• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, January 12, 2010

As many of you may be aware, MPG sponsors the quarterly Collaborative Alliance, a forum in which 225+ media professionals gather over lunch to help navigate the future of the consumer and advertiser relationship within the evolving televisual landscape. We have decided to publish a synopsis of the event commencing with our December 2009 gathering. The next Collaborative will be held on the Ides of March. Presenting lineup will be posted in a few weeks. In the interim if you are interested in attending, and are not on our regular invitation list, please let us know.

 

Highlights

The quarterly industry event, the Collaborative Alliance, hosted by MPG and Media Contacts, was held at the Helen Mills Theater on December 2^nd, 2009.  This session featured presentations by NBC Universal, ABC/ESPN for Disney's Media and Advertising Lab, Hulu, YCD Multimedia, and an update about some data findings from the set-top box community.

First up was Josh Kampel of YCD Multimedia, who started the session with a demonstration of their facial recognition technology, which allows their equipment to recognize a person's gender and display an ad that is targeted to them.  For the demonstration that was in use at the event, each attendee would be shown either a Sears Craftsman tool ad or a Dannon yogurt ad, depending upon who stopped in front of the camera.  This technology has the ability to distinguish between many features that would differentiate between the genders - but it does not collect data, as to avoid any unfortunate privacy issues. 

Next, NBC Universal and ABC/ESPN each gave presentations of their effectiveness and ad recall methodologies.  Janet Gallent of NBC Universal reviewed findings from the study that they conducted through Millward Brown, which focused on viewers' recall of advertisements during DVR playback.  This biometric study found that even at high playback speeds, people do show increased recall of visual cues in ads, particularly of those that they've seen before.

ABC/ESPN showed a brief clip about Disney's Media & Advertising Lab in culturally central Austin, Texas.  Artie Bulgrin and Mark Loughney reviewed how their facility studies such things as branded integration, break architecture, online video advertising, mobile advertising, cross-platform advertising, marketing and promotions, content and talent.  They followed with some examples of how they can measure increased effectiveness, positive recall, and increased purchase intent across many different laboratory-controlled settings.

Kevin McGurn's Hulu presentation covered the many reasons people have for using the online video site.  They cite online time-shifting (without a DVR) and "catching up" on episodes that viewers have missed as major reasons for coming to Hulu, but that they are also a strong source for driving to related content, which in turn drives viewers back to traditional TV viewing for current content available there.

Pat Liguori reviewed the mission of the CRE's Set Top Box Committee and talked about their way of defining the metrics of the set-top box realm, while Artie Bulgrin returned  to explain the importance and status of CIMM and their new website and RFI: http://cimm-us.org/.

The afternoon concluded with Frank Foster, Charlene Weisler and Ed DeNicola giving a review of some initial network and program findings from sample set-top box data provided by three aggregators, which had been  made available to the Collaborative Alliance's Set-Top Box Think Tank.

This synopsis was written by Don Seaman, MPG Vice President/ Director of Communications Analysis.