Q&A Interview with Horst Stipp, SVP Strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC

Q&A with Horst Stipp

What is the future of television? How has the media landscape changed? Dr. Horst Stipp is the SVP Strategic Insights & Innovation and a 40 year veteran of NBC. His work spans all strategic areas of research including sales research, social research and innovative insights for all the NBC Universal properties. I interviewed Horst in his office and we discussed a range of subjects including the past and future trends of research, DVRs, his predictions, International research and CTAM. There are 7 videos in the interview:

Video Length                                (in minutes)
Intro and STB Data                         (4:08)
Changes in Research and T.A.M.I. (6:50)
DVRs                                              (4:02)
Challenges and Research Quality   (7:35)
International                                   (2:28)
CTAM                                            (2:10)
Predictions                                      (2:51)



Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses his background, his current job responsibilites and the role of set top box data in research.





Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses his how research has changed over the past 5 years and a new metric NBC has developed to meet the challenges of measurement today.




Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses DVRs - trends, measurement and impact.




Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses challenges in Research today and the importance of research quality.




Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses his work in International research.

CW: Horst, you are very involved in CTAM. You were the recent co-chair of the CTAM Research Planning committee. Can you tell us about your work with CTAM and the value that CTAM brings to your company?

HS: When you first asked me about my history here at NBC, I recall those days when NBC was just a television network and now our president Jeff Zucker is on record as saying that the majority of our profits come from our cable properties. So our cable properties are not only incredibly important, they are also of growing importance. And for me personally it has been exciting to get involved in this more varied world of television and looking at the network and what that does and also all the different cable networks, their niches, their branding, their audiences. I’ve been involved in segmentation studies for the various networks and it has been fascinating. CTAM deals with all of these issues and at CTAM you meet people dealing with exactly these same issues.  At the research conference there is a great sharing of very interesting information. It was very exciting to put the program together and work with Colleen Fahey-Rush on the recent Research Conference. We were very happy with the outcome. We were very proud of the program. The reason why I even agreed to do the work – and believe me it is more work than you think as a co-chair – was because I’ve been to several of the CTAM Research conferences and have always found them to be really good, really interesting and really valuable. It’s the conference itself, it’s the program, the information you get and it’s also the networking sharing of information is informative.

Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst discusses his work with CTAM.

CW: You are in a very unique position in the industry because you work for a company that has a broadcast network, a range of cable networks and a very strong off-platform. How would you say that the research community and the research that you do has changed in the past 5 to 10 years?

HS: There are a lot of issues. One is of course the currency; the need to get more data on the smaller networks as well as to get measurement of the DVR, the time shifted viewing and finally of online viewing. That’s been a major issue in those last years. The movement of a plain old fashion television exposure currency to cross media and online measurement and time shifted measurement. You may have heard about NBC’s creation, T.A.M.I. – the total audience measurement index – which is an attempt to describe the total reach of a television program on all these new platforms in the absence of a true cross media, cross platform measurement tool which we don’t have yet. So that’s the ad exposure issue. Secondly, I think there has been a move towards more sales research at all the networks certainly at NBC. Part of that has been our embrace of I.A.G. (measures, among other things, in-program product placement) in the early stages. I think we were the first network to actually use IAG data as a secondary guarantee for some of our clients. So it was establishing working with new measures. We did, at the time, a very innovative study on galvanic skin responses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_skin_response) and eye tracking measures to establish that when people see commercials that they time shifted and fast forwarded. That they still get a lot of information even though they are watching fast forward because they are very much focused on the screen and apparently the brain is hard wired to make sense out of what is in front of you even though its in fast forward. So that was an interesting new methodology. And there is an increased demand for cross media research simply to demonstrate and establish if you advertise across platform that you get more bang for your buck….

CW: Where do you see the biggest challenges to your job in Research coming from in the next 5 years?

HS: I think Research in general has two issues. One is, I think, a very old one and one is maybe a little more recent. The older one is to sell the research to management. Make it useful, show that it is useful, demonstrate its usefulness, provide the kind of information that is really needed but on the other hand not to oversell it either. And of course that is a very fine balance and sometimes we tend to oversell it a little as researchers because we are very passionate about the data. The shortcomings are that people don’t always know what they want or don’t always tell you the truth. Respondents are notoriously bad at telling you about the future such as what kind of programs would you really like to see that you currently don’t find on tv. The typical answer is more of my favorite programs right now. I think they are also very bad at predicting the adoption of certain technologies. That has always been an issue. The new issue that has come up is that because of the quickening pace of technology and of changes in media and an increased demand for the kind of question that you just asked which is “What’s going to happen? How is this going to develop?”….

  

Charlene Weisler interviews Horst Stipp, SVP strategic Insights and Innovation, NBC. Horst provides his predictions for the industry in the next 5 years.

