New Scripps Research Study Proves That Environment Matters. An Interview with Chris Ryan, SVP Research

There’s “news” about the “reality” of viewers and ads: It’s that for engagement, Lifestyle programming outperforms everything from Sports to News and Reality to General Entertainment. A study from Scripps Networks conducted in partnership with Nielsen utilized both attitudinal and neuroscience methodologies to better understand the power of programming environments on viewers. The results were more a confirmation than a surprise to Chris Ryan, Senior Vice President of Ad Sales Research and Strategy for Scripps Networks Interactive, except perhaps the degree to which Lifestyle programming drives ad engagement. 

In fact, commercials running in a lifestyle programming environment scored +22% higher among all viewers across interest in products, attention to brands, intent to seek information and purchase intent. And, brand favorability across all categories measured - auto, consumer packaged goods, food and home, home improvement, finance, restaurants, retail and travel was greater in Scripps Lifestyle as well. This level of engagement was confirmed through the neuroscience section of the study using biometrics.  The amount of time participants were highly engaged with ads on Scripps Lifestyle was 94% greater than the average of the four other genres.  Dr. Carl Marci, Chief Neuroscientist, Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience said, “While good ad creative generates a strong emotional connection with the audience, this study suggests that ads may gain an additional benefit in the context of lifestyle programming.”    

I had the opportunity to discuss these findings with Ryan to gather more insights behind the study and how Scripps plans to apply them.

Charlene Weisler: What was the philosophy behind this study? What were you seeking to prove?

Chris Ryan: Scripps Networks has always known there's a strong connection between our content and ads, so we wanted to prove that where an ad is placed is as important as to who sees it, maybe even more so. That concept drove the vision for this comprehensive study to prove that, as we like to say, “Environment Matters.” We needed to understand and quantify whether the same ads across the largest ad categories are perceived differently in the lifestyle environment compared with other major TV genre environments. And, it was great to see that findings from the attitudinal research were confirmed by participants’ biometric responses in a separate part of the study conducted by Nielsen’s neuroscience group.

Charlene Weisler: What is it about lifestyle programs that are so engaging?

Chris Ryan: Our audiences are the most receptive in all of television viewing because our programming provides a trusted and engaging atmosphere for families. Our suite of brands provides an optimistic environment where consumers act on the messages – they see themselves as active participants. To our viewers, the ads are an extension of the shows they’re watching – those ads also serve up ideas and inspiration, just like our programs. 

Charlene Weisler: And what benefit does this engagement provide for advertisers?

Chris Ryan: If you only buy audience, you run the chance that your ads may air in a place where people don’t engage with the messaging. How people engage when they’re watching ads on our networks is the key to success for Scripps and for our advertisers. In fact, brands are more likely to be seen as high quality, trusted, reliable, and credible within the lifestyle programming environment. For advertisers, putting your message in front of an open and engaged audience makes too much business sense to ignore. 

Charlene Weisler: Does this have a cross platform impact? On your content? On advertising? How?

Chris Ryan: Because we’re brands first, not just TV networks or websites, the audience experience is equally engaging across our TV, digital and print properties. Everywhere our audience shows up, they are served ideas, information and inspiration within an environment that’s safe and trusted.  

Charlene Weisler: How are you using the results on your networks in decision-making?

Chris Ryan: Now that we have these results, we plan to work with our clients to develop better ROI metrics around engagement from findings in this study, as well as to discuss the importance of lifestyle as a media strategy, regardless of the advertising sector. It’s important for clients and potential clients to understand that ads in lifestyle programming produce the highest engagement, attention and purchase intent levels among all top TV genres. 

Charlene Weisler: Are some advertising categories especially successful in your environment? 

Chris Ryan: I think one of the most exciting findings of the study was that our environment didn’t just perform well among traditional endemic ad categories, but across all ad categories tested. The Scripps lifestyle environment went 8-for-8, having the largest impact on brand favorability, across all categories covering auto, home, finance, food, home improvement, restaurant, retail and travel. Those ad categories represent nearly 6 out of every 10 ad dollars spent on cable. 

Charlene Weisler: What are your next steps?

Chris Ryan: We want to do more work proving the importance of engagement and environment, especially in the ever-changing media landscape. While the quality of the audience is key, and as consumers migrate fluidly across their video content choices, demonstrating our benefits and effectiveness at the platform-level becomes increasingly important.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Media Frenemies Gather to Share Concerns About Data

This past week I attended an off-the-record client meeting of executives from media companies AMC, A&E, NBCU, Google, Scripps, Univision, WWE and Viacom and measurement companies Nielsen, comScore and TiVo. It was convened by Gary Zander, President of Project One, to have a frank discussion about media analytics – current challenges and possible solutions – among, as Zander pointed out, “frenemies in an environment of coopertition.”

Zander’s company focuses on digital tech consulting and staffing for the Media Industry.. “This is an opportunity to discuss topics of importance. In this case it is media and TV/video analytics. No one will be quoted in the press so we can have an open dialogue,” he noted. In writing this article, I agreed to not name names and only report non-attributed opinions. I could, however, report on the opening presentation titled, Measurement in a Multiplatform World, by Lisa Ciancarelli, President of Quark Insights Consulting.

Measurement in a Multiplatform World

Ciancarelli launched into an overview of what companies need to do to formulate a comprehensive data measurement strategy. “We need to be more hands on when it comes to all of the distribution paths that our content takes,” she stated, and offered the following steps:

      1.       Define key stakeholders. Get the right people involved. Create a task force with representatives from all areas.

