Disney’s Secret Austin Neuromarketing Lab

by **Trifecta** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:08 am

According to the New York Times, the Walt Disney Company is operating a “secretive” lab in Austin, Texas, to perform neuromarketing studies. Specifically, the NYTimes describes a program to determine the effectiveness of online ads:

The tools are advanced: in addition to tracking eye movement, Dr. Varan and his 14-member team use heart-rate monitors, skin temperature readings and facial expressions (probes are attached to facial muscles) to reach conclusions.

Among the researchers findings is that, when it comes to online video, “flyout” ads that appear next to the media player deliver the same punch as see-through “transparency” ads that appear over the content, but are less intrusive. And keeping the news ticker running during commercial breaks on ESPN does not take away from the commercials — people only spend about 12.6 percent of ad time looking at it — and instead helps retain viewer attention. [From NYTimes.com - Lab Watches Web Surfers to See Which Ads Work by Brooks Barnes.]

Disney has made this outpost of biometric ad research quite elaborate:

The facility, which operates seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., has eight research rooms decorated as living rooms or home offices, with hardwood floors, soft lighting and comfortable furniture. There is also a theater that allows a dozen people to participate in a simultaneous experiment. Disney’s investment is estimated to be in the low seven figures.

The rooms are built around a central command post, where researchers scrutinize participants via video monitor — one room has 20 cameras — and through one-way mirrors.

I’m personally excited that this kind of work is being done. Since I spend much of my time involved in online advertising, I’m happy that a major company like Disney is investing in finding out what really gets and holds the attention of consumers. I hope that in addition to their biometric work, Disney closes the loop and ties that data to concrete measures like brand recall and actual product purchases.

http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/bl ... keting.htm

by **justdrew** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:19 am

"I hope that in addition to their biometric work, Disney closes the loop and ties that data to concrete measures like brand recall and actual product purchases."

oh don't worry, they're going to close the loop...

..."ties that data to concrete measures like brand recall and actual product purchases."

does he. does he really want this? won't that be great... it'll lead to wonderful developments like... "look! it's our new computer generated ad! It's been shown to actually force and compel 25% of consumers exposed to it to purchase our product!"

by **Sweejak** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:25 am

And we are going to buy this stuff with what?

"Well, we are out of money now."
-- Obama

Website · by **MinM** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:20 am

Again, this Hughmanateewinsian view of people as Pavlovian idiots is really ugly...

ESPN goes Pavlovian with its in-depth viewer research

Studying vital signs of people watching, say, SportsCenter, might seem like monitoring slugs at rest.

But for Artie Bulgrin, ESPN senior vice president of research and analytics, having lab-coated clinicians hook electrodes to viewers to measure "arousal" has promise. "One thing we have in mind for ESPN going forward is to use all these tools for how we report, do interviews, produce features," he says. "We can test executions in the lab to produce best practices for our (on-air) content."

We are not making this up. Disney opened its Disney Media & Advertising Lab in Austin, Texas, in December, although the building isn't identified with Disney. "It's important to leave it completely anonymous," says Bulgrin, "so it won't have any biasing effect." (Anybody reading this in Austin, tell no one! But given the lab tests subjects at a rate of 65,000 per year, somebody might squeal.)

Bulgrin, part of an ESPN presentation on the lab this week for advertisers in New York, says subjects watch TV in "environments that simulate living rooms" as their eye movements, heart rate and skin perspiration are tracked in great detail.

Sensors for "skin conductivity," says Bulgrin, check for "almost imperceptible amount of perspiration, which you might not feel but the probes can identify." At the ad briefing, Duane Varan, the lab's director, says goggles tracking eye movement are "so precise that we've been able to use them to map the viewers eyes as they read each word on a mobile phone screen." Says Varan: "New psycho-physiological tools are helping us dig deeper and deeper into the psyche of the viewer. … We have access to a deeper level of truth, because the body doesn't lie."

ESPN also has ways of making people talk, like using traditional focus groups. But Bulgrin notes clinical research discovers things nobody could confess to even if they tried. For advertisers worried viewer eyeballs might spend too much time focused on the network's onscreen news ticker during ads, ESPN reports that happens during only 12.6% of ad time.

So, do lab subjects give each other electric shocks to see who ends up with TV remotes? Says Bulgrin, chuckling: "We don't force anybody to do that."

But ESPN might test putting food-pellet dispensers on couches to reward good viewing...
ESPN goes Pavlovian with its in-depth viewer research - USATODAY.com

rigorousintuition.ca :: View topic - Disney Launches Cable Channel, Web Site Aimed At Young Boys

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/techn ... isney.html

Espn - Deadspin

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rigorousintuition.ca :: View topic - How They Slant TV From A - Z, by USIA psy-ops expert