Turner and Zenith Undergo Joint Research Study – Reinforce Data Importance Heading Into Upfront

By Donna Speciale, President of Turner Entertainment and Young Adults Ad Sales
And John Nitti, President of Activation, Zenith

Viewer consumption habits continue to evolve alongside the emergence of media platforms and new devices. While the industry discusses multi-screen opportunities and best practices for developing and executing a seamless message across a spectrum of screens, Turner Entertainment and Zenith have been undergoing a long-term, collaborative study that looks to better understand viewer consumption habits within these environments. Through Turner’s cutting-edge technologies and resources such as the Time Warner Media Lab combined with Zenith’s world-class brands, the two are undergoing a year-long study which investigates Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology and smart televisions.

The overarching goal for both companies is to build on existing learnings about how consumers respond to ACR interactive content on smart televisions, in order to develop an engaging and rewarding consumer experience across all emerging devices in the future. In addition, the study explores how effective sponsored ACR interactions are in terms of consumer emotional engagement, brand fixation, recall, likeability and purchase intent. It compares and contrasts the six interaction types from both consumer and ad effectiveness perspectives, as well as looks to generate general feedback on concepts, training needs, branding acceptance and ways to improve a consumer’s overall experience.

In conjunction with Turner and Zenith’s own internal research, sales and marketing teams, the groups worked with Innerscope and THREE teams within the Time Warner Media Lab. The team utilized a methodology which combines Innerscope’s biometric monitoring and eye tracking technologies, along with THREE’s quantitative survey and focus group methods.

Phase one of the study focused on best practices for design elements, while phase two, launched in November 2012, dove into usability and ad effectiveness. With close to 200 male and female participants, the analysis was evenly divided among test and control conditions. The assessment was conducted using a variety of Turner programming, including Conan, Falling Skies and The Big Bang Theory. They were measured through a variety of ACR mocked-up, Zenith-sponsored interactions, like facts, trivia, coupon, sweepstakes, quotes and shared clips. The sponsored interactions featured a spectrum of Zenith brands across a variety of key categories.

The results-to-date regarding consumer experience and ad effectiveness have been positive and resourceful as the teams prepare for phase three:

• Initial findings note that consumers enjoyed the overall experience with over 80% rating it very good or excellent.
• Time spent very highly engaged with the content increased by 25% when comparing the ACR group to the non-ACR group.
• ACR interactions had a positive impact on the sponsoring brands, with engagement climbing 15 points (from 81 to 96%) for the ads primed by sponsored ACR interactions.

In conclusion, the results also reveal a halo effect for other ads lifting engagement levels for the non-sponsored ads within the ACR experience. The team witnessed similar results with breakthrough and motivation scores.

Together, Turner Entertainment and Zenith will continue to execute this in-depth study throughout the remainder of 2013, as phase three looks at live in-market testing on select smart televisions. Ad sales research will remain at the forefront of all major deals for Turner as it embarks on negotiations for the 2013/14 Upfront.

For Zenith, understanding and leveraging the power of data will be key to its LIVE ROI approach, and crucial to how the company infuses the media process with intelligence and drives greater ROI for clients. The ability to infuse custom research to better understand video viewing behaviors with partners such as Turner across platforms is a key component to Zenith’s activation solutions.

Donna Speciale is president of Turner Entertainment & Young Adult Ad Sales. In this capacity, she leads ad sales for the company’s entertainment and young adult portfolios of television networks, Web sites and digital platforms including TBS, TNT, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, teamcoco.com and adultswim.com. Additionally, Speciale co-leads Cartoon Network Enterprises which includes consumer products, licensing, home video/DVD and retail development for the brand. She is based in New York and reports to David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports for TBS, Inc.

As President of Activation at Zenith, John Nitti has helped transform the agency from a player to a leader within the media landscape. Joining Zenith in 2009 to lead ZenithInteractive, the full service digital media arm of the agency, John built the unit from the ground up. Bringing on over 10 clients such as JPMorgan Chase, Gucci and Reckitt Benckiser, and more than 50 new hires, he increased billings from $3MM to $180MM in less than a year.

About Zenith
Zenith, The ROI Agency, is dedicated to ensuring that every client receives a better return per media dollar invested than any of their competitors. Zenith helps advertisers achieve their business goals by providing compelling and effective ways of connecting with consumers through innovation, imagination, measurement and evaluation. Zenith is a division of ZenithOptimedia, a member of Publicis Groupe, S.A.

About Turner
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; animation and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world. Turner brands and businesses include CNN/U.S., CNN International, CNN.com and HLN; TBS, TNT, truTV and Turner Classic Movies; Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim; and Turner Sports.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.