Digital Drive - Viacom

by Hamish McPharlin (Dr.) - Oct 2008

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Background

The medium of television has changed, is still changing and will continue to change. And therein lies the problem for broadcasters and marketers alike. This has never been more pertinent than now, with the introduction of new digital technologies into households. How will this affect the future of media consumption in the home? And how will a “digital home” function in the future?


 

Introducing Digital Drive

We recruited 15 households in 3 major conurbations across the UK (London, Manchester and Birmingham) and upgraded them to the most advanced digital media infrastructure available to them. Essentially, we were attempting to ‘fast-forward’ two years in order to capture a holistic view of digital media use in 21st century homes; identify changing patterns of consumption prompted by digital media adoption; assess implications for the nature of content delivered in a cross-media environment and evaluate evolving advertising opportunities on new and emerging platforms.
What was hugely unique about the research methodology was the method of data capture, the transparency it offered and how it allowed media agencies to get involved directly with the project. Essentially, Digital Drive was a ‘public’ study, accessed through www.digitaldrive.tv – allowing us to ask specific questions of them at any time during the study, with comments posted back by respondents via a blog mechanism – ‘live’ research at its best. Media agency involvement was crucial to us – our invitation to them to submit ‘real’ ad copy in varying advertising formats will help them to reap fully the benefits of the study. Initially, our “families” were monitored for unprompted shifts in behaviour and then subsequently prompted to experiment with new live and concept-based examples of both content and advertising.

Key Findings

Overall, our respondent families showed a pleasing ability to understand, experiment with and then, subsequently, adopt the new technologies introduced to them, even if this adoption tended to be driven by a ‘technology champion’ in the household (mainly fathers or older children). What was most apparent, though, was that adoption revolved around examples of clear convenience, whether that be via timeshifted viewing on the main set or the exploration of content (and new types of content) through the new systems within the household (including mobile applications).
Perhaps one the most encouraging findings of the study was that, even as consumption of content became increasingly non-linear, our respondent families still demonstrated a willingness to view commercial content in both recorded and on-demand programming. The respondent families not only understood, but also expected, content in the emerging environments to be commercialised.

This innovative and highly valuable research study is positive for both broadcasters and marketers alike. Digital Drive allows us, along with the media agencies involved, to view the emerging digital landscape with confidence, especially when it comes to commercial possibilities for brands and how to continue to fully engage the viewer in the future.

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