Q&A Interview with Brad Adgate, SVP Research Horizon Media

As the market slowly moves into upfront mode, I interviewed Brad Adgate, a media research veteran of 31 years. He is an industry expert on media trends with experience at cable networks and at agencies.

There are seven separate videos in this interview, which cover a range of subjects including Brad's views on research quality, crowdsourcing, set top box data, the upfront season and an assessment of future trends in the media landscape.


Video                                         (length)
Background                                 (3:42)
Future of TV                                (3:39)
Past Trends                                  (2:43)
Crowdsourcing                            (4:03)
Predictions                                   (4:14)
Quality of Research                    (1:45)
Conclusion                                  (1:41)

CW: Brad, you are one of the best people in the industry to answer this question – what do you think has been the most dramatic change in the industry in the past five years?

BA: I think one of the biggest changes and how that impacts research is the availability of information. It used to be that research was a gatekeeper. This may go back more than five years but when I was starting out in this industry in Research we were the ones who did all the runs, the crosstabs, the rankings, the ratings and all but because of the technology it is now available on desktops for planners, buyers and account people throughout the industry so I think Research has changed a little bit in following trends. There is so much that is going on that aren’t available on desktops and I think part of the challenge in Research is just trying to find out what is good data, what is bad data. You can look at five different studies in reports and see five different answers and that can be a little frustrating. But I think that Media is just in an exciting time. There are so many different opportunities going out there for marketers and I think it is Research’s job to find out what is going to work and what is not going to work. We can talk about whether it’s crowdsourcing or whether it’s cars becoming living rooms on wheels or pretty soon you’ll be able to watch live tv broadcasts on your cell phone with the digital transition that took place in June. These are things that all of us have to pay attention to and I think research companies are struggling to keep up with that. Research departments have become a conduit between what the marketers want because a lot of marketers want to be ahead of the curve. Right now a lot of it is a concept buy of an idea of what is going to work and what is not going to work. Research is lagging behind that: the Nielsens, the Arbitrons and MRI try to keep up with the industry but there is a lag there. So we have to pull the two together and try to make some sense of where marketers should allocate their dollars.

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about how he got into the Research field and his work background in this video taken in July 2009:

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about the future of television and the potential of set top box data in this video taken in July 2009:

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about past trends in television and media in this video taken in July 2009:

CW: Let’s talk a little about crowdsourcing. How are you using it? How are you defining it? And how applicable is it for your part of the business in advertising?

BA: I think it is more of a collaboration today between consumers and marketers. It is no longer the top down approach. It’s almost like a bottom up approach. And the internet has made this more of a level playing field – more of a democratization. The strategy of building brand awareness to try and sell product, while still viable, is also how consumers experience a brand or product and how they share that experience with other consumers. You see whether it’s through blogs or Youtube or social networks or any other internet applications. Crowds of consumers are in control of the success of a product.

CW: It sounds like crowdsourcing is “word-of-mouth squared”.

BA: Well it is. I’ve found that the irony in all of this new technology is that two of the oldest media – word of mouth and out of home – are having a renaissance.

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about crowdsourcing and word of mouth marketing in this video taken in July 2009:

CW: Where do you see the upfront this year? How do you think it is going to go?

BA: I just think this is going to be the Cuban Missile Crisis – who is going to blink first. Although not as catastrophic, because it’s just between marketers and networks. For years people have been writing off the networks and their ability to get dollars during this period. We had the writers strike last year and everyone predicted doom and gloom because of that but they wound up doing pretty well dollarwise. The year before that it was DVRs and the C3 ratings but it was pretty much business as usual. The networks have been suffering ratings erosion as the competition from cable networks continue to proliferate and yet they still do okay. Now this year we are faced with a slow economy and a lot of product categories like automotive and financial and banking and investment companies that have been beforehand very prominent product categories for television and are having a tough time and we are starting to see perhaps a start of a little rollback – and I would expect to see that there would be a rollback.

CW: In terms of dollars versus last year, do you feel comfortable making a prediction – will it be flat? Will it be down? Up?

BA: I think probably it will be down. It’s just a question of how much down it will be and I think that is what is the delay is right now. I think the marketers want a percentage and the networks want another percentage and that is why there is pretty much of a standstill, why there has been a delay in the upfront right now. What those numbers are, I really don’t know.

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about his predictions for the next five years in this video taken in July 2009:

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about the upcoming upfront marketplace in this video taken in July 2009:

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about the quality of research today in this video taken in July 2009:

Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of Research at Horizon Media talks to Charlene Weisler about Horizon Media's research blog in this concluding portion of the interview video taken in July 2009:

CW: Brad, is there anything that you would like to add?

BA: I think as a research person it is always good to try keep up with the latest in consumer trends and how consumers are using things. Recently we opened up a blog call the Bradgate blog that is on the Horizon Media website. There is a link there that will take you to the blog. It has some thoughts and things that are going on in the industry.

