The above video interview is from the Advertising Research Foundation Audience Measurement conference.
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If new ad models are to have a research focus, the way the industry conducts its research should reflect that rapid change is now the status quo. Dr. Duane Varan speaks of past ad industry research practices as based on analytical observations categorizing what is happening in the world. He sees us moving to a method based on understanding variables by manipulating them and assessing the results.
Varan is chief research officer and executive director of the Disney Media & Advertising Lab, a role he holds concurrently with his academic appointment as professor and executive director of the Audience Research Labs at Murdoch University. “When tomorrow looks like yesterday, that favors certain research methods,” he says. “But, when tomorrow looks nothing like yesterday, the question is what research tools do we need to help guide us into uncharted terrain.”
In the past, analytics and focus groups worked because we had benchmarks to allow them to serve as proxies for what we were measuring in order to derive insights. In an era of perpetual and rapid change, that model breaks down.
Now, we are able to harness single source data from actual behavior. In addition, notes Varan, with people in a constant pattern of change, the idea of segmenting the audience is, “Really yesterday.” Instead of talking about audience segments, we have to understand the variables that shape the behavior of people who live in multiple audience segments, jumping among them during the course of the day. Based on recent activities, he sees major breakthroughs in the isolation, definition and contextual understanding of variables such as emotional layers.
Varan also presents findings from an extensive study of 3D television using ESPN World Cup coverage. Examining everything from potential impact to health effects, these studies indicate that 3D sports content is more engaging, more enjoyable and that viewers have a greater sense of presence. (And those studies did not appear to suffer ill effects.) 3D ad studies are limited by lack of inventory, but first indications are that 3D ads are more positive than 2D versions across recall, retention, purchase intention, brand attitude and other metrics.
