approachable persona of TikTok creators is transferable to brands. For example, one in two consumers accurately recalled the brand after exposure to a creator’s ad. Additionally, after watching creator content on TikTok, consumers said they felt like part of the creator’s community, as well as part of the brand’s community.

DASH: Building a New Standard in TV

• Posted: May 30, 2023

In 2021, the ARF launched DASH in response to today’s overwhelming complexity in measurement due to the digitization of TV, which has made user-level data especially challenging. In this panel discussion, the speakers provide an overview of DASH, including its methodology, use cases, key findings and opportunities. DASH has evolved to set a new standard in the media industry and serves as a perfect example of how cross-industry collaborations can happen.