Watching You Watch

By Rachel Blatt

Time Warner is opening a 9,600-square foot media laboratory in Manhattan today, to research and analyze how people consume media and respond to advertising. Viewer-specimens will play games on iPads and watch 3D TV in a faux living room with infrared cameras that record their actions in the dark.

Time Warner and other media companies have always relied on consumer research to see how viewers might respond to new programming, but the intention with this new lab is really to partner with marketers to test how consumers experience and respond to advertising as part of today’s new media landscape. Time Warner hopes the lab’s Madison Avenue location will lure marketing partners into working with them.

So far, some big brands seem receptive. The New York Times quotes L’Oréal USA CMO Marc Speichert:

“As we continue to think about how the media landscape is changing and how to best prepare for it, having a lab down the street is extremely helpful.”  

The lab costs anywhere from $50,000 for basic focus groups to $120,000 for research using biometrics. CNN and HBO are on board and marketing executives from MediaVest and WPP’s GroupM have already toured the facility. 

This blog has often talked about the tidal wave of Big Data and a macrotrend we call #QuantifyMe, a recent, but persistent consumer hunger for metrics, dashboards, and data about their personal activities. For brands, being smart about Big Data is the next major challenge. In an increasingly quantifiable business world, where technology has become deeply personal, the most accurate consumer engagement and experience metrics remain a sort of holy grail of market intelligence.

Now, Time Warner’s lab can get businesses one creepy step closer. If you are a media-consuming specimen at the lab, a biometric belt and recording device will transmit your heart rate, skin temperature and facial reactions to marketers and researchers, so they can decipher your “engagement” as you watch TV, play a video game, or swipe through a branded iPad app. In other rooms, your eye movements will be tracked and a two-way mirror will be used to look over your shoulder as you browse the web or make selections in a fake grocery store.

Some have raised that Manhattan’s heartbeats and sweat might not represent the best cross section of American consumers. Then again, maybe the new methods are enough to put traditional focus groups and industry research to shame. 

The lab is so new, we’re yet to see reporting of any great insights or projects it’s inspired. Ok Time Warner, we’re watching you…

Image via NYT