      2.       Focus on what drives your business. Prioritize the scope and cost. “You may not need to measure everything,” she counseled, “There are costs associated with measurement such as data transports, API, transcoding and for the services that scale by the amount of content.”

      3.       Define your business rules around the data and document them.

      4.       Set up measurement requirements and communicate across the company from ad sales and marketing to operations, engineers and content creators. If it doesn't need measurement, take it off the table.

      5.       Managing measurement by managing expectations. The only constant in digital measurement is change.

Off-The-Record Q&A

After the formal presentation, the meeting was open to a full discussion of data driven media. Here were the top points:

·       Walled Gardens are confounding data aggregation across platforms. “Every new platform comes up with its own metric,” was one complaint. “How do you know if the data is worth integrating?” and “There is no consistency across data sources,” were others.

·         Taxonomy across platforms is lacking. There is no standard content identification protocol. “A unique indicator doesn't exist’” said one executive. “We had to hire a third party aggregator so every product has its own unifier id and it does the mapping,” offered another.

·         How can the data be normalized? “We look at the data by minutes and then we have to model. It is incredibly complicated,” shared an executive. “What is a video impression on OTT for example?” questioned another. 

·         Measuring beyond minutes and views. “When does quality (like attention) get measured?” someone asked. “There is a universal truth,” another countered, “and that is that more attention is paid the closer the screen is to your face.” And yet, “Digital is very solitary,” someone stated, “I would rather see people co-viewing. We are losing that aspect if we just count views.” Another noted, “We look at retention rates. Do they come back? Is there viewing through commercial? We are looking at the user experience more holistically and using various points of engagement for attention.”

·         Tagging – from loading time to the time it takes to add tags. “One of the biggest problems we have is with tags,” one participant noted, “especially piggybacking and container tags.” Another stated, “If we want to place extra tags on a clients’ website, it takes two years.” 

·         Reconciliation of metrics across platforms. “We are living in a world of exactitude and we need to reconcile engagement on digital with Nielsen measurements,” someone noted. “What do you mean by engagement? Is engagement equal across platforms?” said another.

·         Fraud. “Forty percent of activity can be non-human traffic which is a huge deal,” someone offered and added, “It is not getting worse but it is not getting any better.” Another said, “It is a wack-a-mole game. You are getting cheated. TV is totally controlled but on the internet it is easy to set up a farm and have crazy stuff going on.”

·         Prioritization. The amalgam of data has become a focus unto itself. “We are spending too much time counting and not enough time strategizing,” one complained.

The solutions to the above are still be explored. Some conceded that “walled gardens and syndicated measurement will both be here for the foreseeable future,” while others are taking unusual and creative steps to bring data analysis into the 21^st century with “the gamification of data charts,” because “traditional PowerPoint doesn't really work when there are so many dimensions to analyze.” Whatever evolves from these conversations will benefit more than just those in the meeting. The first step is always opening up dialogue.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
 

Scripps Presentation on Set Top Box Data

The Set Top Box Data arena currently includes many data originators, processors and end users each using and examining the data in different ways. The hope of the industry is that these data analyses can eventually lead to some level of standardization and possible currency.

One step in this quest was the creation of a Lexicon of Terms and Definitions which was commissioned by CIMM and involved the cooperation on many major STB companies and clients.

Other steps include interesting comparison analyses with other currencies. Mike Pardee, SVP Research at Scripps, has been deeply involved in examining STB data. He has graciously allowed the posting of one of his department's presentations here. This presentation is called "A Mingle Source Look At Set Top Box Data."

Q&A Interview with Bruce Tyroler on Set Top Box Data

While there are many companies that are examining set top box data, Bruce Tyroler, VP Research for Scripps, has been especially focused on analyzing the data from several sources. His work has expanded our knowledge of set top box data for practical use. In this special interview, Bruce talks specifically about his work in this field and shares some of his interesting and ground breaking findings.

There are four videos in this fascinating interview that cover the following topics:

Subject Length (in minutes)
Background & Curent Projects (3:02)
Set Top Box Part 1 – Validating Use (7:34)
Set Top Box Part 2 - Challenges (3:22)
Set Top Box Part 3 – Results, Future (6:30)



Charlene Weisler interviews Bruce Tyroler on his background and some of his current projects in this 3:02 minute video:




Getting more into set top box data specifically, Bruce Tyroler talks about validating use of the data in Part 1:




Charlene Weisler interviews Bruce Tyroler on STB date discussion Part 2 - Challenges to the data:





In this Part 3 concluding video, Charlene Weisler interviews Bruce Tyroler on set top box data results:

Q&A Interview with Mike Pardee - SVP Scripps

Every time I ask today’s research leaders how they decided on research as a career, I am struck by the range of approaches. But none has been as fascinating as Mike Pardee, SVP Research for Scripps Networks Interactive. His research moment started on tramp freighter headed to Sri Lanka. While there, Mike’s interest in anthropology was formed and now he is one of the leading thinkers in the research community today. His current responsibilities span all areas of research.

The four videos in this interview that follow below, cover the following topics:

Subject Length (in minutes)
Background, Engagement, ROI (5:25)
Set Top Box Data, 360 Measurement (3:28)
Past & Future (3:28)
Economy, Online, Conclusion (5:23)


Charlene Weisler interviews Mike Pardee on his background, how he decided upon research as a career and the measurement of engagement:




Mike Pardee talks about his work on set top box data and its potential for future measurement:




Charlene Weisler interviews Mike Pardee who talks about past changes and some of his predictions for the future:




Charlene Weisler interviews Mike Pardee who discusses the Economy and other elements impacting media: