Think TV's Smart Lab, the two-year project that will apply new measurement and testing to determine the effectiveness of television as an advertising platform, could evolve the way TV inventory is priced.
The project, headed by Dr Karen Nelson-Field, comprises a team of 12, including including four academics with PhDs in consumer marketing and media and a team of cognitive scientists and machine learning “geniuses”.
Its aim is to apply a fresh approach to measuring TV effectiveness using artificial intelligence and other cutting edge technology. But a side effect, Nelson-Field tells AdNews, is that it could redefine how networks price inventory based on the real-time fluctuations of viewer attention levels.
“I'm excited to see what types of content are effective, whether its premium or non-premium, live content. For example, if a football match is close, is that more engaging or not to viewers when they look at branding,” she says.
“Some of our outputs will be granular level content things, such as what renders longer attention, and then it can be eventually built back into dynamic pricing.”
Using the football analogy, if a close sports match delivers a higher degree of viewer attention, this could pave the way for media owners to serve more premium inventory.
As most TV networks are preparing to roll out dynamic trading next year, this could evolve how TV inventory is traded as we know it, creating a “ratings within ratings” model.
“It could change the way we buy. Eventually TV will be very programmatically gifted and this could change the currency,” Nelson-Field says.
Applying a new approach
Nelson-Field tells AdNews she was drawn to the project because it backed her to bring new measures and testing methodology, including artificial intelligence, to better understand TV's effectiveness.
“So much research is based on inertia and old measures and historical data, particularly in the media space. Papers that are 10 years old are still being pulled out as being relevant. The fact this group are forward thinkers, which makes my job so much easier,” Nelson-Field says.
“They're also leaving it up to me to be quite independent. I've written the research agenda and as a team we've decided on the areas to focus. The results will be the results.”
Nelson-Field stresses she is not a sector advocate – rather she's sector agnostic and she has previously done more work in the digital space.
“At the end of the day, TV isn't the be all and end all for everybody. Every media type plays a role, but with all of the bantering backwards and forward I think TV has failed to communicate what it does really well,” she adds.
The project will test out TV's effectiveness against six attributes in content and reach. She will present some of the finding at tomorrow's ReThink TV event.
Although her Think TV scope is very much focused on television, the University of Adelaide professor of media innovation says she would be open to working on similar projects for other mediums in the future.
“The short answer is 'yes',” when asked by AdNews. “[With Think TV] we are focusing less on tactical areas. I'm not interested in getting into a debate about this platform versus another platform, it's more strategic than that and high level research that has longevity.”
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