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 Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal and Viacom Inc are each opening
labs where they will study TV viewers in mock living rooms
filled with infrared cameras tracking their biometrics – such
things as eye movements and facial reactions made while hooked
up to skin sensors and heart monitors.
Viacom's lab, which is being built in New York, will include
electroencephalograms (EEGs) to monitor peoples' brain waves
while watching television. And ratings firm Nielsen Holdings,
which just bought neuroscience firm Innerscope Research earlier
this year, is adding facial coding and biometrics to its labs,
which currently conduct eye tracking and perform EEGs.
Networks have tried for years to find out what viewers think,
but their technology is still mostly based on surveys and asking
watchers to turn dials about what they like and don't. The new
biometric data avoids questions, tapping straight into physical
response.
"The problem is that when you ask someone how they respond to
things, they sometimes think about it or they overthink it,"
said Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development
at NBCU. "This is the closest to what's going on inside your
brain."
As more viewers fast-forward through ads, and advertisers
increasingly shift their budgets away from TV in favor of
digital ads, networks see neuroscience and biometrics as a way
for them to target ads better and improve relations with
advertisers.
The experience of The Ad Council, a New York-based organization
that creates ad campaigns for non-profits and government
agencies, shows how using biometrics could help boost response
from viewers. It has worked with Nielsen Neuroscience to test
some of its ads.
In testing one ad, for The Shelter Pet Project, which promotes
the adoption of pets from local animal shelters, viewers were
engaged by watching a mixed-breed dog playing with the screen
and reaching out to viewers. But the parts of viewers' brains
triggering memory weren't firing when the message about
contacting Shelterpetproject.org appeared on the screen, said
Patty Goldman, research director with Ad Council.
So Ad Council tweaked the ad to add audio encouraging viewers to
visit the site. While it's not known how much the change
affected the results of the ad, the Ad Council did have success
with the entire campaign, seeing average monthly visitors to the
Web site increase to 174,000 from 74,000 within the first three
months of the campaign.
NBCUniversal, which opened its lab in Orlando, Florida, in
September, wants to be able to tell which scenes elicit the
strongest emotional response from viewers, and then use those
scenes in its promotional ads, said Wurtzel.
Viacom is examining different kinds of viewer focus and
ultimately wants to find the best time for a commercial, so
that, for example, if a scene elicits a response from expectant
mothers it can plug in a diaper ad; if the scene makes people
hungry, it's time to run an ad for food. Viacom, whose offerings
include Nickelodeon and MTV, has been working to improve the
ratings of many of its top networks, which have been in decline.
The concern is that the new process, which at $30,000 to
$100,000 per study costs about twice as much as normal focus
groups, may not improve sales.
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"Just because their brain cells are lighting up during a commercial,
doesn't necessarily mean they are going to buy the product, they may
simply find the commercial engaging," said Beth Rockwood, senior
vice president, market resources and advertising sales research at
Discovery Communications, which is looking into possibly doing more
with neuroscience research.
Hershey Co has been using neuroscience and biometric research for
several years, and still is unsure what conclusions it can draw
regarding their effectiveness. "I don't think anyone is comfortable
saying that this is going to translate into more sales," said Andy
Smith, director of consumer insights at Hershey.
He said he agrees that the research can win points with advertisers,
a crucial advantage in TV's war with the Internet.
"If I can get more growth by spending less, we benefit," Smith said.
MIND READING
Every week in the Time Warner Center in New York City about 200
people are paid to come to be watched watching television, movies or
playing on computers in Time Warner Inc's three-year old Medialab.
Participants get paid anywhere from $10 for a 10-minute study to
$1,000 for a full day.
Cameras which track their eyes and record their facial expression
line the front of a fake living room. Clip-on sensors on their
fingers pump a micro-electric current to track sweat. Belts track
heart rates and next year, the lab will add EEGs.
Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System, a pioneer in biometrics,
with Innerscope Research tested a U.S. Navy ad that depicted an
aircraft carrier. Using eye tracking technology, Turner was able to
see that viewers with devices in their hands looked up at the sound
of the helicopters in the middle of the ad. There also was a spike
in the heart rates and skin sensors in the moments following the
sound, showing that they had the strongest emotional response to the
ad during those seconds, said Howard Shimmel, chief research officer
at Turner.
"The eye tracking showed that they looked back up, but the
biometrics showed that they were engaged," said Dr. Carl Marci,
chief neuroscientist at Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience. "Eye tracking
is not an emotional measure, it's an attention measure and even
people focus on something, their brain may not be responding to it."
However, viewers looked back down at their devices after the sound.
Turner's response to advertisers: announce your brands, don't just
show them.
Networks also need to worry about toeing the line between being
engaging and making consumers feel used.
"I think that we should all feel a little paranoid and a little
manipulated by all of this," Poltrack said. "This is a trust and if
we do it right, we provide information and content that is valued."
(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel. Editing by Peter Henderson and John
Pickering)
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