Q&A Interview with Artie Bulgrin, SVP Research and Analytics, ESPN

ESPN is known for groundbreaking research so I sat down with Artie Bulgrin, SVP of Research and Analytics, ESPN to discuss some his department's trendsetting studies on consumer and viewer behavior. Artie also shared his thoughts on the future of "the screen", his work on the Fan Experience and his company's state of the art Media Lab.

There are four separate videos of the interview covering the following:

Video (Length in minutes)
Artie's Background (3:00)
The Fan Experience Research Study (8:16)
Media Lab (9:48)
CTAM (1:55)

CW: Artie, you are a member of the CTAM Research Committee. Can you tell us about your involvement with the committee?

AB: I look at the CTAM Research committee as a way to get together with really smart people, sharing work that we have done and also help guide the terrific research initiatives of CTAM. I also co-chaired one of the CTAM Research conferences. It has always been a fabulous conference and one that uniquely gets to issues that other conferences don’t. We continue to be avid supporters of CTAM on the research side because the type of research that CTAM does is different from other organizations and more specific to our needs. Our roots are still in cable television. We still need to know the needs of our operators and how we can grow our business together. We have issues like set top box measurement that need to be addressed. We now have the issues of addressability which need to be understood. There is more focus on these issues with this research committee which makes it very important to us.

Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics at ESPN talks to Charlene Weisler about how he got into the Research field and his work background in this video taken in June 2009:

CW: Where do you think is the most dramatic change in the industry has occurred in the past 5 years?

AB: When I came on board at ESPN thirteen years ago the focus was purely on cable television and television ratings. I think all of us on that side of the business who were focusing on strengthening audience measurement for cable networks realize that it has evolved. We have created multi-faceted research departments ranging from audience research, which is established, to primary research that measures consumer insights for building brands and understanding consumer behavior. For many of us, especially at ESPN, we are currently focused on really understanding cross media behavior. Not just television behavior but how people are using all digital outlets. We are in the audio business. We are in the print business. So it is not just about tv anymore. It’s about understanding the holistic viewer experience. We call it the “Fan Experience”.

CW: Can you share some insights about the “Fan Experience”?

AB: We have invested a lot of time and money in the past few years researching sports fan media behavior culminating most recently in a major study we did with Sequent Partners and Ball State University where we shadowed 50 young male sports fans to help understand how they use the individual media touch points, the role that sports and media play in the context of life itself. From that we created the seven principles of cross media measurement and behavior. The fundamentals are this: Sports fans consume much more media than the average American does because they have to consume sports in the moment. Very little sports on television is consumed on a time shifted basis. Virtually all of it is consumed live. There is this phenomena of “social currency” – big sports fans have to follow the information on a daily basis. So the new digital media, whether it be a PDA, a laptop, any sort of access to the web or web video has been embraced by the sports fans because they can be in contact with sports on a daily basis. So they consume a lot of sports but traditional media has not suffered. Media use is not a zero sum game. Media use continues to grow. And that is because these new digital technologies create what we call “new markets of time”. We have new opportunities to consume media where we never could before.

The other thing we know a lot about is the “available screen philosophy”. Television continues to thrive because if television is available it is certainly the best screen to watch sports. But if I can’t be near a tv I will go to my computer or what is really growing now is the use of mobile devices.  In fact it could be the most prolific and perhaps the most engaging device in the next few years.

Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics at ESPN talks to Charlene Weisler about ESPN's new research study on the "Fan Experience" in this video taken in June 2009:

Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics at ESPN talks to Charlene Weisler about his company's state of the art Media Lab located in Texas in this video taken in June 2009:

CW: Is there anything that you would like to add?

AB: The only thing I would add is that there is a lot of misinformation in the industry which slows us down. When you come to work each day there are things that come through the email or in the press that are actually ill-informed. What worries me is that many major decisions are made on this information that is actually misinformation. So we have to work harder as researchers both on the client side and on the vendor side to be more responsible as to how we communicate findings. There is a lot of bad research out there. There is a lot of great research out there. We have to be very focused as to how we separate what is mediocre and not good from what is. Researchers, particularly new researchers coming into the industry, have to focus on methodology quality – really understanding what works and what doesn’t. We have to be very careful of falling into the trap of doing “fun” things that fall into the qualitative area but are not really projectable to anything. We have to understand that the scientific method in research is absolutely necessary before producing results for decision making. It is not about one type of research – one type of research doesn’t do it. There are roles for different types of research – ethnography, set top box data, sample based data – it all has to be able to work together. That is why there is a need for trained professionals in the research industry to know what works and what doesn’t. 

Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics at ESPN talks to Charlene Weisler about the role of CTAM and the CTAM Research Committees in this video taken in June 2009: