• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 17, 2006

A group of influential agency and TV industry researchers, backed with heavy funding from Nielsen Media Research, has commissioned its first significant piece of consumer research: an ambitious pilot study observing how people actually consume video across various media platforms. The study, which will be conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design utilizing the same techniques used in its highly regarded Middletown Media Studies, is designed to create a framework for understanding how technology is changing the way people watch video-based advertising and programming. The project coincides with Nielsen's own initiatives to develop new syndicated research based on multiple methods measuring viewing across multiple video platforms both inside and outside the home.

In a related move, Nielsen Monday appointed members of several client committees advising the research firm's so-called A2/M2 program, which stands for anytime, anywhere. The committees--which are broken into groups overseeing the development of integrated TV and online ratings, electronic audience measurement for mid-size and smaller TV markets, measurement of video in out-of-home locations, and measurement of video on personal media devices such as the Apple's iPod--are comprised of high-profile agency researchers such as Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, MindShare's Kathy Crawford and Carat's Shari Anne Brill.

How much the independent, Nielsen-backed research group will influence the direction of the new Nielsen client committees isn't clear, but it includes many of the same executives.

"In today's rapidly evolving media world, it is essential to get a handle on not only what people are doing, but how they are reacting, how their behavior changes over time, and how each emerging technology acquisition fits into their lives and affects how they interact with, and focus their attention on, each medium and its advertising," stated Magna's Sternberg, a committee member of both efforts.

Details of the Ball State Study were not outlined in the announcement, but the school's Center for Media Design has used a rigorous field observation method in which researchers follow consumers around recording how they use media throughout their day. The center recently came up with refinements in its methods that allow it to record how people use media in much more granular increments (see related story in today's MediaDailyNews. The center also has been working closely with Sequent Partners, knowledgeable industry consultants who are working closely with major media companies and consumer marketers.

To date, Nielsen has pledged two annual budgets of $2.5 million to fund the group, dubbed the Council for Research Excellence, but more than a year after its founding it's unclear how those funds have been used. Other than the cost of the council's facilitator, consultant Richard Zackon, and those associated with a number of council meetings, it has yet to yield any actual research findings--although it has also announced plans for a "non-response" study to understand how response rates impact the quality of audience research findings and how the industry can improve them.