Last week we all attended the BBM Canada Staying Tuned Conference in Toronto. Here’s a top line whiz through the presentations with the teams’ favourite snippets.
George Shababb, Kantar Media presented on their research into interactive and addressable advertising using return path data in the US. This second by second analysis is able to distinguish a new metric of “tune away” identifying the holding power of ads which has proved useful in demonstrating how effective addressable advertising can be.
Carol Edwards from Arbitron and Sheryl Feldinger from NBC presented results from their single source multi platform research during the Vancouver Olympics. This showed that those people that watched the event on TV & Online did in fact watch twice as much Olympics on TV than those who watched none online. Thus demonstrating, in this instance, that online didn’t in fact cannibalize TV viewing.
Firm favourites in the room were Peter Niegel and Dennis Chrstensen from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. Their presentation demonstrated beautifully what can be achieved when PPM data and qualitative research are used in tandem (Erica favourite). With the advent of PPM radio measurement in Denmark they discovered a 20% loss of audience during the news bulletins. The usual qualitative research methods proved useless in understanding this pattern so they employed “secret agents” to snoop on the listening behaviour of their partners and colleagues (Nini favourite). The listeners were then interviewed afterwards. This led to some subtle but significant changes in the way their radio presenters were asked to handle the news bulletins which showed immediate results. We also learnt the term “cucumber news” which is apparently a slow news day in Denmark. (Tim favourite)
Next came Alex Petrilli from TiVO who gave a sterling performance despite the interruptions of a very persistent fire alarm. He presented some results from their StopWatch research which measures second by second viewing of the US PVR audience. This has shown the importance of the 1st in pod position in terms of retaining the audience during the break. Other strategies have proved successful in preventing the audience from hitting the fast forward button, particularly “promercials” such as the recent campaign from American Express using the cast from Glee
This was followed by “Wonderwoman” Stacey Lynn Schulman from Turner Broadcasting System in New York. Turner undertook a project to tag thousands of scenes in their movie catalogue to identify elements that would allow them to strategically place advertising right next to the relevant content of the movie. These elements included specific brand mentions, strong emotional themes (such as safety or fun) or other elements that could tie in to a brand’s values or offerings. As an illustration, we were shown a car crash scene from The Bourne Supremacy followed by an OnStar ad that opened with the aftermath of a car crash.(Adam favourite) This innovation is founded on the psychological premise of “priming”, meaning that a person is more receptive to an idea that they have been prepared for beforehand. Despite finding in their research that ad recall was lower in the primed group they did find that with using online surveys and biometric research emotional engagement with the advertising was much higher amongst the primed audience. Research also showed the intention to purchase was much higher in the primed groups, calling into question the validity of ad recall as a measure of ad effectiveness. Schulman contended that ad impact was a more meaningful metric to measure than recall, since recall was based in the conscious brain whereas most purchase decisions were driven by the sub-conscious.
Next came Ed Keller via Skype to discuss the power of word of mouth. His first bombshell was that only 10% of WOM actually takes place online (Judy favourite). Ed’s company, Kellor Fay Group, has developed the TalkTrack system as a way of measuring the brand impressions that are generated in the US by word of mouth every day (a figure they estimate to be 3.3 billion). Coca-Cola is the number one brand mentioned in the US and has been since they began monitoring in 2006. The top 10 list for social media is completely different with iPhone coming in at number one and Coca-Cola only managing 9th place. Ed then discussed how powerful media properties are when it comes to word of mouth, both as subjects of discussion and also as drivers of conversation. He concluded by showing how different stations can rank in terms of reaching key conversation drivers in different categories – an interesting element to throw into the media plan.
Next up wasKimberley Lafleur from BBM Canada. She showed us in depth research into the fluctuations in tuning to radio during the Christmas period. One of the conclusions that she drew was that the shifts in tuning of those stations who changed format during this period to Christmas music were mainly driven by women with kids. (Jack favourite)
Jo’s favourite would have to be Daren Benton and his examples of innovation in TV advertising from Channel 4 in the UK. From the live ad-break takeover promoting Honda, to the Jimmy Carr hijacking of the ad break, to Microsoft “themed” ad breaks – these examples of creativity in advertising are designed to keep the viewer engaged in the break. Most importantly, they are showing results, with some viewers quoted as saying they set the PVR to record the break!
Jay Guyther from ROI Media Solutions, Baltimore was the next to present on radio PPM findings in the US. He reiterated previous learning on radio that under PPM, relative to diary, people listen to twice as many stations, there are more listening occasions but less listening per occasion and schedules delivered greater reach but less frequency. He observed the lower frequency was a result of additional reach against light listeners while noting the limitations of analysis software which has not yet adjusted for new PPM reach and TSL relationships. While possibly true for the U.S., as an audience member stated after the presentation, in Canada – which uses AMA rather than the AQH currency in effect in the U.S. – analysis software uses entirely different modeling for reach and frequency in PPM versus diary. Another interesting nugget was the concept of measuring engagement via a comparison of how much time a station’s listeners spent with it relative to their total time with all stations in a daypart compared to the average for the daypart for all stations/listeners.
Finally Jian Ghomeshi came to talk about his thoughts on the importance of pop culture and how it can cross boundaries. But also how perhaps pop culture as a term is redundant; we should break down elitist confines in order to embrace a widening range of cultural topics.
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